Dr. Matthew McConnell holds a B.A. degree in Music from Bennington College, a M.M. degree in Musical Composition with Distinction in Performance (and Academic Honors) from the New England Conservatory of Music, and has a Doctor of Musical Arts (D.M.A.) degree from the same institution. His instructors have included Stephen Siegel, Allen Shawn, John Heiss, and Hollywood composer Erik Lundborg (composition); Dr. Dwight Killam (organ); Daniel Pinkham (organ, harpsichord, and sacred music); Ann Cain, Jane Jenkins, and John Van Buskirk (piano); and Lee Hyla (orchestration). He is a member of ASCAP and the American Guild of Organists.
Dr. McConnell was a Teaching Fellow at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston from 2006 to 2008. He currently teaches composition, piano, organ, orchestration, keyboard harmony and music theory, and is a Schillinger Scholar, teaching The Schillinger System of Musical Composition. Dr. McConnell is also a professional Composer Mentor with Music-COMP (formerly the Vermont MIDI Project), and is the Minister of Music at All Saints Berkshires Episcopal Church of North Adams, MA. His dynamic compositional output includes symphonic works, sacred and secular choral pieces, concerti, incidental music for plays and events, chamber music, works for solo instruments, and songs cycles. He is particularly fond of his Concerto for Toy Piano and Orchestra that was premiered in Boston in 2004. His choral music publisher is E.C. Schirmer, and his digital music distributer is NewMusicShelf.com.