Matthew holds a B.A. degree in music from Bennington College, and a M.M. degree in musical composition from the New England Conservatory of Music (with Academic Honors and Distinction in Performance.) He has finished all coursework and exams required for his doctoral degree in musical composition at the New England Conservatory, and is currently A.B.D. His principal instructors have included Stephen Siegel, Allen Shawn, John Heiss, and Hollywood film orchestrator Erik Lundborg. He studied organ with Dr. Dwight Killam, and piano with Anne Cain, Jane Jenkins, and John Van Buskirk. He studied alto saxophone with Roger LaRocca and Raymond Willard, baritone sax with Carl Jenkins, conducting with Janet McGhee, and algorithmic composition with Paul Burdick. He is a member of ASCAP and the American Guild of Organists.
Matt 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). Matthew co-founded The Toyland Band, a Boston-based award-winning instrumental ensemble which specializes in performing arrangements of classical and popular music for children on no less than 28 diverse toy instruments. Matthew was musical director of the Drury Drama Team (4 years) and composed music for the International Thespian Festival held in Lincoln, Nebraska. He performed in many concerts at Bennington College 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 Massachusetts, has been featured in the First United Methodist Church Summer Organ Sounds concert series, and presents regular benefit concerts both at St. Andrew's Episcopal Chapel and St. John's Episcopal Church in North Adams, MA. He is the current Minister of Music at Good Shepherd United Methodist Church in Malden, MA. McConnell was a Teaching Fellow at the New England Conservatory of Music. In addition to teaching composition, orchestration, keyboard harmony and music theory, McConnell is a Schillinger scholar and teaches The Schillinger System of Musical Composition to students in the Boston area.
Matthew received the Aaron Copland scholarship to attend The Conducting Institute's Composer/Conductor Program at Bard College. His numerous compositions include symphonic works, a Concerto for Piano, String Orchestra and Timpani, choral works, incidental music for plays and various events, several songs, etc. He is particularly fond of his Concerto for Toy Piano and Chamber Orchestra, commissioned by Keith Kirchoff, which received a standing ovation at its premiere in Boston in May of 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."