Biography
Matt remains one of the UK's top orchestrators, arrangers and conductors for film and tv as well as developing his own career as a film and tv composer and songwriter.
He has worked on over 70 movies, including Moulin Rouge, Batman: The Dark Knight, Pirates of the Caribbean: At Worlds End, Ray, The Incredible Hulk, Love Actually, The Quiet American, The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor, The Bone Collector, Iron Man, Elizabeth: The Golden Age, World Trade Center and The Assassination of Jesse James.
As an arranger/conductor Matt has worked with pop/rock acts such as Dido, the Pet Shop Boys, Tom Jones, U2, Massive Attack, Elliot Smith, Catatonia, Badly Drawn Boy and international artists including Monica Naranjo, Eros Ramazotti and Hooverphonic, as well as classical/crossover artists including Luciano Pavarotti, Russell Watson, Vanessa Mae, Amici, Bond and Maxsim.
As a composer Matt started out in TV – scoring a number of network series for ITV and the BBC including I Saw You, Rescue Me, Safe as Houses and Number 13. In 2005 he was asked to score his first film – a new Anglo-French movie, The Four Musketeers (aka D’Artagnan et les Trois Mousquetaires), directed by Pierre Aknine and starring Emmanuelle Béart.
For this 3 hour film Matt wrote a score with over 2 hours of music recorded with an 80 piece orchestra and 40 piece choir. The soundtrack has recently been released by Movie Score Media to critical acclaim.
In 2006 Matt composed the score to the Anglo-Belgian action thriller Storm Force (aka Windkracht 10) directed by Hans Herbots. This - the most expensive Flemish movie ever made – opened the Ghent International Film Festival and went on to top the Belgian box office.
Matt continues to compose library music for top L.A. based production music company Killer Tracks (part of Universal Publishing), and has several high-profile songwriting collaborations due for release in 2009.
Matt studied trumpet and piano at the London College of Music and for a number of years had a busy freelance career performing and teaching. However it wasn’t until he began working with world-renowned film orchestrator Christopher Palmer that he really found his musical home. “Chris was a great inspiration to me – he orchestrated for the very best in the film business such as Bernard Herrmann, Elmer Bernstein and Maurice Jarré – but he also composed film scores, championed neglected British classical composers, produced film albums, wrote authoritative books and articles.....he was a whirlwind of creativity. He taught me how to really listen to orchestral performances in the recording studio – and always to demand the very highest standards from oneself and ones colleagues. He died in 1995 and I still miss him.”
After that Matt developed a successful arranging and conducting career that lead him to work with the Scottish composer Craig Armstrong, who asked him to help orchestrate his early movie scores – having just made his breakthrough with the Baz Luhrmann movie Romeo & Juliet. They have now worked together for over 10 years on 16 movies, with the scores picking up numerous awards along the way including a Golden Globe, 2 Baftas and 2 Ivor Novellos. Matt has also orchestrated and conducted regularly for the superstar Indian composer, and recent 2-time Oscar winner, A.R.Rahman on 7 movies, the hugely talented Finnish composer Tuomas Kantelinen on 9 movies, as well as working for such Hollywood names as Hans Zimmer, James Newton Howard, Randy Edelman, John Murphy and Clint Mansell. He continues to orchestrate and conduct for some of the most exciting and high profile movies being made today.
As a session conductor and concert MD, Matt has conducted many leading orchestras and ensembles including The London Sinfonietta, The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, The Royal Scottish National Orchestra, The City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, The Chamber Orchestra of London, The London Metropolitan Orchestra, The London Session Orchestra, The North West Symphony (Seattle), The Hollywood Film Chorale, The Orchestre de Colonne (Paris), The City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra, The Czech Symphony Orchestra, Metro Voices, The Millennia Ensemble, The Czech Philharmonic Choir, The Bulgarian Symphony Orchestra and The Mons Orchestra (Brussels).