Hailed as “a terrific aural imagination” by The American Prize, Matt Ridge is a Los Angeles-based composer, arranger, and orchestrator who aims to embrace the genuine, messy range of human expression. His work has garnered recognition as a winner of The American Prize (Ernst Bacon Memorial Award), as a finalist in two categories of The American Prize in Composition, and as a Judge’s Pick in the Percussive Arts Society Composition Contest.

Matt has worked for high-profile clients including John Williams, Alan Silvestri, James Newton Howard, Seth MacFarlane, and Apple as a music preparation specialist in the film and TV industry. He is an orchestrator, editor, copyist, and transcriptionist at JoAnn Kane Music Service, with select credits including “Avatar: The Way of Water”, “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny”, and “Only Murders in the Building”.

Influenced by a diverse performance background, Matt has run the gamut from singing contemporary vocal music with Indiana University’s acclaimed NOTUS to years of world class DCI/WGI membership as a percussionist. Recently, he performed with pop band MUNA to a sold out Greek Theatre crowd in Los Angeles as a choir member.

Matt maintains an active presence within the marching arts community as an award-winning arranger, most notably earning four consecutive WGI World Championships (PSCW) with Fishers High School (IN). His performance experience in this realm spans four seasons with The Cavaliers Drum and Bugle Corps and two with Music City Mystique, serving a prominent leadership role in both ensembles.

A native of Indiana, Matt holds a degree in composition from the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music with high distinction. His teachers at IU included Tansy Davies, David Dzubay, Sven-David Sandström, Jeffrey Hass, Claude Baker, Don Freund, John Gibson, Aaron Travers, and Larry Groupé. He previously worked as an engraver and digital marketing specialist at Tapspace Publications, LLC, a percussion-oriented music publisher.

Matt is a member of ASCAP, PAS, and SEAMUS. Outside of music, Matt enjoys a self-taught background and passion in video creation and takes interest in film, video games, science, and the endless void of Internet humor.

Updated November 2023