Matthew Stern is an NYC-based music director, pianist, conductor, vocal coach, and educator.  He has been music directing for theater in the Boston area for the past fifteen years, and has over one hundred and fifty productions to his credit.  Matt has worked with several professional theatre organizations (Huntington Theatre Company, Speakeasy Stage, Lyric Stage Company of Boston, New Repertory Theatre, Greater Boston Stage Company, Wheelock Family Theater, Berkshire Theatre Festival) as well as universities, schools, and community organizations. His work has been recognized with a number of awards including the Elliot Norton Award, the IRNE Award, the DASH Award, and the BroadwayWorld Boston Award.  

Most notably, Matt music directed and conducted Maria Friedman's Broadway-bound production of Merrily We Roll Along in Boston, starring West End actors Mark Umbers and Damian Humbley, as well as Wicked's Eden Espinosa.  In the fall of 2022, Matt served as the associate music director on the Boston production of Sing Street (directed by Rebecca Taichman and choreographed by Sonya Tayeh).

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In addition to production work, Matt is well-versed as a music director of galas and concerts.  He has music directed the Huntington Theater Company's Spotlight Gala annually since 2017, working with performers such as Santino Fontana, Kate Baldwin, Steven Skybell, and Taylor Mac. In spring 2023, Matt was the music director for Raise Your Voice: A Cabaret for the Cure.  The program featured a five-piece band, a 26-voice ensemble, and a roster of performers including Sonya Balsara, Bradley Gibson, Jay Armstrong Johnson, Nic Rouleau, and more.

Above all else, Matt is a collaborator who values the art of storytelling through music.  The precision and technique required in musical performance is accomplished in the service of telling a story and communicating with the audience and fellow performers. Matt is practiced in all of the various areas of expertise that a music director must employ, including audition accompaniment, vocal coaching for soloists and ensembles, choral directing, rehearsal accompaniment, pit orchestra conducting (keyboard or baton), pit orchestra contracting, orchestration and instrumentation, vocal arranging, and synthesizer programming. Matt is also experienced with Finale and Sibelius, and has used Garage Band to create audition/rehearsal accompaniment tracks and vocal training tracks.

Matt has worked with thousands of students of varying ages and level of experience as a music director, vocal coach, and educator at the Boston Conservatory (where he was an Assistant Professor of Musical Theater from 2016-2022), Boston University, Emerson College, French Woods Festival, Newton South High School, and Temple Beth Elohim in Wellesley.  

Matt spent 13 years on faculty at French Woods Festival in Hancock, NY, where he supervised the music directing staff, and music directed approximately 12 full musicals with casts as small as 6 and as large as 92, made up of students as young as 7 and as old as 18. Most of these productions are accompanied by full pit orchestras made up of students and professionals.  Each show is given 10-14 two and a half hour rehearsals to prepare the cast for a full-scale production including sets, costumes, lighting, and sound.  As a music director at French Woods, Matt will often be rehearsing or playing for up to 6 different musical productions in a single working day.

Matt has trained as a vocalist, a vocal coach, a pianist, and a conductor with accomplished musicians in the Boston area including Matthew Larson, William Lumpkin, James Olesen, Pamela Wolfe, Ann Howard Jones, Scott Alan Jarrett, Daniel Stepner, Neil Hampton, and Lawrence Wolfe.  He has given masterclasses, performances, and workshops for Michael Kozarin, Stephen Reineke, Stephen Schwartz, Betty Buckley, Rita Gardner, Benj Pasek, and Justin Paul, Natalie Weiss, Seth Rudetsky, Andrea Burns, Mandy Gonzalez, Betsy Wolfe, Sheldon Harnick, Jonathan Tartaglia, Terrence McNally, David Stone, and Sheri Sanders.  He holds an MFA in Theatre Studies (concentration in Music Theatre) from Boston University and a BA in Vocal Performance and Near Eastern and Judaic Studies from Brandeis University.