Iridas
Los Angeles, California, United States | Established. Jan 01, 2015
Music
Press
(excerpt)
Matthew Frederick – Phantasm after Flying Lotus
“One thing we thought would be kind of neat for the orchestra to do is to find a way to musically connect to the rock and pop world. But instead of commissioning composers to write original music, we decided to contact composers that we like and ask them to pick any song from the rock and pop world and arrange it for us any way they want. We hope to create a buzz with composers because I think every modern classical composer has grown up with rock music. And everybody has their little secret of music they like from the pop world. So Matthew is our first experiment in this regard. Flying Lotus is a music producer and rapper so I’m excited to see how people react to it.” - Mike Telin
Matthew Frederick is a composer and electronic music producer from San Diego, California. His music has been performed by the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra, the Canton Symphony Orchestra, the Oracle Brass Quintet, the FiveOne Experimental Orchestra, and many award-winning young musicians from around the United States and Canada. He completed his formal education in 2012 at the Cleveland Institute of Music, where he studied with Keith Fitch, Margaret Brouwer, and electronic music production with Steven Mark Kohn. His music has increasingly turned away from traditional methods of composition and performance, opting instead for something more closely resembling modern production practices for popular music, particularly experimental electronica, ambient music, and synth rock. Nonetheless, his style is still rich with contemporary classical influence, borrowing from spectralism and minimalism. - Eric Guinivan
Discography
Living Things EP - February 2014
Photos
Bio
Iridas was formed in 2015 by composer/producer/instrumentalist Matt Smith, in an effort to give voice to his demanding musical style. Matt met Sean Lyons and Megan Shung while they were in school together at the Cleveland Institute of Music receiving classical training. Mikala Schmitz, who also attended the Cleveland Institute of Music, replaced cellist Pierre Derycz in 2017. Having developed a taste for pop music, the young musicians sought to find a meaningful interface between the two worlds and began performing as an ensemble one part classical piano quartet and one part rock band, with a dash of live electronic dance music.
The Iridas sound, shaped primarily by composer Matt Smith, reaches deep into music history for influences. The lush harmonies and colors of Maurice Ravel combined with the rhythmic and textural intricacy of Gyorgy Ligeti are apparent in his orchestral and chamber music, but pop music’s sensual, psychedelic underbelly make an appearance as well; jazz fusion, alternative rock, and the LA beat scene have all made an impact. The result is unrecognizable simply as classical crossover - Iridas is something new.
Band Members
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