Who Is Matt?
(this is still a work in progress)
Matt O’Donnell is a man madly in love with music. His love of music reaches far enough that he has made it his primary task in life, using the electric bass as his voice. Already in progress of his 4th year at the prestigious Berklee College of Music (located in Boston, MA), Matt has met and played with an intensely large and diverse pool of musicians, including T.I., Dave Liebman (Miles Davis), Ryan Montbleau, Jim Stinnett, Rob Gourlay, Joe Beleznay (John Mayer), Mark Shilansky (New York Voices, Syncopation), Lenny Stallworth (Roy Hargrove, Brian McKnight, Maceo Parker), Jetro da Silva (Whitney Houston, Mariah Carey, Gladys Knight), Tom Arey (Akashic Record), and many others. He has been studying the bass with Jim Stinnett for the past 2 years, and making great strides of progress.
Away from his academia at Berklee, Matt also finds time to work with several groups in the Poconos (PA) area, which is his home. He also functions as an integral part of the music program at St. Matthew’s Roman Catholic Church in East Stroudsburg, PA, and can be found there whenever he is in PA.
Matt has also done extensive work in musical theatre, having played for his alma mater’s musicals from 2002 until the present (Fiddler On The Roof, Meet Me In St. Louis, South Pacific, The Boys From Syracuse, She Loves Me, Honk!), as well as the Shawnee Playhouse for the 2006 season (Grease, Godspell), and Centenary College’s productions in 2002 (The King & I, Charlotte’s Web, Little Shop of Horrors).
With all this work, Matt has still found time to record 2 EPs (2003’s “Constellations†and 2004’s “Bisectorâ€), as well as an LP combining those EPs and a few new songs (2004’s “I’ve Looked Into Your Eyes Beforeâ€), all of which are now out of print. Matt is currently looking to the future with his 2007 debut instrumental album, which will feature artists such as Tommy Arey, Everett Pendleton, Jim Stinnett, Allison Snee, Brian McNulty, Bill Berry, and others. The as-of-yet untitled album should be available as soon as September 2007.
