Hornist Matthew Oliphant is a new music and chamber music specialist living in Chicago, IL. Oliphant is known as an adventurous and courageous young player. As solo hornist with new music group Ensemble Dal Niente, he performs the music of our time by established and emerging composers, as well as classics of the new music repertoire. Oliphant is also a member of the Grossman Ensemble, part of the Chicago Center for Contemporary Composition (CCCC). In residence at the University of Chicago, the ensemble presents 12 world premiers a year. Composers have included luminaries like Shulamit Ran, David Rakowski, Tania León, and Kate Soper.
In demand as a freelance chamber musician, he has performed with Fulcrum Point New Music Project, Access Contemporary Music, Present Music, the New Millennium Woodwind Quintet, and on the Rush Hour concert series. Also an orchestra player he regularly plays with the Lyric Opera (Chicago), Grant Park Orchestra, the Milwaukee Symphony, and has served as guest principal horn of the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, The Florida Orchestra, the Chicago Chamber Orchestra, and Orchestra Prometheus.
Oliphant is a faculty member at Midwest Young Artists, coaching talented middle and high school students in chamber music.
As a member of Axiom Brass from 2007-2014, he traveled the country performing for and engaging with audiences through music. Far from being constrained by the classical tradition, he regularly performs with experimental ensemble a.pe.ri.od.ic, performed as a member of the free jazz/classical/improv hybrid ensemble the Tomorrow Music Orchestra.