Matthew Joy

Matthew Joy
MA Middle Tennessee State University

Adjunct Professor

Areas of Expertise:
Electric Guitar

Email: joym@fau.edu
Office Phone: 561.297.3820
Office: AL 115

matt joyMatthew Joy holds a Bachelor of Music degree in Jazz Composition from Berklee College of Music and a Master of Arts degree, with specialization in Jazz Studies, from Middle Tennessee State University. He has over ten years experience teaching guitar, theory and composition to students of all levels, ages and various playing styles. He studied composition, solo guitar playing and right hand techniques privately with Sandy Prager as well as advanced Jazz guitar techniques with world-renowned guitarists Jon Damian and Mick Goodrick. Moreover, he studied jazz big band and orchestral arranging with some of the greatest educators of the craft such as Ted Pease, Dick Lowell, Scott Free and Jamey Simmons.

Matthew has been an active guitarist and composer for over 15 years. As a solo guitarist Matthew has been actively composing and performing on nylon and 12-string guitar for many years and produced two self-released solo albums, Omnifarious and Pulse. He has opened for solo guitarists Preston Reed and Michael Gulezian during their Boston and New York tours. He later formed the group Orchestra of This, an eclectic acoustic quartet (nylon and 12-string guitars, woodwinds, percussion and double bass) fusing together different music styles including Contemporary Jazz, Brazilian, World, Folk and Classical. The group featured Matthew’s original compositions and performed steadily in Boston. In addition he played lead guitar with the Boston-based Soul/Roots/R&B singer Jesse Dee. He performed regularly with the group for four years playing on tours and festivals in the U.S., Canada, the U.K. and Europe and shared the stage with many great artists such as Etta James and Los Lobos. Matthew performed on Jesse’s two full-length recordings, Bittersweet Batch, released on Munich Records in 2008 and On My Mind, In My Heart, released on Alligator Records in 2013; as well as the single “Underneath The Christmas Tree” released in 2009 on A Basement 247 Christmas Compilation. Pianist Elan Mehler has performed many of Matthew’s compositions on recordings The After Suite, released on Brownswood Records in 2009, the title track for Elan Mehler Trio: Being There, Here, released on Challenge Records in 2013, and Early Sunday Morning, released on Challenge Records in 2014. Some of Matt’s televised performances include the Rock Candy Show and Fox News (Boston, MA), Live at Vrije Geluiden (Netherlands),Rockplast (Germany), and radio performances on The BBC (Great Britain), RTV Rijnmond (Netherlands) and WERS (Boston MA).

Matthew lived in Nashville, TN during 2009-2014 where he received his Master of Arts degree from MTSU. During that period he did session work, arranging and was the lead guitarist for, singer-songwriter Nissi Lee, and the fusion group Rosetta Groove. He also had a two-year residency at Kalamatas performing with renowned musicians such as, Emmy-award winning percussionist, Kyle Jones (Ricky Skaggs, Janet Jackson, Phil Keaggy) and bassist, Byron House (Emmylou Harris, Robert Plant, Phil Keaggy). Moreover, Matthew was on the faculty at Tennessee State University 2013-2014.

In the fall of 2014, Matthew picked up and moved with his wife and two children to south Florida to be closer to family. Here, he has performed and recorded with many of the local talent South Florida has to offer. On top of keeping a robust private teaching and performance schedule, Matthew is an adjunct professor of music at Florida Atlantic University teaching electric guitar, commercial music and jazz guitar ensembles. He also works as a freelance editor and composer/arranger for some of the FJH Company's guitar pedagogy selections.