Dr. Matthew Lyon Hazzard
Dr. Matthew Lyon Hazzard (b. 1989) is the Director of Choral Activities at Mt. San
Antonio College, and an award-winning Filipino-American conductor and composer.
Hazzard brings a wealth of experience as a conductor and composer to Mt. SAC. He directed
ensembles at Fullerton College, University of Houston, and California State University
Long Beach; served as a rehearsal conductor for the Houston Symphony Chorus; and taught
high school for four years in rural North Carolina. He has worked with dozens of choirs
of all levels as a guest artist, and he served as an assistant to the Grammy-Award
winning Houston Chamber Choir.
Hazzard’s music is regularly performed by choirs around the world. Praised for his
“exquisite text-setting” and for creating “stunning landscapes of sound,” his compositions
have been featured in regional and national conventions and in many all-state and
honor choirs. His music has received numerous accolades, including those from CCDA,
ACDA, the Young New Yorkers’ Chorus, the Grammy Award-winning True Concord, and many
more. In 2023, he served as composer-in-residence at Queen’s University in Kingston,
Ontario with the Kingston Chamber Choir for a concert of his work. In 2024, he wrote
Finding Light, a 45-minute choral-orchestral work on overcoming climate despair for the Oregon
Repertory Singers’ 50th anniversary, and most recently, he served as composer-in-residence
with Lori Marie Rios and National Concerts for the premiere of his work, Garden of Memory, in Carnegie Hall. He also now serves as a faculty member of the Choral Arts Initiative
PREMIERE|Project Festival.
Hazzard earned his D.M.A. in Choral Conducting from the Moores School of Music at
the University of Houston, his M.M. in Choral Conducting from the Bob Cole Conservatory
at California State University Long Beach, and his M.A.T. and B.M. in Music Composition
from East Carolina University. His work was recognized throughout his education: he
received the 2018 and 2019 Outstanding Student Award in Graduate Conducting at CSULB;
the 2018 University Achievement Award for Outstanding Graduate Student in Research,
Scholarly, and Creative Activity by CSULB Academic Affairs; and the 2019 Distinguished
Achievement in Creative Activity Award from the CSULB College of the Arts. He was
also awarded the Jeanette Chase Bay Area Chorus Scholarship, and the Howard Pollack
Scholarship at the University of Houston.
Hazzard has been conducting choirs since 2011. Prior to pursuing his graduate studies,
he taught at Greene Central High School (NC) for four years where his choirs flourished.
His ensembles received consistent superior ratings, and won the 2015 Busch Gardens
Music Sweepstakes Award for Best High School Choral performance; an honor that recognizes
the strongest performing ensemble across the entire season. In 2016, his choirs were
invited to perform on the stage of Carnegie Hall, where they premiered Ivo Antognini’s
A Prayer for Mother Earth under the direction of Andrew Crane.
He now lives in Long Beach where he continues to write for voices.
