Matt Rose is the definition of a multi-hyphenate. The recent college grad is a composer, producer, and music supervisor for all types of media including theater, film, tv, and advertising — “a one-stop shop for everything,” he says.
When he started majoring in Music Business, Matt saw the business and artistic aspects of the program as two separate things. “And it wasn’t really until a year, a year and a half, later that I realized those two things don’t have to be mutually exclusive,” he shares. Now, he thrives on the overlap — where the logistics can help the creative and vice versa.
But music itself has always been the focal point. Matt says the thesis for all of his work is “making music something that is consciously thought of, instead of just passively absorbed.” His most recent project, The Oldenburg Suite, shows his interest in using music to help tell a narrative by giving historical and cultural context, and combining multiple influences and genres. “That’s exactly how I would describe all of the work that I do. It’s very heavily rooted in pastiche,” Matt says.
“I don’t think there’s ever a point in art where you’re done.”
Matt sees his work, and music in general, as ever-evolving. His biggest goal for the future is to bring musical theater and musical content to more people in new ways, “where it’s something that is available in the form of storytelling, like a concept album or a podcast, and it’s accessible to anybody.” This kind of innovation is what makes him optimistic about the future: “I think that there’s some new formats that we’re going to get to explore in the next six months that I’m excited to dive into.”