From the time he was 3-years-old, it was apparent to those around him that Matthew Greene had a gift for listening to music and then playing it back on the piano with seamless ease.
“I remember getting a toy piano as a gift when I was three and it was at that moment my family realized I had a talent for music,” said the Massapequa High School senior.
This fall, Greene will attend the University of Delaware on an $80,000 scholarship to study music composition. He aspires to be the next John Williams, the composer of famous film scores from Star Wars, ET, Jaws and Indiana Jones, to name a few. Judging by the awards he has won in the musical composition category of the National PTA Reflections Contest, he is on his way to do just that.
Over the past four years, Greene has won top honors in the Reflections contest. As a freshman and sophomore, he was one of only three Award of Excellence winners for his compositions in his division and age category. As a sophomore, he was invited to Washington D.C. to attend a ribbon-cutting ceremony at the Department of Education, along with the other winners in celebration of this accomplishment, a highlight of his high school career. This year, Greene received the National Merit Award for his musical composition entry, beating out 30,000 contestants and placing among nine top finalists that were chosen for his division and age category. During the award ceremony, he was surprised to hear his composition playing as he walked into the venue.
“It was a surreal moment. It is really nice to have this recognition,” said Greene. “Because of the Reflections program and the validation I received, I am now studying musical composition in college and embarking on a career that I love to do.”
Greene began taking piano lessons at the age of 5 and started composing regularly by the time he was 10. He has created hundreds of pieces, but singling out his favorite is hard.
“I love them all for different reasons,” he said.
In his sophomore year, the aspiring composer arranged a march for the symphonic band to perform and in his junior year, he created an original composition for the orchestra to play.
“I was really pleased with the feedback from my peers,” said Greene. “They loved it and that just fueled my passion for writing music.”
Greene has perfect pitch and plays a variety of instruments in addition to the piano, including the oboe, guitar, drums, xylophone and ukulele. He sings with the Crooners, a selective male chorus and has been a member of jazz band since elementary school. Since sophomore year, he has played piano for the Poparazzi Orchestra Ensemble and the drums for the Percussion Ensemble.
Also a scholar, Greene has received perfect scores for piano from New York State School Music Association (NYSSMA) as a freshman, sophomore and junior; and was named an All-County musician twice and was once an alternate All-State musician. He played piano in the pit orchestra for the high school musicals My Fair Lady and Cinderella. He took music theory classes and music history for college credit.
Outside of school, Greene plays piano for a theater group, with a folk band every week at the 5 p.m. mass at Maria Regina Roman Catholic Church and for the Massapequa Chapter of Piano for Patients where volunteers play piano for patients in nursing homes. For his efforts, Greene received a $1,000 scholarship from the organization.
The senior credits his piano teacher for the past 12 years, Nancy Deutsch, and high school music teachers Ilena Dempsey, Andrew Dwork, Nicole Greene, Marjorie Spagnoulo and Mark Stempel for helping him realize his goals as a musician.
“Matthew Greene is one of those rare students who is as dedicated to his art as he is talented. This young man has shown a great innate talent,” said Stempel. “Matt works extremely hard to achieve a high standard of performance. He has also demonstrated a creative talent in composition. Matt is one of those students who is such a major part of our entire music department. All the music teachers rely on his talents and hard work ethic to help us with our ensembles and concerts.”
