Bassoonist Matt Thornton hails from the small town of The Colony, TX, a small town just north of Dallas. He was exposed to music in his early childhood through his parents' guitar playing, and singing. His bassoon-ing days started in 6th grade as a member of Kathy Johnson's Beginner Band at Griffin Middle School.

Things took off from there. Throughout middle school and high school Matt won various solo and audition competition awards including being placed, by competitive audition, in the Texas Music Educators Association All State Ensembles three times while in high school.

Aside from the school ensembles, Matt performed as a member of the Dallas Junior Symphony under the baton of Michael Coren, and later the Greater Dallas Youth Orchestra under the direction of Richard Giangiulio. In 1994, he was recruited to play with the Coppell Symphonic Band (now known as the Metropolitan Winds) under the baton of Randol Bass. During summer breaks from school, Matt kept up a busy performing schedule playing in various summer music festivals and band camps in Louisiana and Texas. The summer before his senior year of high school, Matt was the featured soloist at the West Texas Band Camp.

After high school, Matt attended Northwestern University in Evanston, IL where he studied music and engineering as a double major. While at Northwestern, Matt joined Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia, a men's music fraternity. In the fall following his graduation with a Bachelors of Music and a Bachelors of Computer Science, he moved from his Texas home to the Bay Area, and began work as a software engineer. In 2002, Matt started attending San Jose State University part-time in pursuit of a Masters degree in Computer Science.

Through out his career, Matt had the good fortune of performing with some very distinguished conductors. Richard Giangiulio (Conductor of the Greater Dallas Youth Orchestra), Dr. Gary Garner (Director of Bands, retired West Texas A&M University), Eugene Corporon (University of North Texas), the late John P. Paynter (Director of Bands, Northwestern University), and Victor Yampolsky (Director of Orchestras, Northwestern

University) each had a unique influence on him as a developing musician. One of the most influential teachers in his life was his private lesson teacher Sue Schrier-Bancroft.

Matt joined the San Jose Metropolitan band in September 2004. He enjoys the experience of rehearsing and performing with the band, and looks forward to the music making experience of Monday night rehearsals. In addition to music, Matt enjoys photography and baseball. During the summer months, you are likely to find Matt out at the ballpark with his camera. He is an avid fan of the San Jose Giants, the local minor league team baseball team.