Matthew Aucoin was the Sir Georg Solti Conducting Apprentice of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra from 2013-2015.

A 2012 graduate of Harvard College (summa cum laude), composer, conductor, poet, and pianist , he also has served as an assistant conductor at the Metropolitan Opera.

In the 2013-14 season, in addition to his CSO debut, Aucoin made conducting debuts with Juilliard Opera in Eugene Onegin; the Rome Opera Orchestra; and the Civic Orchestra of Chicago, in an open rehearsal featuring cellist Yo-Yo Ma; while also serving as a cover conductor at the Metropolitan Opera for The Nose and at the Los Angeles Philharmonic for Così fan tutte.

Aucoin’s third opera, Crossing, premiered at the American Repertory Theater, directed by Diane Paulus, in May 2015. His fourth, Second Nature, an opera for young people commissioned by Lyric Opera of Chicago, premiered in Chicago in August 2015. Aucoin’s next opera has been commissioned by the New Works Program of the Metropolitan Opera/Lincoln Center Theater. Recent and upcoming performances of Aucoin’s orchestral and chamber works include performances by the Zürich Tonhalle Orchestra, cellist Yo-Yo Ma, members of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, pianist Benjamin Hochman, countertenor Anthony Roth Costanzo, the SOLI Chamber Ensemble, the Gramercy Trio, violinist Keir GoGwilt, and pianist George Fu.

Aucoin studied composition with Robert Beaser at Juilliard, where he received a graduate diploma. He currently is composer-in-residence at the Peabody Essex Museum.

An accomplished poet, critic, and essayist, Matthew Aucoin’s poems and essays have appeared in The Boston Globe, The Yale Review, The Harvard Advocate, the Colorado Review, and Plain China; his advisor at Harvard was poet Jorie Graham. He has served as guest lecturer on music and literature at the New York Shakespeare Society and New York University’s Casa Italiana, and he has hosted classical music radio programs for New York’s WQXR.