Monika Mattiesen graduated as a flautist from the Tallinn State Conservatory under the tutelage of Jaan Õun in 1991. In 1993, he obtained her Master’s degree in the Latvian Music Academy in the class of Vilnis Strautiņš. She has perfected her skills in the Royal Music Academy of Sweden under Prof. Lennart Ehrenlood. In 2004 she was in artist residency with IRCAM, preparing the compositions of Philippe Manoury, Pierre Jodlowski, Kaija Saariaho and Ivan Fedele. As a composer and flautist she has repeatedly participated in the master classes of IRCAM/Acanthes, summer courses in Darmstadt and in the Graz Impuls academy.
Monika Mattiesen has worked in the Estonian National Symphony Orchestra. Since 2000, she is a freelance flute soloist and the manager and member of ensemble Cyberstudio, focusing mainly on contemporary music. In 2015/2016, she taught the history of contemporary music as a guest professor at the University of Tartu. Since 2005, she is the artistic director of the international new music festival AFEKT. As a soloist, she has appeared before numerous collectives, such as the Estonian National Symphony Orchestra (ENSO), Estonian Festival Orchestra, Ensemble Resonanz, Athelas Sinfonietta, ensemble mosaik (Berlin), Vocalsolisten Stuttgart, Klangforum Wien, Tallinn Chamber Orchestra, Vanemuine Symphony Orchestra, Vantaa Symphony Orchestra, Pärnu City Orchestra, NYYD Ensembler, and chamber orchestra Kyiv Soloists. She has collaborated with conductors such as Erki Pehk, Paavo Järvi, Tõnu Kaljuste, Enno Poppe, and others. She has premiered works by Jüri Reinvere Chikako Morishita, Oxana Omelchuki, Tõnu Kõrvits, Helena Tulve, Mart Siimer, Toivo Tulev, Galina Grigorjeva, Liis Jürgens, Tõnis Kaumann, Elis Hallik, Margo Kõlar, and others. In 2008, she was awarded the Annual Music Award of the Estonian Cultural Endowment for her opera DMeeter; in 2014/2015 she was the grantee of the scholarship “Live and Shine” bestowed by the Estonian Cultural Endowment. She has repeatedly performed with Maarika Järvi in the flute duo MoMa; at the Pärnu Music Festival in 2016, they premiered Jüri Reinvere’s concerto for two flutes and chamber orchestra (conductor Arkadi Leitush); in 2018, they premiered Gene Pitsker’s composition for two flutes and chamber orchestra in New York (CompCord, conductor Arkadi Leitush). They have also performed together in Japan, Kyiv, Berlin. Mattiesen’s works have been performed by Ensemble Musikfabrik, Athelas Sinfonietta (Copenhagen), 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 Roosa, soprano Donatienne Michel-Dansac, mezzo-soprano Iris Oja, flautist Leonora Palu, ensemble Una Corda, actors Marius Peterson and Mait Malmsten, and many others. Since 2022, Monika has been collaborating closely with pianist Michael Wendeberg. The duo has premiered compositions written specifically for them by composers such as Jānis Petraškevičs, Ville Raasakka, Jarkko Hartikainen and others. The programmes of the duo often focus on the oeuvre of Pierre Boulez.