Matthew McConnell

b. 1980

Dr. Matthew McConnell holds a B.A. degree in Music from Bennington College, a M.M. degree in Musical Composition with Distinction in Performance (and Academic Honors) from the New England Conservatory of Music, as well as a Doctor of Musical Arts (D.M.A.) degree from the same institution. His principal composition instructors include Stephen Siegel, Allen Shawn, John Heiss, and Hollywood film orchestrator Erik Lundborg. McConnell studied organ with Dr. Dwight Killam, and piano performance with Ann Cain, Jane Jenkins, and John Van Buskirk. He also studied alto saxophone with Roger LaRocca and Raymond Willard, baritone sax with Carl Jenkins, conducting with Janet McGhee, sacred choral music with Daniel Pinkham, and algorithmic composition with Paul Burdick. He is a member of ASCAP and the AGO.

McConnell collaborated with organists Kent Tritle and Nancianne Parella at St. Ignatius Loyola Church in New York City, and has worked with the Sacred Music in a Sacred Space Concert Series in New York. He has been a guest organist with the Berkshire Lyric Theatre Choir, and has premiered original works with Kathy Andrew (former violinist for Eric Clapton.) McConnell co-founded The Toyland Band, a Boston-based award-winning instrumental ensemble that specializes in performing arrangements of classical and popular music for children on over 28 diverse toy instruments. Matthew is the former Musical Director of the Drury Drama Team, and composed music for the International Thespian Festival held in Lincoln, Nebraska. He performs many concerts at in Berkshire County, and throughout Boston, and was the principal organist at St. Andrew's Episcopal Chapel in North Adams, MA for seven years.

McConnell is a former organist and choir director of the First Baptist Church in Cheshire, MA, has been a guest organist at numerous churches throughout the Commonwealth. He is the former Minister of Music at Good Shepherd United Methodist Church (Malden, MA), All Saints' Episcopal Church (North Adams, MA), and the current Minister of Music at the First Baptist Church of North Adams. Dr. McConnell was also a Teaching Fellow at the New England Conservatory of Music. In addition to teaching composition, piano, organ, orchestration, keyboard harmony and music theory, McConnell is a Schillinger scholar and teaches The Schillinger System of Musical Composition to students in Berkshire County. He is also a professional Composer Mentor with Music-COMP (formerly the Vermont MIDI Project).

Dr. McConnell received the Aaron Copland scholarship to attend The Conducting Institute's Composer-Conductor Program at Bard College. His numerous compositions include symphonic works, concerti, choral pieces, incidental music for plays and various events, song cycles, etc. His choral music publisher is E.C. Schirmer, and his digital music distributer is NewMusicShelf.com. Dr. McConnell is particularly fond of his Concerto for Toy Piano and Orchestra, commissioned by Keith Kirchoff, which received its premiere in Boston in 2004. In the words of toy pianist Margaret Leng Tan, "It is delightfully convincing and well orchestrated so the toy piano can emerge as soloist."