Matt Thompson

Matt Thompson started formal percussion training at the age of nine, although he has been tapping and hitting things for as long as he can remember. With a classical violinist for a mom and a jazz trumpeter/pianist as a dad, he was exposed to a wide variety of music from an early age. Two pivotal concerts solidified his desire to become a drummer. The first was Chick Corea with Roy Haynes on drums, the second was Rush on their Signals tour in 1982. In 1988 Matt won a scholarship to Berklee College of Music but instead chose to tour and perform throughout the late '80s and early '90s. His travels brought him to Dallas, TX where he discovered Ed Soph, Keith Carlock, Dan Wojciechowski and the University of North TX jazz program. He attended from 1996 - 2000, earning a Jazz Studies degree. At UNT Matt studied with Ed Soph, Bob Schietroma, Ron Fink, Henry Okstel, Mike Drake, Srini Poovalar and others, learning drumset, classical percussion, Indian, African and a multitude of Afro-Cuban styles.