Matthew Thompson

Clinical Assistant Professor of Music

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Bio

Matthew Thompson – DMA (collaborative piano) joined the SMTD faculty in 2011 and was recently described by a former student as “giving one of the most wholesome, nerdy, epic-but-modest unicorn professor experiences you’ll ever find at U-M.”

As a collaborative pianist, Dr. Thompson has performed with operatic celebrities including Thomas Hampson, Golden Mask winner Vince Yi, and even musical theater gurus like Tony Award winner, Gavin Creel. He particularly values past performances with faculty colleague pedagogue-performers: Freda Herseth, Caitlin Lynch, Amanda Majeski, Stanford Olsen, Carmen Pelton, Rico Serbo, Martha Sheil, Daniel Washington, and Stephen West. For the Department of Voice & Opera, in addition to his vocal coaching work, he has taught classes about diction, art song, audition techniques, crossover repertoire, and was music director and conductor for the recent chamber opera performance of Die Zauberflöte. Thompson’s favorite work with singers is behind the scenes as a vocal coach; in this role he’s helped prepare singers for performances both locally and for the major stages of the world including La Scala, The Met, and The Bolshoi.

Equally comfortable collaborating with instrumentalists, Thompson has performed on the Ann Arbor Symphony Chamber Music Series, the Detroit Chamber Winds and Strings Series, and the Great Lakes Chamber Music Vignette Series. He regularly plays with SMTD instrumental faculty as well, including Matt Albert, Professor Emeritus Bill Campbell, Professor Emeritus Fritz Kaenzig, Nancy Ambrose King, Jeffrey Lyman, and Amy Porter.

A lifelong gamer, Dr. Thompson’s interests in game audio have become a major component of his work, particularly as they relate to pedagogy and piano performance. Thousands of students have taken his groundbreaking Video Game Music class at U-M. Thompson serves on the steering committee for the North American Conference on Video Game Music and has presented internationally as well, at Ludo2024. Since 2018, Dr. Thompson has co-chaired the academic ludomusicology/ sound studies track at GameSoundCon.

In 2022, Thompson published a database of Korean Art Song, koreanartsongresource.com, currently containing thousands of song entries. The same year, he organized and performed “K-ArtSong: a Korean Art Song Recital,” excerpts of which went viral in Korean news media accumulating more than 10 million views. A recent addition to the website are much needed Korean diction and masterclass materials, created when Dr. Thompson joined with U-M alum, Dr. Youngmin Kim, and Eastern Michigan University colleague, Dr. MeeAe Nam, for a Korean Lyric Diction Summit. Days later, Thompson traveled to Korea and performed with U-M student, Jack Morin, on a Korean reality show, KoreaInvitesU.

Active as a musician in the southeast Michigan community, Dr. Thompson is Artistic Director and Conductor for the Carolyn Mawby Chorale, based in Flint Michigan, which was recently featured in the Netflix original series, Flint Town.

Thompson received masters and doctoral degrees from the University of Michigan in collaborative piano, studying with his long time mentor, Martin Katz. Thompson’s summer training included prestigious young artist programs Song Fest, the Merola Opera Program, and Wolf Trap Opera. Summers are now typically spent researching, writing, and teaching music to students of all levels; most recently, at SMTD’s MPulse Vocal Arts Institute.