A sought-after leader in today’s orchestral landscape, Dr. Matthew Aubin cultivates musical excellence through an innovative, community-minded, and inclusive approach.

He currently serves as Music Director of the Jackson Symphony Orchestra and the Southwest Michigan Symphony Orchestra, and as Artistic Director of The Chelsea Symphony in New York City. Across all three organizations, he has built a reputation not just for musical excellence, but for thinking creatively about what an orchestra can be and who it can reach.

At The Chelsea Symphony, that vision has taken some unexpected and memorable forms. He has led collaborations with actor John Lithgow, served as a consultant and off-camera conductor for the Amazon Prime series Mozart in the Jungle (including an episode filmed on Rikers Island), and brought TCS to its Lincoln Center debut. He conducted the New York City premieres of works by Mark O’Connor, Fazil Say, and Caroline Shaw, and helped launch TCS’s annual competition for emerging composers, with distinguished adjudicators like Gerard Schwarz, Conductor Laureate of the Seattle Symphony. His work on Mozart in the Jungle sparked an ongoing relationship with the NYC Department of Correction, through which he has designed and conducted concerts and education programs for detainees, both in person and online. He also appeared as the onstage conductor in the film Bel Canto with Julianne Moore and has served as an artistic consultant for the television series Younger.

In Jackson, Michigan, his impact has been equally tangible. Under his leadership, the Jackson Symphony Orchestra has grown its season, deepened its community roots, and found new ways to connect with audiences of all ages, from family and education concerts to the popular Music on Tap series designed for young adults. When the pandemic forced orchestras to go dark in 2020, Aubin responded with the Random Acts of Music series and a suite of multimedia educational videos built for K-12 classrooms. In 2022, he launched the Equal Billing Project, an initiative dedicated to recording and elevating the work of composers who were overlooked or denied recognition during their lifetimes.

That mission connects directly to one of his most distinctive scholarly pursuits. Aubin is the leading expert on Fernande Decruck, a French composer whose significance was long underappreciated. He has received multiple research grants to study her life and work, edited and published critical editions of her scores through the French firm Editions Billaudot, and organized performances of her music on both sides of the Atlantic. In 2022, he was invited to speak at the Fernande Decruck International Competition for Saxophone in France. He and the Jackson Symphony Orchestra have recorded two landmark albums of her orchestral works, the first released in 2022 and a second in 2025, the first recordings of their kind, designed to give orchestras the tools to program her music with confidence.

When he is not on the podium, Aubin remains active as a freelance horn player, performing regularly across the country. His background as an educator runs just as deep: he has served as Assistant Professor of Music at Washington State University, adjunct faculty at The Hartt School, and Educational Programs Conductor for the Hartford Symphony Orchestra.