Matīss Čudars, born in 1991, is a Latvian jazz guitar player and composer. He’s been acknowledged as one of the most prominent up-raising young music talents from the Baltic States. His unique, highly personal sound, together with the artistically integral, energetically saturated and yet lyrical compositions gives an esthetic enjoyment both to a music knower, as well as to a regular listener. The music he plays encompasses a variety of different music genres – strong investment in the jazz improvisation, folk music integrity, indie rock energy, and classical music harmony. Musicians characterize his music as emotionally touching, interactive, melodic contemporary jazz. Throughout his youth, Matīss had been busy studying and playing in various orchestras as a trombone and marimba/percussion player, as well as playing a guitar in several rock bands in Latvia. His striving for melodic, rhythmic and harmonic innovations made him interested in jazz harmony and improvisation. At the age of 18 he moved to The Netherlands to study at the prestigious Amsterdam Conservatory with Jesse Van Ruler and Maarten van der Grinten. Since then Matīss has been performing throughout Europe with some of the finest musicians of the scene. Over the past years Matīss has received various awards. In 2010 Matīss Čudars Trio won the 1st prize at the Dutch young talent competition “Prinses Christina Jazz Concours” which gave him the opportunity to study with Brad Mehldau and attend the prestigious Banff Centre Workshop in Jazz in Canada, where he studied with Dave Douglas, Clarence Penn, Donny McCaslin, Matt Brewer a.o. In 2012 with his project “North By Northeast”, Matīss won the 1st prize at the Keep An Eye International Jazz Award that incorporated bands from New York, Philadelphia, Boston and Amsterdam. On 2013 Matīss Čudars Quartet won the 1st prize at the world wide renowned Burghausen Jazz Award.

In March 2012 Matīss recorded debut album with his quartet at the studio “Fattoria Musica” in Germany. The CD is available for sale on iTunes, Spotify, Amazon, Bandcamp and other online stores. On 2013 Matīss lived in Berlin, Germany, while being part of Erasmus exchange program at the Jazz Institute Berlin, studying with Kurt Rosenwinkel, John Hollenbeck, a.o. Currently Matīss resides in Amsterdam, The Netherlands.