Matt Dardick is a freelance saxophonist in Washington, D.C. who aims to contribute to the arts through performance, collaboration and education. Dardick recently completed Master of Music degrees in Saxophone Performance and Improvisation at the University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre & Dance under world renowned artist teachers Dr. Timothy McAllister and Dr. Andrew Bishop. Previous to his studies in Ann Arbor, Dardick earned a Bachelor of Music in Saxophone Performance—under Professor Taimur Sullivan—as well as a Bachelor of Arts in Global History at Northwestern University. Now local to Washington, DC, Matt is currently building a private studio in the DMV area.

 

During his teenage years in Chicagoland and his undergraduate years at Northwestern, Dardick performed on stages such as Studebaker Hall, the Ravinia Festival’s Bennett Gordon Hall, Chicago Symphony Center, Fulton Street Collective, Martyrs’ and the Chicago Jazz Festival at Millennium Park. In high school, Dardick studied with Roger Birkeland and the late Mark Colby—applied faculty members at Elmhurst College. Before attending Northwestern, Matt won second place in both the Elmhurst Symphony Orchestra Robert Stanger Young Artists Competition and the Skokie Valley Symphony Orchestra Young Artist Competition; Matt performed Paule Maurice’s Tableaux de Provence with the SVSO in the spring of 2019.

 

As a first year undergraduate at Northwestern, Dardick co-founded Lati2de. Hailed by Augusta Reed Thomas as “excellent musicians and artists who play with nuance, grace and technical mastery,” Lati2de is an Ann Arbor-based chamber ensemble dedicated to the expansion and diversification of repertoire for the saxophone duo. Since its formation in November 2018, Lati2de has commissioned more than 10 composers and brought their works to venues across the United States including: the Chattooga Club, Brevard Music Center, Elmhurst University, Merit School of Music, the 2020 North American Saxophone Alliance Biennial Conference at Arizona State University, the 2021 North American Saxophone Alliance Regional Conference at Hope College, the Interlochen Center for the Arts, Oakland University, Albion College, Eastern Michigan University the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, the Peabody Institute, and the Sitar Arts Center. Lati2de has also led two separate saxophone duo consortiums to commission composers to write works that have a multi-media or interdisciplinary aspect: Dialogues by Andrew Faulkenberry for two alto saxophones and fixed media to be performed virtually during the 2020 COVID pandemic and an unlikely flock: bird-haiku for soprano and alto saxophone by Nelson Walker.

 

Dardick’s passion for education largely works in tandem with Lati2de’s performances of new music across the country. Alongside recitals given at the aforementioned universities, Dardick has given masterclasses and talks on topics such as performance, saxophone pedagogy and practice techniques.

 

During the 2023-24 academic year, Matt occupied the Saxophone Instructor role at Belleville High School and instructed a private studio of 11 saxophone students across various ensembles in Van Buren Public Schools. Students saw great improvement in fundamental areas such as sound production and rhythmic integrity over the course of the year and fulfilled previously untapped musical potential with the application of thorough pedagogy to both solo and chamber repertoire.

 

Dardick played the baritone saxophone in a saxophone quartet of graduate students both years of his Masters’ studies. Both iterations of the quartet competed in contentious national forums – namely at the Music Teachers National Association Chamber Music Competition, Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition and the Briggs Chamber Music Competition at the University of Michigan.

 

Matt gave his degree recitals at the University of Michigan in the spring of 2024. His improvisation recital featured works by Dave Brubeck, Benny Golson, Joe Henderson, Antonio Carlos Jobim, Jerome Kern, Lee Konitz, Thelonious Monk, Charlie Parker and Wayne Shorter. His saxophone performance recital featured works by Eric Dolphy, Corey Dundee, Karel Husa and Marianne Ploger.

 

Now immersing himself in the broader musical world of the DMV area, Matt has played venues from the Peabody Institute in Baltimore to the Atlas Theatre in Washington, D.C. Matt has also become a regular member of the jazz scene in D.C., holding regular spots with his chordless trio at Code Red Speakeasy in Adams Morgan and the storied Eighteenth Street Lounge.