Photo credit: Josy Gonzalo

Mathew Arrellín (pronounced: A-rre-yín), born in El Paso, Texas in 1993, is a composer and cellist currently based in Chicago.

He has written solo, chamber works, and orchestral, which have been performed by Ensemble Dal Niente, the Mivos Quartet, Third Coast Percussion, Chicago Composers Orchestra, ~Nois, the Low Frequency Trio, the Fonema Consort, New Music New Mexico, Ben Roidl-Ward, and himself, among others. His music has been performed in festivals such as the Valencia International Performance Academy (VIPA, 2016), June in Buffalo (2018), and the SCI National Conference (2019). 

He is the recipient of numerous awards and grants, including a 2023 General Commission from the Barlow Endowment for Musical Composition, two William T. Faricy awards for excellence in composition from Northwestern, and an Illinois Arts Council grant, among others.

​As an educator, Mathew has taught courses at Northwestern University, including first year aural skills and music theory, class composition for majors and non-majors, and an interdisciplinary course in music and the visual arts. He has also taught numerous masterclasses and private lessons in music composition online. Currently, he is a lecturer in Music Theory at Northwestern.

Mathew holds a bachelor’s degree in music theory, composition, and cello performance from the University of New Mexico, where his he studied cello with David Schepps and composition with José-Luis Hurtado. He received his PhD in Music Composition and Technology at Northwestern University in 2022, where he studied with Jay Alan Yim, Alex Mincek, and Hans Thomalla.