Matan graduated as Valedictorian of his cohort with First Class Honours from the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music in December 2015, with a Bachelor of Music (Hons) specialising in Composition and undertaking minor studies in classical voice. He was the recipient of several awards throughout his time at the Conservatorium, including the Lionel Gell Foundation Scholarship for Composition, the Joyce McKenna Scholarship and the Adolph Spivakovsky Award for Composition.

Matan is passionate about film, and has collaborated numerous times with his older brother Oran (www.oranfranco.com), a Bachelor of Film graduate from the Victorian College of the Arts. Most notably, Matan composed the scores for Oran’s short films Like Children and Good Boy, which have both screened at various film festivals around the world and online.

In 2018, Matan was commissioned by the parliament of Zaragoza in Spain (alongside five international composers) to compose a short work to be featured in an audio-visual artefact highlighting the world-famous Aljafería Palace (a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Zaragoza). The resultant non-narrative documentary, ‘Aljafería: 6 Miradas’, was officially selected for the 2019 Zaragoza en Corto Film Festival, and was awarded third prize in June 2019.

As a performer, Matan was chosen as a soloist to perform with the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra as part of its annual educational concert in 2005, and was cast as one of the three Spirits in the New Zealand Opera Companyʼs production of Mozartʼs The Magic Flute in 2006. He also has a strong background in music theatre.

Born and raised in Israel until the age of ten, in 2014 Matan returned to his home country when he was invited to perform in a range of concerts celebrating the centenary of the birth of one of Israel’s most renowned composers, Sasha Argov. Most notably, Matan performed alongside Israel’s leading artists in a concert held by the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra at the Mann Auditorium in Tel Aviv.

In 2015, Matan originated the role of the Dad in Victorian Opera’s world premiere of Joseph Twist’s youth opera, The Grumpiest Boy in the World. At the same time, Matan was selected as young composer-in-residence with the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra for 2015-16, through its Rising Star program. In this capacity, Matan was commissioned to compose three new works, the last of which was premiered by the full Orchestra at its annual educational concert at the Auckland Town Hall, in May 2016.

In 2018, Matan graduated with First Class Honours from a 1-year Masters in Scoring for Film and Visual Media at Pulse College (Dublin Institute of Technology) in Ireland, where he was the recipient of the 2017-18 Christopher Young Scholarship, and was generously supported by the Australian Music Foundation.

In 2019, Matan was commissioned to compose two new orchestral works which were premiered by the Stonnington Symphony Orchestra and Bendigo Symphony Orchestra.  His work Anamnesis, performed by Bendigo Symphony Orchestra, was awarded ‘Best Original Composition’ as part of the inaugural Victorian Community Orchestra Project in August 2019.

(Current to January, 2020)