Matthew M. Kiedrowski, Born May 27, 1986.
Matthew M. Kiedrowski's interest in music started at an early age. As a toddler, he loved to sit at the piano in the family living room and "plunk" on the keys. His mother always claimed that it was more than "plunking," saying it was almost pleasant to listen to. Kiedrowski began his study of Piano at age 6. He took his lessons very seriously and progressed quickly. As his skills progressed, so did his interest in composition.
By age 8, encouraged by piano teacher, Wendy J. Dembrowski, he wrote his first piano piece, a lullaby to his family dog, Maggie Mae. Over the next few years Kiedrowski wrote several piano pieces and performed them at piano recitals and gatherings for family and friends.
At age 14, Kiedrowski studied classical piano at the Wisconsin Conservatory of Music. He also studied classical voice as he had developed an interest in music theatre performance.
It was also at age 14 that Kiedrowski began playing jazz and was the only freshman in his high school's top jazz band. To keep up, he took jazz piano lessons at the Wisconsin Conservatory. It was through jazz improv that Kiedrowski really found he had an ability to create new music.
This new-found interest in improv, partnered with his interest in music theatre, led him to write his first musical at age 15. Kiedrowski was in the music room at his high school, playing a song he had just written for a friend. His high school drama teacher, Kevin Schwartz, overheard the music and suggested he write a musical. After two months of learning how to use Finale and writing music, Kiedrowski submitted his new work, Roses. This two-woman show was selected as a winner in his high school's written play festival. As a result, it premiered on December 6, 2002.
This experience gave Kiedrowski the confidence to start working towards a career in music composition. His high school choral department sought him out to write arrangements and transpositions. He also had four choral pieces commissioned by his high school and one choral piece commissioned by the Milwaukee Cream City Chorus for which he was the accompanist. In addition to his choral work, Kiedrowski kept writing music theatre songs to build his portfolio for college admissions.
At age 17, Kiedrowski decided he wanted to create a special project in composition. He was taking an AP course in European History and was extremely affected by life in Poland during World War II. Kiedrowski saw there was a lot of hatred for people of different religious and cultural backgrounds post 9/11 which paralleled a lot of attitudes that surfaced during World War II. So, Kiedrowski wrote a song cycle based on the spoken and sung words of children's journal entries during the Holocaust. The piece, named Rolnikas, was performed in Milwaukee during the spring of 2004. This song cycle showed how Kiedrowski had progressed as a composer and show writer since his first show premiered two years previously.
In the fall of 2004 Kiedrowski attended the Frost School of Music at the University of Miami in Coral Gables, Fl. He pursued a BM in Music composition and theory. Kiedrowski's focus switched from music theatre writing to legitimate orchestral and chamber writing.
At age 18, Kiedrowski was approached by Quantum Theatre Productions to work as an accompanist and music director. At Quantum, Kiedrowski worked on productions of Hair, The Wild Party (Lippa), and The Rocky Horror Picture Show.
As his studies progressed at UM, it came time for private lessons in composition. Kiedrowski put in a bid to study with the head of the department, Dr. Dennis Kam. Even though Dr. Kam catered to Graduate and Doctoral students, he accepted Kiedrowski. Kiedrowski's ability flourished under Dr. Kam whose expertise pushed Kiedrowski into new, modern, and exciting worlds of composition.
At the same time, Kiedrowski had become a popular vocal accompanist at the School of Music. His hours spent playing for lessons gave him invaluable knowledge of vocal coaching that has come to serve him as a music director. Kiedrowski also dabbled in film scoring and partnered with a UM Graduate student in the School of Communications scoring two of her short films.
Kiedrowski left UM with a strong desire to return to his musical theatre roots. He wanted to fuse what he had learned at UM with the genre of music theatre. This led him to do a full-scale collaborative project at Catawba College in Salisbury, NC. It was there that Kiedrowski wrote his third show, The Wild Party, based on the epic poem by Joseph Moncure March. Kiedrowski, who also music directed the show, took this 1920's tale of a vaudeville couple and set it in modern times and focused it on the idea of celebrity obsession. The show was so successful that a command performance was added to ensure everyone could see it due to high volumes of ticket sales.
Kiedrowski is currently working at Parkway Playhouse in Burnsville, NC, as a music director/sound designer/actor/accompanist for their summer season. He is excited about Fall 2008, when he plans to attend a major music theatre composition workshop in either New York or Chicago.
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