M.C. Ganong

     Matthew Carden Ganong is a classical composer, pianist, harpsichordist, and organist.  As a composer, his work is a continuation of the Baroque-Classical-Romantic tradition. As a keyboard player, his repertoire encompasses music from the Middle Ages to the present day. 

     From 2016- 2018 he presented a different recital nearly every week at the Anglican Church of the Epiphany in Columbia, South Carolina, both as soloist and collaborator, performing piano, organ, vocal, and chamber music. These diverse programs, called the Thursday Noon Concert Series, featured classical masterworks and many of his own compositions.  In 2014, he was the artist-in-residence of the Patrons and Friends of the Arts series at Ebenezer Lutheran church, where he performed three recitals- one on the harpsichord, one on the piano featuring three original compositions for piano, violin, and cello, and concluding with a complete performance on the piano of Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier, books I and II, from memory, in a single concert lasting over four hours. The following year, on the same series, and also on the Bach Around the Clock Festival, he played Bach's 'Goldberg' Variations and The Art of Fugue, which he subsequently recorded in its entirety (this recording is available on the Music page of this website). 

     Mr. Ganong, born in 1974, grew up in Columbia, South Carolina, where he studied piano with John Ervin and John Williams.  He attended the Peabody Conservatory in Baltmore, Maryland, from 1993-1997, graduating with a bachelor's degree in piano performance, where he studied piano with Boris Slutsky and Ellen Mack, and harpsichord with Webb Wiggins. During the years immediately following undergraduate studies at Peabody, he worked and concertized as a collaborative pianist, with vocalists and with every major instrument in the modern symphony orchestra. From 2000-2001 he toured with violinist Daniel Heifetz as the keyboardist of the Classical Band.  In Chicago, he was the principal keyboardist of the Advent Chamber Orchestra; a pianist in the chamber music collective, Anaphora; and a member of the Carma trio.  He was also the Music Director of Intimate Opera Chicago, and much sought after as an opera and chamber music pianist.  Over the course of his career in the cities of Baltimore and Chicago, Mr. Ganong has performed with members of many of the world's major orchestras, including the Baltimore Symphony, National Symphony, Chicago Symphony, Boston Symphony, St. Louis Symphony, San Francisco Symphony, Atlanta Symphony, and the Vienna Philharmonic, among others.  Over the years he has participated in countless performances, in the capacities of soloist and collaborator, with all kinds of instruments and vocalists and in a wide variety of genres and styles, from classical to jazz, popular music, rock 'n roll, gospel, broadway, Latin-American, klezmer, Jewish, Arabic, Indian, Chinese, Japanese, etc. A number of of his live and recorded performances have been broadcasted on radio stations in Baltimore, Chicago, and Columbia.  

    Mr. Ganong is a staff pianist at the University of South Carolina, and he runs a concert series at the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship where he presents a recital every month, playing solo or in collaboration with other musicians. Currently, he is focused on composing, performing, and recording his own compositions, as well as on performing and recording various masterworks from the European/American classical tradition.