Michael Kento Matsuno is a flutist based in Los Angeles whose musical life integrates work in performance, research, and education. As a soloist and chamber musician, Michael is committed to bridging the flute’s expansive 20th century repertoire to evolving ways of playing and writing for the instrument. He has premiered music by Alvin Lucier, Terry Riley, and Jürg Frey, and has commissioned many new works by composers including Wolfgang von Schweinitz, Wilfrido Terrazas, Eva-Maria Houben, and Berglind Tómasdóttir.

Michael can often be heard performing with Echoi, resident ensemble of the Monday Evening Concert series (est. 1939). He has made guest appearances with professional groups across the country, ranging from symphony orchestras to established chamber ensembles. His diverse work has led him to collaborating with cutting edge musicians in a variety of supported contexts, including the Aspen Music Festival, June in Buffalo, ISSUE Project Room, Harvard Group for New Music, Jacaranda Music, Neofonía Festival de Musica Nueva Ensenada, High Desert Soundings, La Rara Noche, TIME:SPANS, Piano Spheres, and the Ojai Music Festival.

Michael’s scholarly work centers human relationships to music and their narratives. His dissertation recounts the history of the California E.A.R. Unit (1981-2012), a contemporary music ensemble formed by students at the California Institute of the Arts (CalArts). It places the group within the expanding support for new music in 1980s Los Angeles and considers how musical identity emerges in environments of study. While completing a doctoral degree at UC San Diego, Michael also led a team at the Research on Autism and Development (RAD) Lab, asking autistic video game design interns to speak about their music-listening patterns. Their report in Psychology of Music describes some of the roles music plays in daily life, and how these relationships are mediated through technologies such as CDs, radio, and streaming.

As an educator, Michael supports students from a wide range of backgrounds in their musical development. Since 2023, he has directed the New Music Ensemble at Cal State University, Long Beach, programming works from the twentieth century alongside music by living composers. At Chapman University, he teaches his own courses in music psychology and seminars for first-year students. Michael also serves as a private flute instructor at CalArts and the Los Angeles Valley College. His teaching across these settings has been shaped by his time as a Teaching Artist with the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s Youth Orchestra of Los Angeles (YOLA) program at Camino Nuevo, teaching flute as a vehicle for artistry and personal growth.

Photo: Matt Savitsky