Matthew Naughtin

Born in Omaha, Nebraska in 1947, Matthew Naughtin is a composer, violinist, program annotator and music librarian who started writing music at the same time he began violin lessons at age 11. He left Omaha for Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois where he studied violin performance, theory and composition and was awarded a Bachelor's Degree in Music Performance in 1970. He then taught and performed in the Chicago area for several years before returning to Omaha in 1977. There he played in the Omaha Symphony Orchestra from 1977 - 1997 and served as the Symphony's Music Librarian, Program Annotator, Resident Composer and Musical Arranger. He was appointed Music Librarian of the San Francisco Ballet Orchestra in 1997 and now lives and works in San Francisco. He has also served as principal Music Librarian of the Peninsula Music Festival, Colorado Music Festival and San Francisco Conservatory of Music, and as interim Music Librarian with the San Francisco Opera and San Francisco Symphony. Matt has written Ballet Music: A Handbook, a reference work on ballet music published by Rowman & Littlefield. The proud father of a daughter and a son, Matt is now a proud grandfather as well.

In addition to creating several orchestral arrangements for San Francisco Ballet, Matt has written over 200 arrangements for string ensemble which are performed all over the world. Matt has also written many original orchestral compositions that have gained wide recognition and are played all across America on Christmas, Pops, Youth and Family concerts. Matt specializes in music written especially for children, and his works have been used extensively on family concerts and concerts for grade school and preschool children. He has written three ballet scores for children: Ferdinand (1996) based on the classic children's story by Munro Leaf, The Angel Dances (1998) and Rainforest (2010) in collaboration with choreographer Robin Welch. His sing-alongs let children enjoy singing their favorite songs with an orchestra, and kids still remember Matt's piece on themes from video games, Mario! Jump!,  as well as Rollercoaster, Cinco de Mayo, The Penguin Stomp  and the Loony Tunes Fugue.  His works for narrator and orchestra, Journey to Lenkai, based on an African folk story, Amazon Journey,  a musical depiction of the South American rain forest, Wakinyan Tanka,  based on a Lakota Sioux legend, and Dragons have been performed on many youth and family concerts.