Sonia Ivette Morales-Matos (b. 1961) is a Puerto Rican composer, performer, and educator who belongs to a family of distinguished musicians. She has a BM degree from Berklee College of Music, where she studied composition and jazz, and a MM degree in both Composition and Jazz Studies from Indiana University in Bloomington. While in Indiana University, she studied with distinguished professors such as David Baker, Juan Orrego-Salas, Claude Baker, and John Eaton. She was the 2016’s recipient of the Dr. Herman Hudson Alumnus Award presented by the African American Arts Institute of Indiana University for her excellence as an educator, performer, and composer. In June 2019, she received recognitions from the City of Santa Ana, the House of Representatives of the United States Congress, and the Mexican Consulate in Santa Ana, CA, for her participation in the “Latino Masters Concert” as a composer, performer, and educator, and for her contribution to the community of the City of Santa Ana, California, USA.

Her compositions explore a wide variety of styles and genres such as chamber music, the concerto, choral music, Latin Jazz, pop, sacred and/or contemporary Christian, and Latin or Tropical music. International artists and orchestras in the United States and other countries of the world have performed some of her compositions including the Dayton Philharmonic, the Clermont Philharmonic, the Central Ohio Symphony, the Puerto Rico Symphony, the Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional de la República Dominicana and the Symphony Orchestra of the Casals Festival. Her works have been commissioned by various ensembles and for festivals such as: Festival Casals of Puerto Rico, the International Clarinet Festival, and the International Choral Festival of Havana, among others. Recently, some of her compositions performed in the International Music by Women Festival, sponsored by the Mississippi University for Women, included Divertimento Caribeño.1, in its version for alto sax and piano, and Nostalgia for clarinet and piano. Recent com missions by the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra include Fiesta no.1, for string ensemble and Tropical Overture, for full orchestra. The latter was premiered live on March 15th, 2022, by the CSO. Some of her orchestral works are Paisajes, for cuatro/viola and orchestra, Alma Mater Salute, Divertimento Caribeño no. 4, for cello and orchestra, Tembandumba’s Court Dance, and Recuerdos, for violin, cello, and orchestra. Many music critics have identified Mrs. Morales-Matos as one of the most promising female composers from Latin America.

Sonia Ivette resides in Cincinnati, Ohio where she pursues her career as a composer, performer, and educator.  At the present she is working in other commissions, including one for the Dali Quartet and the Stamford Symphony Orchestra to be premiered in March 2023.