500> word bio

Jaze Matteo Wharton (b.1999) is a Baltimore-based composer of frenetic, eclectic, and contemplative new music. Having spent the earliest years of his career playing garage shows and recording lo-fi LPs in his bedroom, Wharton brings a scrappy do-it-yourself attitude to his concert composition that channels his beginnings as a power-chord-bending singer-songwriter. Whether manifesting as head-bobbing rhythms or as breath-entraining soundscapes, Wharton harnesses a sharp sense of the physical born out of his time writing and playing for alternatingly empty and sweaty rooms.

His music is often conceptual in its origins, taking inspiration from philosophy, other forms of media, and microscopic examinations of conflict at both the personal and societal levels. His piece 16 Gigabytes of Human Memory is a sonic contemplation on the relationship between human and digital memory and how data can be corrupted for both. Discourse Machine is about the ways in which online commentary has shifted our perception of all events but especially tragedy, and how suffering is often plundered for talking points rather than meaningfully engaged with.

Alongside his practice as a composer, Wharton also does work in graphic design, audio production, and video editing. Growing up during the explosion of the internet, he drank from the hose of democratized information which led him to develop skills in these various fields from a young age. Having been self-taught in all of these disciplines, he brings an idiosyncratic style to every project that embodies the homespun skillsets of those who grew up on YouTube tutorial videos.

Wharton’s concert works have been performed by ensembles and artists such as the JACK quartet, LIGAMENT, loadbang, Marco Blauuw, Laura Cocks, Dana Jessen, & the Departure duo. When embarking on any sort of creative partnership, he aims for a true collaboration with his fellow artists, in that the resultant work could not have come from him alone. 

Wharton has studied with Eric Wubbels, Oscar Bettison, Sarah Gibson, & Leslie Hogan, all of whom he is grateful to for their roles in his continued development as a musician. Wharton currently studies at The Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University where he is expected to complete a master’s degree in music composition in the spring of 2024. In addition to his studies in music, Wharton also received a BA in philosophy with a concentration in ethics and public policy from the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Throughout the rest of 2024, Wharton will attend the Yarn/Wire Institute where a newly written piece of his will be premiered in New York City. He will also serve as a composition fellow at the Chamber Music Conference / Composers' Forum of the East working under Donald Crockett & Sarah Gibson.