Musical Director

Matt’s work as musical director has taken him to places as far as Melbourne and Delhi.  He is highly regarded as someone who can inspire people of all ages and experience in the enjoyment of singing. Matt is not phased by encouraging 300 bank managers to sing Queen to 3000 employees at the NEC, or a thousand people to sing in harmony on a packed town square. His direction work includes large choral works, professional theatre, children’s theatre, outdoor theatre, youth theatre, choirs and bands.

Theatre in the Quarter
Matt is founder and artistic director of this professional musical theatre company based in Cheshire. The company creates new professional and community theatre and engages professionals from across the north west and beyond as well as hundreds of community participants in its many productions.

A Handbag Of Harmonies
Matt is the arranger and musical director of this 50-strong choir of handbag swinging divas. They have clocked up an enviable reputation and list of performance venues both in locally, nationally and internationally. In 2008 the ‘Handbags’, as they are often known, reached the final stages of BBC1′s Saturday night show Last Choir Standing and have grown in style and strength ten-fold since then.

Jigsaw Music Theatre
Matt has been Musical Director and Composer with Jigsaw for 12 years. Original musical productions include Canterbury Tales, 1001 Nights, The Crash of the Rhinos, Tne Invisible Girl, Big Nose, Going Underground, The Brutal Truth, The Princess Who Couldn’t Sing, The Man In The Balloon, The Roses of Eyam, The Selfish Giant, Millennium Bugs, Unsinkable, The Village Cross and Lord of the Flies.

Chester Mystery Plays
Matt was both composer and musical director for the highly acclaimed Mystery Plays 2003 and 2008. Directed by Robin Goddard. Both productions included a large community company of up to 400, of all ages, and including live musicians and drummers. The 2008 cycle was performed in concert version for Capital of Culture ’08 Celebrations in Liverpool Anglican Cathedral.

LIPA
Matt has worked as a sessional tutor, mainly as composer and musical director with diploma, degree and post-graduate acting and music students at the Liverpool Institute Of Performing Arts. He has also been arranger and director for the the large Actors’ Choir. Compositions for LIPA pieces include The Happy Prince, Titanic The Experience and Nicholas Nickleby.

Other Musical Directing credits include work with:

• Stagecoach, National Showcase
• International Schools Theatre Association
• Encore International Ensemble Theatre Workshop
• Cheshire County Youth Theatre
• Action Transport Theatre Company