Matt earned his master's degree from the College of Saint Rose and is permanently certified to teach music in New York State. He performed for many years with Grammy-winning baritone saxophonist Nick Brignola and was a featured trumpet soloist and arranger with the Albany Jazz Workshop, composed of the best professionals in New York's Capital District. Matt studied composition with Edgar Curtis, Founding Director of the Albany Symphony Orchestra.

Matt is a retired professor of computer information systems and was academic dean at Dutchess Community College in Poughkeepsie, New York. He holds the college record for teaching courses in the largest number of academic departments and still teaches as an adjunct lecturer. He also received the 1998 Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Professional Service, the highest award bestowed by the State University of New York.

For many years, Matt accomplished his goal of learning to play a new instrument every year to improve his composing and arranging abilities. Not only a multi-instrumentalist, he is in demand as a composer, arranger, sound engineer and studio sideman. Matt recently served as guest clinician for the Dutchess County All-County High School Jazz Festival, and performed by his original compositions by invitation at the Temecula (California) International Jazz Festival. He is a long-time member of American Federation of Musicians Local 238 and is a principle user of the Music Performance Funds to promote live music in concert.

Performance gear includes a Kanstul Signature 1525 flugelhorn, vintage Bach "Strad" 239S C trumpet with Blackburn #20 leadpipe, Bach "Strad" Bb 37S trumpet, Schilke P5-4 piccolo trumpet, Yamaha 675 soprano sax, Powell soprano flute, Emerson alto flute, Jenco vibraphone, and a Selmer Mark VI tenor sax. Matt uses Warburton 4 brass mouthpieces with custom open throats and is a featured endorser on theWarburton website, and Yanagisawa (soprano) and VanDoren (tenor) sax mouthpieces. Matt's picture is also featured the website for Kanstul Horns.

Matt currently leads Rio JAZZ, a Brazilian jazz concert sextet he formed in 1988 featuring recording artists Peter Tomlinson, Jeff Ciampa, Mark Egan, Don Miller, Tomas Martin Lopez, Joel Rosenblatt and more than forty outstanding world-class jazz performers over the past twenty years. Recently, Matt has performed with Peter Einhorn (guitar) and Don Miller (acoustic bass) in smaller settings. Matt is also musical director for his wife, singer/songwriter Denise Jordan Finley for her large-scale projects. They live in New York's Mid-Hudson Valley and in Lake George.

Matt's 2006 CD, "Brazilian Wish" on the Kingsmill Music label features his original jazz sambas and bossa novas, played by some of the best musicians in the world!

Matt also performs on "Hauntress", the 2007 CD by Denise Jordan Finley on Dome Island Records, produced by bassist Daniel Pagdon.

Matt has performed with Nick Brignola, Kenny Blake, Brad Upton, Dave Holland, Glen Moore, Jack DeJohnette, Joel Rosenblatt, Mark Egan, Nigel Kennedy, Danny Gottlieb, Leo Traversa, Terry Silverlight and many other world-class musicians.

Notable performance venues include the Saratoga Performing Arts Center, Troy Music Hall, Bardavon 1869 Opera House, Poughkeepsie Civic Center, Sagamore Hotel, and others.

Website :- www.mattfinley.com