Matthew J Russell is a professional pianist, who has been teaching, studying and performing music for almost two decades.
As at teacher he has been an instructor at The Crane School of Music at SUNY Potsdam, Western Michigan University, and Lake Michigan College. He also spent several years teaching elementary age students through the Gilmore International Keyboard Festival at both Woods Lake and Spring Valley Elementary School, while teaching there he also wrote and compiled 3 years of curriculum for the program. All the while he also maintained a private teaching studio where he taught students from age 5-60. For more information on Matthew's teaching and to see his resume visit the teaching page on this website click here.
As a pianist, he has a wide range of experience. Although his training up to his masters degree was in classical piano, after several years working on a cruise ship he has performed in a wide variety styles. His performing experiences range from being church organist to solo and duo recitals, to cocktail piano. He has also performed with all sorts of ensembles, from big bands to small jazz groups and from orchestras to rock bands. For more information on Matthew's performing background and to see his resume and youtube videos visit the performance page or click here.
As a performer Matthew also has worked in Musical Theatre. He has played over a dozen shows, and has been music director/conductor/pianist on several of them. Along with theatrical productions he has performed in over 50 different cabaret shows. He has shared the stage with aritists like Melissa Manchester, Dale Kristien, Elliot Finkel, Jim Curry and many others. He also has performed in numerous recitals as a vocal accompanist/chamber musician.
For the past several years he has been traveling the world working on cruise ships as Music Director/Bandleader/Pianist in the show band. During this time he has been able to visit all 7 continents, and has performed with over 50 headline acts. He still remembers how difficult it was to find work as a cruise ship musician, and so he created www.cruisemusicianinsider.com a website dedicated to helping other musicians find work on cruise ships. He has also published an ebook available for kindle entitled Careers in Music: How to Get a Job as a Cruise Ship Musician available at www.amazon.com.
Throughout his life Matthew has been constantly studying how to become a master musician and performer. He has read through many books and courses, on topics such as music performance, body language, social dynamics, sports psychology, hypnosis, neurolinguistic programming, as well as neuroscience, and has finally started to combine all of them to help produce The Virtuoso Performer.
The Virtuoso Performer is a coaching business that helps people to Perform at a virtuoso level. It covers areas such as how to practice to master the material, the appropriate mindsets for optimal performance, the secrets to building stage presence, and how to create positive performance habits as well as getting over stage fright, and then building the perfect performance. To visit The Virtuoso Performer visit http://thevirtuosoperformer.com
