At the Boston Music Project, we are proud to have an exceptional team with a diverse background of teaching and performance experiences. When our Teaching Artists are not teaching music lessons, they are pursuing their own professional careers as active performers, composers, music producers, dancers, and the list goes on.
Matthew Henegan joined the team as Boston Music Project’s Arts Administration intern in October, and is being spotlighted today.
Matt is a cellist and cello teacher currently pursuing his Bachelor of Music degree in Cello Performance from The Boston Conservatory at Berklee, studying with Andrew Mark. He performs as a freelance cellist in a variety of Boston ensembles, and takes on various conducting and recording projects, such as working with composers to premiere works for chamber ensembles and chamber orchestras. A very passionate and dedicated teacher, he maintains his own private cello studio and teaches remotely for the In Tune Music School in Maplewood, NJ.
From an early age, Matt was introduced to classical music through going to symphony concerts with his parents, and listening to the albums his father would put on in the house. Matt’s earliest memory of music was hearing a Beethoven symphony on the radio at age three, and trying to conduct it best he could. Five years later, Matt’s uncle, a professional pianist who took up playing cello later in life, passed away, and willed Matt his cello.
“As luck would have it, a professional cello teacher had just moved in down the street, and my parents thought it would be a good idea for me to start taking lessons with him. The rest is history.”
Matt speaks about how he was able to continue performing safely despite concerns over the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Like many people, I felt a little lost in March after the shutdown. Figuring out how to stay active as a performer and engage the community was a daunting task. I decided to start a free outdoor concert series with my neighbor, who is also a cellist. We started out by gaging interest, taking into account safety concerns, and deciding on appropriate music to play. By the end, we had expanded our repertoire from classical cello duets to arrangements of pop and rock songs; we marketed the performances within the community with respect to COVID-19 guidelines, keeping the audiences small and intimate; and we created innovative programs that were design to lift the spirits of all of us affected by the pandemic. Overall, they were a huge success, and one of the highlights of an otherwise unusual and unpredictable year.”
Matt has some interesting performance projects coming up, such as a solo cello piece he commissioned as part of Boston Conservatory’s Fall 2020 Cello Project, and continues to teach and study in Boston.
To learn more about Matt, we invite you to read his full biography on our Teaching Artists page.