Martin Matalon studied at the Juilliard School in New York where he obtained his Master of Composition. In 1989, he founded Music Mobile, a New York-based ensemble devoted to contemporary repertoire and became its director until 1996. He receives prices from the JS Guggenheim New York Foundation, the Charles Ives Scholarship from the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters, the Grand Prix des Lycéens ...

In 1993, IRCAM ordered a new score for the restored version of Fritz Lang's film, Metropolis. Then, Martin Matalon immerses himself in the world of Luis Buñuel by writing musical composition for Un Chien andalou (1927), L’Age d’or (1931) and Las Hurdes (earth without bread) (1932).

Its catalog includes a large number of chamber and orchestral works and covers a wide spectrum of different genres: musical theater, mixed music, musical tales, film-concerts, vocal music, installations, music and poetry, choreographic works, opera ...

At the same time he is a conductor. He has directed the Ensemble Modern, MusikFabrik, Barcelona 216, the Monte-Carlo Philharmonic Orchestra, the Auvergne orchestra, Court-circuit, the Ensemble Intercontemporain, the Montpellier National Orchestra, the orchestral ensemble of Reims, the Gulbenkian Foundation Orchestra ...

Martin Matalon taught composition at CRR Aubervilliers, He was a visiting professor at McGill University, UC Berkeley, IRCAM, Acanthes Center, in many summer academies: CompoLab, Injuve, Institut Français - Barcelona New Modern Project ... Since 2017 he is a professor at CNSM Lyon.

He has been composer-in-residence at the Arsenal of Metz and the National Orchestra of Lorraine (2003-2004), at La Muse en Circuit (2005-2010), at the Stavanger Festival in Norway in 2011, guest composer of the Festival les Arcs for the 2014 edition ...

His Opera l’Ombre de Venceslao on a libretto and directed by Jorge Lavelli after the piece of Copi, was created at the Opera de Rennes in October 2016 and is the subject of a tour in France and South America in 11 opera houses. l’Ombre de Venceslao has been nominated for the Victoires de la Musique 2017.