By Jennifer Howard
Grammy-nominated and Emmy award-winning Greenwich resident Rob Mathes has collaborated with some of the biggest names in the music industry including Sting, Elvis Costello, Bono, Bruce Springsteen, Tony Bennett, Aretha Franklin, Beck, Bettye LaVette, and so many more.. Every December he steps into the spotlight and takes center stage at his annual Rob Mathes Holiday Concert, held at The Performing Arts Center at Purchase College. This year’s concerts are Friday, December 20, and Saturday, December 21, at 8:00 p.m., and a matinee show at 3:00 p.m., Sunday, December 22, and support the nonprofit Food Rescue US – Fairfield County. Tickets are available through artscenter.org or VIP seating through Food Rescue US – Fairfield County at foodrescue.us/fairfield-county. There truly is no better way to ring in the holiday season than with Rob’s musical mastery.
From being called “my lion” by Sting, to “tenore” (tenor in Italian) by Pavarotti, and “my rock & roller” by Bernstein, Rob Mathes is a master arranger, producer, orchestrator and sought-after music director. This past year, Rob worked on a series of symphonic concerts with Sting with the Philadelphia Orchestra, The San Francisco Symphony and the Florida Orchestra. He produced Melissa Errico’s “Sondheim in the City” album, which was released to rave reviews. He also spent the year working with Bruce Springsteen and Elvis Costello on projects, with Elvis’ new show “Face in the Crowd” opening in London. He also musically directed both the MusiCares Artist of the Year event honoring BON JOVI, with performances by Bruce Springsteen, Melissa Etheridge, Jelly Roll, Shania Twain, Lainey Wilson, Larkin Poe, Jason Isbell, Train and Brandy Clark, and the Songwriters Hall of Fame Awards, which honored Steely Dan, Timbaland and R.E.M., who played together for the first time in years. Rob also teaches songwriting at BerkleeNYC and has been a guest performer at Christ Church this fall on the last Sunday of every month for a program called “Joyful Noise.”
To help get you in the holiday spirit and excited for his upcoming Holiday Concert, here’s some questions posed to Rob about his musical life and the Holiday Concerts.
Was there a particular artist or moment that sparked your passion for music?
I don’t remember a time in my life when music wasn’t the guiding force. My earliest memories are The Turtles’ song “Happy Together” (with its keening harmonies constantly shifting between major and minor, which became an obsession in my life, hence Mahler’s 6th and 9th Symphonies). My entire family was made up of musicians who played in different genres. Music was everywhere and everything to me.
Can you share some of the earliest musical influences in your life?
The Beatles, as with most people, changed everything, as did Bob Dylan and Joni Mitchell, but the reason I conduct, arrange, and work with so many orchestras is Bernstein and Mahler; Leonard Bernstein conducting the symphonies of Gustav Mahler. When Bernstein was conducting his final cycle of all the Mahler Symphonies, I was 20 years old. I went to as many of those concerts as possible and it made me want to know how to write counterpoint and orchestration and to delve deeper into musical language. It changed everything.
Your work spans so many genres — what draws you to such a wide array of musical styles?
As I said earlier, it was my reality. My mom taught piano when I was in the womb; Bach, Mozart, Beethoven and Chopin (in that order.) My Dad loved Pop and Folk music and played first clarinet in the Greenwich Symphony, so the Brahms and Mozart Clarinet Quintets lived alongside his Bob Dylan and Kingston Trio records. My Uncle Arthur Kelley, a great Jazz trombonist who taught math at Greenwich High School, played Chet Baker and Gerry Mulligan, and my aunt played first bassoon with both the New York City Opera and the Greenwich Symphony. This was normal to me. Duke meets The Beatles. Miles meets Joni Mitchell. Weather Report meets Radiohead. None of that seemed odd. I was an iPod kid before an iPod existed.
You’ve worked with iconic artists like Sting, Bruce Springsteen, Elvis Costello, Vanessa Williams, Pavarotti and Renée Fleming. What are some of your most memorable projects with them or others that have been fun for you to work on?
I have had so many remarkable experiences with those people. Writing a version of “You’ll Never Walk Alone” for Renée Fleming to sing with Leonard Slatkin and the National Symphony for the 9/11/02 Concert for America, an arrangement she would revisit at the Obama Inauguration; Sting’s “The Last Ship” record and show, which contain some of his most miraculous songs, and on which I served as his right hand; Bruce Springsteen’s “Western Stars” record and film, which I musically directed and wrote arrangements for, working very closely with Bruce and his incredible producer Ron Aniello; hours and hours spent by Elvis Costello’s side as he developed his show “A Face In The Crowd,” and almost a decade of “Pavarotti and Friends” concerts. These were all experiences of a lifetime. To have had one of them would have been special enough, to have had them all is ridiculous. Vanessa Williams’ belief in my ability as an orchestrator, conductor, and songwriter very early on led to so many things. My arrangement for her of the Christmas Carol, “I Wonder as I Wander,” was what convinced legendary producer Phil Ramone to have me do the “Pavarotti and Friends” orchestrations.
You often record at Abbey Road in London. Is there a reason why?
To my ears, it is the most beautiful-sounding studio on the planet. Studio A is where they recorded “Lord of The Rings,” “Star Wars,” and “A Day in The Life,” the last song on “Sgt. Pepper’s.” Studio B is where The Beatles recorded almost everything they ever did. It is the greatest recording studio in the world and to have spent weeks there working over the past two decades is another blessing I won’t soon forget. It is the Valhalla of all studios!
What inspired you to start your annual Holiday Concert? Can you tell us a bit about how it all began?
When I began this concert, it was held at the Second Congregational Church in Greenwich and the material came from a series of song cycles I had written on themes of the Nativity for local churches; I always have had an abiding love for that story, that baby in the manger, the kings, the star. The songs were influenced by my heroes stylistically (Joni Mitchell, Sting, Bob Dylan, and Stevie Wonder) but they were tailored to a theme. The whole event had a certain “Midnight Mass meets The Bitter End” atmosphere. In some ways, it still retains that, with my friends and family forming a choir around me. The late Rabbi Mark Golub started coming every year and I started writing music dedicated to him around the story of Hanukkah. It truly became an ecumenical Holiday Concert we put on every year at The Performing Arts Center right on the Greenwich, Connecticut, and New York border.
What does this concert mean to you personally, and what do you hope the audience takes away from it each year?
For three concerts a year, I get to play around in a musical sandbox with some of the best musicians around. It is the high point of the year for me, and I think the level of the music making and the joy we all feel at getting to play for such an enthusiastic audience is why people keep coming back.
Tell us about your band that performs at your annual Holiday Concert. There are some musical luminaries in it that come back and perform with you every year. Have you worked with them on other projects previously as well?
The individuals performing on that stage every year are among the best musicians and singers on the planet. Will Lee on bass, Gunnar Olsen on drums, Billy Masters on guitar, Rick Knutsen on keyboards, a horn section full of people who have played with everybody from Aretha Franklin and The Rolling Stones to Paul Simon and Sting. Add to that Vaneese Thomas and D-Train, two RnB NYC singing legends, my longtime friend Ian Cron, and the choir, plus the special addition of a string quartet this year with concertmasters Jonathan Dinklage and Erin Benim Mayland on violin, Yuko Naito-Gotay on viola and Adele Stein on cello, and you have quite a powder keg of musical joy!
Your Holiday Concert always supports a local nonprofit. Why is giving back so important to you and tell us about the nonprofit Food Rescue US – Fairfield County that your concert has supported these past four years?
Since Food Rescue Us’ founding in 2011, they have served 168 million plus meals to those in need, kept 200 million pounds of food waste away from landfills, and saved approximately 550,000 tons of Co2 emissions. What’s not to like? So many people support this charity locally. It is a homegrown—and now national charity—making a real difference!
The Rob Mathes Holiday Concert
Friday, December 20, 8 PM
Saturday, December 21, 8 PM
Sunday, December 22, 3 PM
The Performing Arts Center at Purchase College
735 Anderson Hill Road
Purchase, NY 10577
Tickets: https://www.artscenter.org/events/the-rob-mathes-holiday-concert/
VIP Tickets through Food Rescue US (seating in first 2 rows + backstage access after the show): https://foodrescue.us/fairfield-county/
