Matt Cooper
Matt Cooper is a Professor Emeritus of Music at Eastern Oregon University, where he taught piano, music theory and jazz studies, including directing the jazz band and the 45th Parallel Ensemble. He is the author of Duke Ellington as Pianist: A Study in Styles (College Music Society, 2013) and has been a keynote conference presenter in England, Amsterdam, and at Reed College (Portland Oregon). He has been interviewed about Ellington’s piano works on Dutch television channel VPRO.
As a jazz pianist, he has toured with the Woody Herman Orchestra and performed with Nancy King, Clark Terry, Eddie Harris, Les Elgart, the Nelson Riddle Orchestra, and scores of others. He was a bronze medalist in the 1988 Thelonious Monk International Piano Competition and Great American Jazz Piano Competition. He has released several full-length jazz recordings as well as a live classical piano four-hands album with Beth Tomassetti. Currently a dual resident of the Oregon and Ohio, he is in high demand as an accompanist to touring musicians such as Rob Scheps, Dmitri Matheny, John Stowell, Kathy Kosins and Greg Abate.
Dr. Cooper has performed concertos with Inland Northwest Musicians, Oregon East Symphony, the Grande Ronde Symphony, and Chamber Ensemble Gloria (Khabarovsk, Russia), and has done numerous solo and chamber recitals throughout the Northwest and beyond, including the Newport Coffee Concerts, Elsinore Theater (Salem), Battelle Auditorium (Richland, WA), Drake University (Des Moines, IA), Gustavus Adolphus College (Minnesota), Washington State University, and many other colleges and universities. He has recorded over a half dozen jazz and classical CDs, and has been a guest artist at festivals such as the San Juan College Jazz Festival (New Mexico), University of Wisconsin-Platteville Jazz Festival, Piano Duet Festival-by-the-Sea, and the International Festival of Creative Pianists. He is a Past President and Life Member of Oregon Music Teachers Association, and has adjudicated numerous festivals and competitions for OMTA, MTNA, and other music teaching organizations. He earned his Doctor of Musical Arts degree at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music and graduated summa cum laude in Piano Performance from the University of Oregon.
He plays with several local bands in the La Grande, Oregon area, serves as keyboardist for the Oregon East Symphony (Pendleton), teaches private lessons through Art Center East, and is currently Secretary of OMTA Blue Mountain District. He has several outdoor hobbies including cycling, Nordic skiing, hiking, backpacking and climbing.