Matt Ray

Matt Ray is an Obie Award-winning theater-maker, composer, pianist, singer, songwriter, arranger, and music director. His arrangements have been called “wizardly” (‘Time Out NY’) and “ingenious” (‘New York Times’), and his piano playing has been referred to as “classic, well-oiled swing” (‘New York Times’) and “to cry for” (Ebony). For his work on Taylor Mac’s show “A 24-Decade History of Popular Music,” he and Mac shared the 2017 Kennedy Prize for Drama Inspired by American History. He and Mac’s jazz-based theater piece “The Hang” opened to rave reviews in January 2022 and won Matt a 2023 Obie Award for Music Direction and Composition. The show also received four Drama Desk and two Drama League nominations, including a Drama Desk nomination for Matt Ray for Best Music. His show “Matt Ray Plays Hoagy Carmichael featuring Kat Edmonson” premiered at Lincoln Center’s “American Songbook” series in 2018. He has performed worldwide, including as a US Department of State Jazz Ambassador.