Dr. Matthew Lyon Hazzard (b. 1989) is an award-winning Filipino-American conductor, composer, and the Director of Choral Activities at Mt. San Antonio College.
Hazzard brings a wealth of experience as a conductor and composer to Mt. SAC. He served as a rehearsal conductor with the Houston Symphony Chorus, a choral conducting intern with the Grammy Award-winning Houston Chamber Choir, and an Adjunct Professor of Choir and Voice at Fullerton College. He has worked with dozens of choirs as a guest artist and clinician, including professional, collegiate, community, and school choirs from across the country.
Hazzard’s music is regularly performed by choirs around the world. Praised for his “exquisite text-setting” and for creating “stunning landscapes of sound,” his compositions have been featured in regional and national conventions and in many all-state and honor choirs. His music has received numerous accolades, including those from CCDA, ACDA, the Young New Yorkers’ Chorus, the Grammy Award-winning True Concord, and more. In 2023, he served as composer-in-residence at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario with the Kingston Chamber Choir for a concert of his work. In 2024, he wrote Finding Light, a 45-minute choral-orchestral work on overcoming climate despair for the Oregon Repertory Singers’ 50th anniversary, and most recently, he served as composer-in-residence with Lori Marie Rios and National Concerts for the premiere of his work, Garden of Memory, in Carnegie Hall. He also serves as a faculty member of Choral Arts Initiative PREMIERE|Project Festival.
Hazzard earned his D.M.A. in Choral Conducting from the Moores School of Music at the University of Houston, his M.M. in Choral Conducting from the Bob Cole Conservatory at California State University Long Beach, and his M.A.T. and B.M. in Music Composition from East Carolina University. His work was recognized throughout his education: he received the 2018 and 2019 Outstanding Student Award in Graduate Conducting at CSULB; the 2018 University Achievement Award for Outstanding Graduate Student in Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activity by CSULB Academic Affairs; and the 2019 Distinguished Achievement in Creative Activity Award from the CSULB College of the Arts. He was also awarded the Jeanette Chase Bay Area Chorus Scholarship, and the Howard Pollack Scholarship at the University of Houston.
Hazzard has been conducting choirs since 2011. Prior to pursuing his graduate studies, he taught at Greene Central High School (NC) for four years where his choirs flourished. His ensembles received consistent superior ratings, and won the 2015 Busch Gardens Music Sweepstakes Award for Best High School Choral performance; an honor that recognizes the strongest performing ensemble across the entire season. In 2016, his choirs were invited to perform on the stage of Carnegie Hall, where they premiered Ivo Antognini’s A Prayer for Mother Earth under the direction of Andrew Crane.
He now lives in Long Beach, where he continues to write for voices. You can find his music at lyonhazzard.com.
