Matt Laing is an Australian composer and viola player. He studied viola and economics at the University of Melbourne, and studied viola at the Australian National Academy of Music.

He’s received commissions from the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra and the Melbourne Chamber Orchestra, the Australian String Quartet, Affinity Quartet, the Australian National Academy of Music and Musica Viva Australia, amongst many others. 

He has been in residence at the Bermagui Four Winds Festival, All that we are in Hobart, awarded the Peggy Glanville-Hicks Composer House Trust residency in the Barossa Valley in 2021, and was 2021 Young Composer in Residence with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra. His work has been performed in Australia and the UK, and was featured at the International Double Reed Society Conference in 2023.

As a collaborator, he has worked with choreographer Lilian Steiner and trumpet player Callum G’Froerer, and as a performer has freelanced as a viola player since graduating from the Australian National Academy of Music in 2013. His composition mentors have included Brett Dean and Elliot Gyger.

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As a viola player, Matt is in demand as a freelance plays regularly with the Melbourne Chamber Orchestra and Orchestra Victoria.​ Career highlights included appearing in the premiere season of the Australian World Orchestra, and performing in the Australian Octet, with the Australian String Quartet, and in Melbourne-based ensembles Quartz, Affinity Quartet, Rubiks and Arcko, as well as a variety of musicals, and commercial television and film recordings. 

Festival engagements as a performer have included the Perth and Melbourne International Arts Festivals, at the Australian String Quartet's Dunkeld festival, the Melbourne Chamber Orchestra’s Daylesford Festival, Orchestra Victoria’s Hamilton Festival and on multiple occasions at the Bermagui Four Winds Festival as violist and with electronics.