Matthew Burtner's award-winning Glacier Music featured in Massachusetts
On December 9, the University of Massachusetts Symphony Orchestra will perform Matthew Burtner's Threnody (Sikuigvik) for orchestra and glacier ecoacoustics as part of a residence featuring Burtner's groundbreaking Glacier Music project. The concert will take place in the Moloney Performing Arts Center Concert Hall, on the University of Massachusetts campus in Lowell.
Since the 1990s Burtner has pioneered glacier and ice-melting music, building from his personal experience growing up in the Arctic where global warming fundamentally transformed the landscape of the north. His album Glacier Music from 2019 received international acclaim and a feature about his work called "Making Music With Snow and Glaciers" won an EMMY Award. Threnody (Sikuigvik) was recently performed by the Charlottesville Symphony. Watch the performance here on YouTube. Burtner will also give a keynote talk about his pioneering glacier and ice music project, and he will visit courses on composition and music technology.
Read the November 2025 article in the Cavalier Daily: "Matthew Burtner Brings Together Music and Sustainability through Ecoacoustics".
Students interested in learning about the field of sound and sustainability can join Professor Burtner's "Sound and Sustainability" intensive class this J-Term through MUSI 3500, January 2-10 2026.