By THIRSTY


Matt Wong is an award-winning pianist, composer and arranger. Born and raised in San Francisco, he currently attends the Manhattan School of Music, where he studies jazz piano with Phil Marokowitz and jazz composition with Jim McNeely. His impressive list of awards includes: four ASCAP awards; four Downbeat Music Awards; two Monterey Jazz Festival Awards; a Jazz at Lincoln Center Award, and many more.

Matt Wong (credit: Cole Thompson)
  
Performing professionally since the age of 11, Matt has been involved with a variety of jazz, R&B, funk and experimental music groups and has performed at venues including the SFJAZZ Center, Yoshi’s Oakland, Davies Symphony Hall/San Francisco, Stanford University Bing Center/Palo Alto CA, Black Cat/ San Francisco, Great American Music Hall/San Francisco, Blue Note/NYC, Shapeshifter Lab/Brooklyn NY, Metropolitan Museum of Art/NYC, Jazz Alley/Seattle WA, Deer Head Inn/Delaware Water Gap PA. He has also appeared at festivals that include the Vienne Jazz Festival/France, Montreux Jazz Festival/Switzerland, Umbria Jazz Festival/Perugia (Italy), the Monterey Jazz Festival/California, and the Fillmore Jazz Festival/San Francisco CA.

In addition to being an award-winning performer, his compositions and arrangements for big band and orchestra, as well as for smaller ensembles, have garnered significant recognition and awards. His big band compositions have been performed by groups including the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, Realistic Orchestra, Musical Art Quintet, Berklee College of Music Rainbow Band and the Next Generation Jazz Orchestra.

There is no doubt that Matt Wong is on a powerful trajectory for success and it is Stay Thirsty Magazine’s great pleasure to name him our SPOTLIGHT Artist for Spring 2017.


Link:

Matt Wong   

(Audio entitled “Golden Fields” is an original composition by Matt Wong that won the Downbeat Student Music Award for Best Undergraduate Original Composition for Large Ensemble in April 2017.)





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