Monika Mattiesen focuses on electroacoustic sound experiments as a composer and on performing contemporary music as a flautist. Monika Mattiesen studied flute at the Tallinn Music High School with Elmar Peäske and at the Tallinn State Conservatory with Jaan Õun. She obtained her master’s degree at the Latvian Academy of Music with Vilnis Strautins. As a flautist, she has perfected her skills at the Royal Swedish Academy of Music with professor Lennart Ehrenlood. In 2005, she started PhD studies in composition with Toivo Tulev and Helena Tulve. In 2004 she resided at IRCAM, preparing works by Manoury, Jodlowski, Saariaho and Fedele. She has repeatedly taken part as a composer and flautist in the IRCAM/Acanthes master course and Graz Impuls Akademie. Mattiesen has performed in numerous European countries, additionally in the USA and Columbia, both as a soloist and chamber musician.
Mattiesen worked in the Estonian National Symphony Orchestra from 1992 to 1997. Since 1998 she has been active as a solo flautist, focusing primarily on contemporary music. In 2015/2016 she taught contemporary music history as a guest professor at the University of Tartu. From 2005, she has been the Artistic Director of the International Contemporary Music Festival AFEKT. Mattiesen has played as a soloist with Ensemble Resonanz, Athelas Sinfonietta (Copenhagen), ensemble mosaik (Berlin), Stuttgart Vocalsolisten, Klangforum Wien, Tallinn Chamber Orchestra, Vanemuine Symphony Orchestra, Vantaa Symphony Orchestra, Pärnu City Orchestra, NYYD Ensemble, Chamber Orchestra Kyiv Soloists and many others. Mattiesen has premiered new pieces written especially for her by composers such as Jüri Reinvere, Chikako Morishita, Oxana Omelchuk, Tõnu Kõrvits, Helena Tulve, Mart Siimer, Toivo Tulev, Galina Grigorjeva, Liis Viira, Tõnis Kaumann, Elis Hallik, Margo Kõlar and others. She received the Annual Music Award of the Estonian Cultural Endowment in 2008 for her opera DMeeter. In 2014/2015, she was the holder of the grant “Live and Shine” of the Estonian Cultural Endowment. She has repeatedly performed with Maarika Järvi as the flute duo MoMa – for instance, at the Pärnu Music Festival in 2016, they premiered Jüri Reinvere’s concerto for two flutes and a chamber orchestra (conductor Arkady Leytush), and in 2018, they premiered Gene Pritsker’s composition for two flutes and a chamber orchestra (with chamber orchestra CompCord and conductor Arkady Leytush). Together they have also performed in Japan, Kyiv, and Berlin. Monika Mattiesen’s works have been performed by Ensemble Musikfabrik, Athelas Sinfonietta, Tallinn Chamber Orchestra, the men’s quartet of the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir, chamber orchestra Kyiv Camerata, conductors Clement Power, Erki Pehk, Mikk Murdvee, Kaisa Roose, soprano Donatienne Michel-Dansac, mezzo-soprano Iris Oja, actors Mait Malmsten and Marius Peterson, flautist Leonora Palu, Ensemble Una Corda, and many others.