Matty Metcalfe

Matty Metcalfe is an accomplished and versatile musician and ethnomusicologist who is equally at home in the studio and performance venues as he is in the classroom. His mastery of many different instruments, from piano and accordion to banjo and guitar, coupled with his ability to seamlessly move between and within musical styles keeps him busy as both a session and touring musician. Mr. Metcalfe also enjoys teaching master classes that demonstrate the connections within and between musical art forms through cultures and time—links that add to an ever-evolving pool of styles that comprise ‘world’ music. His interactive lecture on the origins and evolution of blues music was recently featured in a ‘Music and Leadership Symposium’ presented at the Federal Executive Institute (FEI) while his credentials as a performing musician have led to tours and album credits with acts from Nashville, TN to Galway, Ireland and to stages such as the Kennedy Center and the Grand Ole Opry. By his teens, Mr. Metcalfe had already garnered awards as a classical and jazz pianist–winning the prestigious Washington D.C. Classical Guild Award and numerous jazz commendations. He also began studying New Orleans stride piano, Zydeco and Irish accordion, church organ, and string instruments such as guitar, mandolin, banjo, and bouzouki. In studying so many styles and instruments, Mr. Metcalfe naturally became engaged in learning about the musicological connections between and within cultures– these pursuits led him to a deeper understanding of the interconnectivity of music and society at large. After graduating from the College of William and Mary with degrees in History and Education, Mr. Metcalfe found himself in demand as a session/ touring musician while also working as a Colonial Balladeer/Historian. From there, Mr. Metcalfe enjoyed three years teaching classroom music in Fairfax County, Virginia, before being recommended for the position of Musical Ambassador at Harvard’s Center for the Study of World Religions. His duties included facilitating concerts at the school for musicians from other countries and coordinating master classes and programs with these various international music acts and Harvard’s educational community. Mr. Metcalfe’s twin pursuits–teaching and performing music–led him back to Charlottesville, Virginia–a hub of many musical styles from Appalachian and Old-Time to Jazz, Classical, and ‘World’. Here, he further developed his programs–New Orleans Music–Roots, Revision, Revival and Musette Moderna/Tango a’ Tiempo. In each presentation, he takes listeners on a journey from the earliest incarnations of the musical style up to modern day iterations–showing how the idiom (and Art in general) changes, grows, evolves, and dovetails within and among cultures over time. Each program features entirely different music, but the common thread of musical interconnectivity is at the heart of the listener’s educational experience . In, ‘New Orleans Music’, Mr. Metcalfe introduces the listener to ragtime and early blues by showing how Classical, African, and indigenous musical forms blended with the French, German, and Native cultures to create a new ‘American’ sound. In ‘Musette Moderna’, he demonstrates the connection between French and Argentine music from the early 20th century (the Golden Age of these styles) and modern gypsy jazz, ‘electro-tango’, and ‘Gitane’ music today. Mr. Metcalfe also presented a lecture at the Smithsonian’s American History Museum on the history of American popular music and is currently working with Irish/English musicians to develop a lecture/performance on the trans-Atlantic ties between America’s Appalachian/Old-Time tradition and its ancestral ties to the British/Celtic Isles. In addition to these educational shows, Mr. Metcalfe has shared the stage with Buckwheat Zydeco, Sugarland, Robert Randolph and the Family Band, Sharon Shannon, Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy, and many others and is a featured musician on countless albums. His own compositions have been featured in theatrical productions, two independent feature films and on his own albums.