Matt Turner is regarded as one of the world's leading improvising cellists. Strings magazine says, "Turner dazzles with his own improvisational excursions and displays his expansive cello vocabulary." JAZZIZ magazine describes his cello playing as "rich-toned and inventive." Equally adept as a pianist, Turner performs everything from jazz standards and twentieth century new music to alternative rock and improvised avant-garde.
Turner completed his undergraduate studies at Lawrence University and his Master of Music in Third Stream Studies at the New England Conservatory of Music, where he studied with Dave Holland, Geri Allen and Joe Maneri, and where he was the recipient of a Distinction in Performance Award. Turner has performed at several music festivals, including the International Cello Festival in Montreal, the New Directions Cello Festival and the Chicago Asian American Jazz Festival as well as with CUBE, Present Music and Dadadah.
Turner teaches jazz piano, jazz strings and improvisation at the Lawrence University Conservatory of Music as a lecturer in the Jazz and Improvisational Music Department. He is featured on more than 40 recordings on Meniscus, O.O. Discs, Asian Improv, Geode, Cadence, Music and Arts, Accurate, Tautology, Crouton and other labels. Turner has recorded with Marilyn Crispell, Joseph Jarman, Bill Carrothers, Bill Stewart, Scott Fields, Myra Melford, Jeff Song and others. His solo improvisation CD, Patina (Fever Pitch 27), was recorded exclusively on the Yamaha Silent Electric Cello.
