{"id":115572,"date":"2025-06-27T15:05:45","date_gmt":"2025-06-27T19:05:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/?p=115572"},"modified":"2025-06-30T08:00:01","modified_gmt":"2025-06-30T12:00:01","slug":"interview-toronto-flamenco-guitarist-composer-matt-sellick-talks-new-album-watching-sky","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/2025\/06\/27\/interview-toronto-flamenco-guitarist-composer-matt-sellick-talks-new-album-watching-sky\/","title":{"rendered":"INTERVIEW | Toronto Flamenco Guitarist &amp; Composer Matt Sellick Talks About His New Album Watching The Sky"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_115574\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-115574\" style=\"width: 1200px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-115574\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/06\/Copy-of-INTERVIEW-84.jpg\" alt=\"Toronto flamenco guitarist and composer Matt Sellick (Photo courtesy of the artist)\" width=\"1200\" height=\"628\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/06\/Copy-of-INTERVIEW-84.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/06\/Copy-of-INTERVIEW-84-300x157.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/06\/Copy-of-INTERVIEW-84-1024x536.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/06\/Copy-of-INTERVIEW-84-768x402.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-115574\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Toronto flamenco guitarist and composer Matt Sellick (Photo courtesy of the artist)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Toronto flamenco guitarist and composer Matt Sellick\u2019s new album Watching the Sky brings a decade-long ambition to life. Recorded with the Thunder Bay Symphony Orchestra and conductor Evan Mitchell, it\u2019s both the culmination of a longstanding relationship, and a new direction for his music.<\/p>\n<p>The music combines various influences, including inspiration drawn from the landscapes of his hometown Thunder Bay, while retaining the passionate soul of flamenco.<\/p>\n<p>LvT spoke to Sellick about his music, and the new album.<\/p>\n<div class=\"jetpack-video-wrapper\"><span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"youtube-player\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/7Ou3fj1mUPk?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;fs=1&#038;hl=en-US&#038;autohide=2&#038;wmode=transparent\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" style=\"border:0;\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-presentation\"><\/iframe><\/span><\/div>\n<h2>Matt Sellick, guitarist<\/h2>\n<p>Matt Sellick grew up in Thunder Bay, Ontario, and now makes Toronto his home. He studied music at Lakehead University, where he obtained an HBMus. Subsequently, he went to Spain to continue studying flamenco guitar with various practitioners of the art. For six years, he pursued a career in Thunder Bay, performing regularly as a soloist with the Thunder Bay Orchestra, and Consortium Aurora Borealis. He relocated to Toronto in 2019.<\/p>\n<p>Matt has been on stage with prominent artists such as Jesse Cook, and has performed across Canada, the United States, and in Europe.<\/p>\n<p>As a recording artist, Matt has released five albums of original music prior to Watching the Sky.<\/p>\n<p>His compositions are often inspired by landscapes or streetscapes from Thunder Bay to Spain to Toronto, and the moods they engender. Musically, influences range from Vicente Amigo to Debussy.<\/p>\n<p>The album was recorded live with all musicians in the same space, another first for Sellick, in the Thunder Bay Community Auditorium. Each track is a tone poem that was sparked by his memory of a specific place. When he went back to see those landscapes of his memory, he often tweaked the composition and\/or arrangement to reflect the place \u2014 and his relationship to it \u2014 as it is now.<\/p>\n<p>Longtime collaborator Marito Marques adds percussion in the form of djembe, udu, and hand percussion to several of the tracks. Bassist Martin Blanchet and pianist Paul Rodermond are featured in solos on two of the tracks.<\/p>\n<h3>The Interview<\/h3>\n<p>The idea for the album, Matt says, goes back a bit longer even than a decade to about 2013, when he had just graduated university. It was just the start of his longstanding relationship with the Thunder Bay Orchestra.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn a small town, like Thunder Bay, some of the musicians are part of your everyday life. They\u2019re you\u2019re teachers,\u201d he explains. \u201cThey become your mentors and your friends,\u201d he adds.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMy mother was a concert level violinist.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>It made the idea of orchestral collaborations more of a natural progression.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey offered me a show,\u201d he recalls. \u201cThat became part of my life.\u201d He went on to perform with TBO every couple of years or so.<\/p>\n<p>Sellick wrote his own arrangements of his material for the orchestra. After so many years, he realized he\u2019d accumulated enough arrangements that he could compile a full-length album. Still, actually bringing an orchestra together to record is a significant undertaking.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut how am I going to be able to make that happen?\u201d he wondered.<\/p>\n<p>It began the quest for funding, which also took time. Of course, in the meantime he continued to perform and teach. \u201cI don\u2019t know if I could say that it was always in the back of my head.\u201d Still, doing those performances with TBO every now and then offered a tantalizing possibility.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_115575\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-115575\" style=\"width: 1200px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-115575\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/06\/Matt_Stage.jpg\" alt=\"Toronto flamenco guitarist and composer Matt Sellick (Photo courtesy of the artist)\" width=\"1200\" height=\"800\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/06\/Matt_Stage.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/06\/Matt_Stage-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/06\/Matt_Stage-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/06\/Matt_Stage-768x512.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-115575\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Toronto flamenco guitarist and composer Matt Sellick (Photo courtesy of the artist)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h3>The Music<\/h3>\n<p>\u201cIt seemed like a natural pairing to do.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>His compositions \u2014 despite their arrangements \u2014 aren\u2019t written with an orchestra in mind.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI don\u2019t know if I\u2019d say it\u2019s a concerto format,\u201d he says. \u201cThe idea was \u2014 a lot of my pieces, I start out with them as solo pieces.\u201d In creating his original arrangements, he\u2019d begin to see there were actually three or more parts to the work he\u2019d composed. To perform it solo, he\u2019d pare the music back to a single part.<\/p>\n<p>When expanding them into guitar + orchestra, he could bring back the other parts he\u2019d heard as a composer. \u201cIt became a way of expanding these pieces into what they were originally,\u201d he says. \u201cPersonally I think it worked really well.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>While not a concerto in the strict sense, the arrangements pose their own challenges.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s basically solo guitar with an orchestral accompaniment,\u201d he says. \u201cThe idea of the guitar having a dialogue with the orchestra.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Blending the guitar with the power of an orchestra is challenge #1.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s a challenge. It\u2019s like a cello, but it has none of the sustain or cutting power. I don\u2019t want the guitar playing over the strings the whole time,\u201d he says, noting it would require considerable amplification. He was careful to create that balance.<\/p>\n<p>The album includes both older and newer music. \u201cSome of these arrangements are, for my life, very old.\u201d Others have been reworked. Each time he performed with the orchestra, he\u2019d review the video of it the next day in order to tweak and perfect the arrangements year after year.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt became this long process of developing [the arrangements],\u201d he says. \u201cThey feel kind of alive in a way.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Will there be a live performance in Thunder Bay? It\u2019s something he\u2019s working on.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn doing these, I realized how much I actually loved performing live with the orchestra.\u201d With the blend of classical and flamenco, guitar and orchestra, it\u2019s a new sound for most audiences. \u201cIt\u2019s rare,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s something he\u2019d like to see change, at least in his own case.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat would be a dream come true, to do this on a regular basis.\u201d<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>You can stream Matt Sellick\u2019s upcoming album Watching the Sky [<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/album\/3ib6JJKWbue4SKZxcT7ckh\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">HERE<\/a><\/strong>].<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong><em>Are you looking to promote an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/advertising\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"color: #0e101a\"><u>event<\/u><\/span><\/a>? 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