Instructor Spotlight: Matthew Seliger

What drew you to classical music initially?

Music was always present in my home growing up, and my parents took me to symphony concerts from a young age. At four, for reasons I still do not know, I decided I wanted to play violin. Only after half a year of non-stop asking did my parents give in, and I started my training at the Peabody Preparatory—designed to set young kids on track for a conservatory education. I found a community at Peabody unlike anywhere else in the world, with close friends who shared my passions and teachers who constantly expected the best of me while also validating and uplifting my musical ideas. Music-making quickly became a core part of my life.

Why is it important to listen to classical music?

Classical music has an incredible ability to externalize aspects of ourselves we might never have been aware of. Abstract ideas of form, orchestration, or rhythm become reflections of our personality when made real through sound. The more time one spends with classical music, the more one will realize just how vast and diverse a world it is and quickly be able to immerse themselves in the many active debates about how this music relates to the world around us.

What is your favorite classical music piece and why?

While there are quite a few to pick from, Beethoven’s Quartet in C-sharp Minor, Op 131 will always hold a special place in my heart. Completely deaf and near death, Beethoven turned a genre which he had already elevated to the heights of musical expression into a vehicle for a radically abstract musical language. Beethoven ditches the standard four-movement form and emphasis on thematic development for seven uninterrupted movements each structured around a single sound-world. The result is a kaleidoscopic journey through every facet of human emotion—pure desolation, manic obsession, cautious joy. The work is both raw and intangible and reveals itself anew with every listen.