A Musical Life
For more than five decades, the piano has been a constant through the many places and chapters of Matthew Cook’s life.
Matthew Cook is a pianist and composer whose solo piano music has been shaped by a lifetime at the instrument and by the landscapes in which he has lived.
From the Washington coast to the slopes of Mauna Loa in Hawaii and the ancient redwood forests of Northern California, place and the natural world have remained recurring influences in his music.
A Life at the Piano
Matthew began playing piano as a child and has spent much of his life performing, composing and exploring music at the instrument.
In the early 1970s, while living in Aberdeen, Washington, Matthew wrote the piece that would eventually become Passage. Originally conceived as a piano and vocal love song, it later evolved into the solo piano composition known to listeners today.
A few years later, while living high on the slopes of Mauna Loa in Hawaii, Matthew spent long hours at the piano overlooking the Pacific. That period of intensive playing helped shape the approach to solo piano that would remain at the center of his music.
Music Among the Redwoods
Northern California eventually became home. Matthew has lived in Humboldt County for more than forty years, surrounded by the ancient redwood forests, rugged coastline and changing weather of California’s far north coast.
Those landscapes became especially important in his original music. Redwood Reflections, recorded in 1999, grew from his experience of the redwood forest—morning fog, quiet groves, rushing water, mountainsides and the immense world above the canopy.
The album also gave Passage its first recorded home. A piece that had begun decades earlier as a love song had become part of a larger musical journey through the natural world.
Composition and Interpretation
Matthew’s recordings have followed two parallel paths: original compositions and solo piano interpretations of music by other songwriters.
His original recordings include Redwood Reflections, Relaxing Piano Music, Portraits and Landscapes and Stranger Places. Across these recordings, melody, improvisation and a strong sense of place remain recurring elements.
Alongside his original work, Matthew has continued to return to songs that have stayed with him through the years. His solo piano interpretations range from American standards and classic popular music to songs by contemporary songwriters, each shaped by his own musical voice.
The Music Continues
More than five decades after writing some of his earliest compositions, Matthew continues to play, record and explore new music at the piano.
Travel remains part of that musical life. Whether at home in Northern California or spending time elsewhere, the piano continues to be a familiar place—a way of returning to music wherever he happens to be.
New recordings continue to add to a body of solo piano music that now spans original compositions, familiar songs and more than five decades at the piano.
Listen to Matthew Cook
Explore more than five decades of original compositions and solo piano interpretations.
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