About Matthew-John

Dr. Matthew-John Knights, D.M.A. is a composer living and working in Ottawa, Ontario. Their music has been described as "Varèse on cocaine" (Mark Takeshi McGregor, 2022), and that it engages with “militant gender fuckery” (Sarah Jo Kirsch, 2023). Matthew-John studied composition with Kelly-Marie Murphy and Dorothy Chang during the course of their university education.

Matthew-John’s interest in music started at a young age. They took piano lessons beginning very early on, and started writing notes on paper as soon as they learned how. However, it wasn’t until the end of their bachelor’s degree in piano performance that Matthew-John realized that they needed to pursue composition seriously, and subsequently began taking composition lessons with Kelly-Marie Murphy.

After a year, Matthew-John returned to school for a master’s degree in composition at the University of Ottawa. Upon completion, Matthew-John began a doctorate at the University of British Columbia under supervision of Dorothy Chang. Matthew-John graduated from their Doctorate of Musical Arts (D.M.A.) in 2024. Their doctoral work focused on the fusion of music and theatre in non-traditional ways: music theatre (not to be confused with Broadway-style musical theatre). Works in the music theatre realm do not easily fit into the category of an opera or an Broadyway-style musical. What if, for example, a performer was to act throughout a performance on their instrument, but never once sang? Matthew-John explored exactly this in their time as a doctoral candidate at UBC, and can be seen in their piece, Abstraction (Score available for purchase here). In this work, an example of instrumental theatre, Matthew-John worked with the performer to create a story and character, of which the music is only one component of the expression.

There are other composers who create works of music theatre, but where Matthew-John differs is in the creation of the score. Matthew-John prescribes the action right in the score, elevating its importance to the same level as the music. The action is non-negotiable, there to create an immersive experience. As Matthew-John has frequently asked themself, in the age of iPhones, what can be done to make music more immersive and engaging to audiences of the 21st century?

Matthew-John has been fortunate enough to work with many gifted ensembles, including the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, who has performed Lines, Layers, Ligaments several times, and now recorded it for release on an album in February 2027. Score is available through CMC, here. They have also worked with the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra, as part of their Composer’s Institute in 2020, and more recently, Symphony Nova Scotia, where Matthew-John won the Maria Anna Mozart Award, which was a commissioning award for Aperture Widening, which premieres on October 15th, 2026. Tickets available here.

In the more intimate world of chamber music, Matthew-John has worked with many talented and skilled performers and groups, including Standing Wave Ensemble, Mark Takeshi McGregor, the Ottawa Pops Orchestra chamber music series, Joshua Stine, Liam Gibb, and Karin Aurell, to name a few.

Recently, their work for narrating flutist and piano, Call Me Mother, has been released by Joshua Stine on an album called Pages From My Diary. It can be streamed on all major platforms, (purchased in physical format) here. The score is available here. Two more works are set to be released in June 2026, commissioned by Liam Gibb. They are Metamorphosis, and Boys Don’t Cry, for violin and piano, and piano solo, respectively.

Matthew-John advocates for marginalized communities in their music. Many of their pieces focus on LGBTQIA+ issues, such as Call Me Mother, Metamorphosis, and Boys Don’t Cry, but Matthew-John is also an advocate for people dealing with mental illness. Several important works of theirs communicate the message that you are not alone, relating Matthew-John’s personal, lived experience with living with severe mental illness. Some of these works include Abstraction (for solo bass clarinet and staging) and Shadow Figures (for two oboes and staging).

As of spring 2026, Matthew-John is participating in a mentorship with Antoine Goudreau, funded by the Canada Council for the Arts, in which they are learning to harness the power of Ableton Live to create even more powerful and evocative pieces involving electronics. Both fixed electronic pieces and electroacoustic pieces will soon form a powerful part of Matthew-John’s oeuvre.

In their spare time, Matthew-John enjoys reading Stephen King, photographing landscapes and flowers, and running long distances very, very, slowly.