I am a collaborator who values the art of storytelling through music. The technical precision required in musical performance is accomplished in the service of communicating a story with the audience and fellow performers. 

Matthew Stern joined the Conservatory faculty in 2016 and is an instructor of theater. Stern teaches sophomore musical theater, graduate styles and analysis, and vocal repertoire for seniors and graduate students in the Theater Division.

He has music-directed productions for several professional theater organizations, including Huntington Theatre Company, SpeakEasy Stage Company, New Repertory Theatre, Stoneham Theatre, Wheelock Family Theatre, Berkshire Theatre Festival, Fiddlehead Theatre Company, and Hanover Theatre, as well as universities, schools, and community organizations. His work has been recognized with a number of awards, including an Elliot Norton Award, DASH Award, and BroadwayWorld Boston Award. He holds an M.F.A. in theater studies with a concentration in musical theater from Boston University and a B.A. in vocal performance from Brandeis University.

In addition to teaching at Boston Conservatory, Stern serves as a lecturer in music theater at Boston University (BU), teaching undergraduate courses and acting as an accompanist and coach. He has also been the music director for most of BU's mainstage musical theater productions since 2010. Furthermore, he has spent several years as the head of music directors at French Woods Festival in Hancock, New York, where he has worked with thousands of performers.

Stern has trained as a vocalist, a vocal coach, a pianist, and a conductor with accomplished musicians in the Boston area such as Matthew Larson, William Lumpkin, James Olesen, Pamela Wolfe, Ann Howard Jones, Scott Allen Jarrett, Daniel Stepner, Neil Hampton, and Lawrence Wolfe. In 2016, Stern worked with Andrew Lippa to develop a revised version of Big Fish at SpeakEasy Stage Company. In fall 2017, he music-directed the critically acclaimed and award-winning American premiere of Maria Friedman’s London production of Merrily We Roll Along at Huntington Theatre Company, starring Mark Umbers, Damian Humbley, and Eden Espinosa. He has given master classes, performances, and workshops for Stephen Schwartz, Betty Buckley, Rita Gardner, Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, Natalie Weiss, Seth Rudetsky, Andrea Burns, Mandy Gonzalez, Sheldon Harnick, Jonathan Tartaglia, Terrence McNally, David Stone, and Sheri Sanders.

Professional Awards and Recognitions

• Best Musical Director, The Scottsboro Boys at SpeakEasy Stage Company (IRNE Awards, 2017)
• Best Musical Production, The Scottsboro Boys at SpeakEasy Stage Company (Elliot Norton Awards, 2017)
• Best Musical Production, Hairspray at Wheelock Family Theatre (Elliot Norton Awards, 2017)

Recent Engagements

• Merrily We Roll Along (Huntington Theatre Company, 2017)—Music director
• The Bridges of Madison County (Speakeasy Stage Company, 2016)—Music director
• Mame (Greater Boston Stage Company, 2016)—Music director
• The Scottsboro Boys (Speakeasy Stage Company, 2016)—Music director
• Violet (SpeakEasy Stage Company, 2016)—Music director
• Assassins (New Repertory Theatre, 2014)—Music director