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.
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| 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:
(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.)