Norman Mathews composes art songs, chamber music, choral music, and musical theatre. His Walt Whitman cycle, Songs of the Poet has been performed at the Kennedy Center, has won numerous awards and was recorded by Capstone Records. Mathews is a 2011 winner of the American Composers' Forum VocalEssence contest for his Sonnet No.
61 (set to a Shakespeare Sonnet), for mixed chorus, piano, and oboe obbligato. The award will be celebrated in Minneapolis, Feb. 17-20, and include a performance of the work, seminars, and discussions.

Rossetti Songs to Christina Rossetti poetry for mezzo-soprano, piano, flute, and cello was recorded by Navona Records and will be released in April 2011.

You Might as Well Live, a one-person musical theatre work about Dorothy Parker has been performed at the Harris Theatre of Music and Dance by the Chicago Humanities Festival, Theatre Building Chicago's Stages 2003, the Orlando Shakespeare Festival, and the New York Musical Theatre Festival.