Matt Peterson

Matt Peterson is a multi award-winning composer and pianist from Seattle, WA.  He is an accompanist at the Joffrey Ballet in Chicago, a piano and composition teacher at the Bellas Artes School of Music in Glen Ellyn, IL,, as well as an in-demand classical and jazz performer in the greater Chicago area.   He has taught class piano at Wheaton College and currently has a studio of 35 weekly private students.  He also records classical, jazz, and pop albums for Player Piano Premier.   He is the in-house pianist at Suzette's Creperie in Wheaton, playing every Saturday night from September to May.  

Matt has composed extensively for live theater productions, films, and jazz groups, including an original score and piano performance for a New York stage production of The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams.  

Matt was the overall winner of the Ben Heppner Concerto Competition, which culminated in his performance of George Gershwin’s Concerto in F with the Wheaton College Symphony Orchestra.  

Matt holds a Bachelor's of Music in Music Composition and Piano Performance from Wheaton College, where he studied jazz with Chicago flutist and bandleader Nicole Mitchell, bassist John Tate and pianists Bradley Williams and Josh Moshier, as well as classical piano with Dr. Daniel Horn, and composition with Dr. Howard Whitaker.  He holds a Masters in Music in Jazz Piano from the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University, where he studied privately with Dr. Luke Gillespie and received instruction from Jeremy Allen, Steve Houghton, Pat Harbison, Brent Wallarab, and David Baker.  His experiences at IU included performing at the Monterey Jazz Festival with an ensemble made up of fellow Jacobs School students.

 Matt has recorded three CDs of original classical piano compositions: Renaissance (2004), The Paradise Suite (2006), and The Bridge (2009), available on Apple Music.

Matt worked as the staff organist at All Souls Anglican Church in Wheaton, IL from 2014-2022.

During the summer of 2013, Matt played piano and percussion in the Disneyland All-American College Band under director Ron McCurdy at the Disneyland Resort, where he performed with jazz luminaries such as Gordon Goodwin, Gregg Field, and John Clayton.  

Matt collaborated with filmmaker Joshua Stutzman to write original scores for his films Chrysalis, About Sisters, and most recently In Time.  

He has worked at the Bellas Artes School of Music since 2015, and in 2016 co-founded the Bellas Artes Institute for Jazz Studies, where he teaches private jazz lessons and coaches combos.  He has taught at the Bellas Artes summer jazz camp since 2018 and performed every summer at the Glen Ellyn Jazz Festival.

At the Joffrey Ballet in downtown Chicago, Matt plays for academy & company classes and collaborates with the top dancers in the city.  

Matt has been a regular invited performer to the Hempy Keyboard Series in Saugatuck, MI to perform his program of French classical music including Debussy, Ravel, Satie, and Messiaen.  

He has worked with Ravinia’s Reach Teach Play initiative to bring music education to Chicago public schools.

He has recorded extensively, including providing piano on guitarist/vocalist Molly Rose’s album Hidden Talents, and on vibraphonist Stephen Lynerd’s 2019 album “Steadfast Love.” Matt has toured across the US with the Stephen Lynerd Group.

Since 2021, Matt has performed regularly with the Paul Windsor Orchestra.

In April 2023 Matt released his first full-length jazz album as a bandleader, Better Worlds, recorded in October 2021 at Steve Albini’s recording studio Electrical Audio.