Matthew Lyons is a composer, performer, and arranger from Austin, Texas. He strives to write music that strikes a balance between audience-accessibility and complexity, and finds influence in jazz and popular styles as well as the classical canon. Active in the local arts scene, recent performances of his music include a multimedia work featured in the Ears, Eyes, and Feet concert series and the score for a student-produced play that was featured in the 2017 Cohen New Works Festival. In 2015 his arrangements for guitar orchestra of several popular American songs were performed by the Austin Classical Guitar Youth Orchestra and the Conspirare Youth Choir at the Bass Concert Hall in Austin, and were broadcast live on local radio station KMFA 89.5. Having recently obtained his MM in composition from the University of Texas at Austin, Matthew plans to continue at UT as a doctoral student in Fall 2018. In 2014 he received his BM in guitar performance from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, where as a student Matthew went on to perform at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts (2013) and Napa Valley's Festival Del Sole (2011). He was a semi-finalist in the 2010 Gui-tar Foundation of America International Concert Artist Competition and was the second prize winner in the 2009 Guitar Foundation of America International Youth Competition.