Peter Matz
| Peter Matz | |
|---|---|
| Birth name | Peter Matz |
| Born |
November 6, 1928 Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, U.S. |
| Died | August 9, 2002 (aged 73) Los Angeles |
| Genres | Popular music |
| Occupation(s) | Musician, composer, arranger, conductor |
| Instruments | Piano |
| Years active | 1954–1995 |
Peter Matz (November 6, 1928 – August 9, 2002) was an award-winning American musician, composer, arranger and conductor. His musical career in film, theater, television and studio recording spanned fifty years, and he worked with a number of prominent artists, including Marlene Dietrich, Noël Coward and Barbra Streisand. Matz won three Emmys and a Grammy Award, and is best known for his work on Streisand's early albums.
Peter Matz was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on November 6, 1928, to Louis N. Matz and Alice (née Krieger) Matz. He studied Chemical Engineering at the University of California, Los Angeles, but after playing woodwind in local dance bands to support himself, he soon realised that music was his real vocation.
After graduating Matz spent two years in Paris studying piano and music theory. In 1954, he returned to New York and acquired a job as a rehearsal pianist for Harold Arlen and Truman Capote's Broadway musical House of Flowers. Recognising Matz's talent, Arlen broadened his scope, and Matz arranged and conducted the music for several of the show's dance sequences. Later, Arlen commissioned Matz to write the vocal, dance music and orchestration arrangements for his musical, Jamaica. Impressed with Matz, Arlen began recommending him to others, including cabaret artist Marlene Dietrich.
In 1955, Dietrich recommended Matz to Noël Coward when the English playwright, actor and singer was scheduled to perform in Las Vegas, but without his accompanist Norman Hackforth who had been denied a US work permit. Coward was impressed with Matz and described him as "quick, intelligent and a fine pianist". Matz went on to work with Coward on his albums, television specials and his musical Sail Away. In 1962, Matz was Musical Director for Richard Rodgers's Broadway musical No Strings, for which he received a Tony nomination.
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