Rob Mathes Music

ROB MATHES—-BIO

Rob Mathes is an arranger/composer, nationally renowned music producer/director and a performer. Rob has produced recordings by Rod Stewart, Bettye Lavette, Carly Simon, Vanessa Williams, and the young bands Panic at The Disco and The Young Veins. In the past year he has produced two records for Sting; 2010’s Symphonicities, and Live In Berlin, and arranged much of the music for Sting’s Symphonicity Tour with the Royal Philharmonic, serving as that tour’s Music Producer/Director. He also produced half of the new Matthew Morrison record, the star of the TV show Glee, including duets with Sir Elton John and Gwyneth Paltrow.

Recently Rob also produced a remake of the track of Walk on The Wild Side for the legendary Lou Reed.

Rob was nominated for an Emmy for musically directing the Kennedy Center Honors for CBS. He is the longtime Music Director for The Songwriter’s Hall Of Fame and worked with Quincy Jones and Phil Ramone arranging and leading the concert for the World Economic Forum. He arranged and musically directed the We Are One-Obama Inauguration Concert at the Lincoln Memorial for HBO featuring Stevie Wonder, Bruce Springsteen, U2, Beyonce and others.

As an arranger Rob has orchestrated music for a number of stars all over the stylistic spectrum from Elton John, Tony Bennett, Mary J Blige, and Tim McGraw to Lou Reed, Sade, Eric Clapton, Jay Z, nevershoutnever, Butch Walker, Avril Lavigne, Fall Out Boy, Beck, Aretha Franklin, Hall and Oates, and Mariah Carey, also working with Classical artists such as Renee Fleming, Bryn Terfel, and Yo Yo Ma. Sting recorded Mathes’ arrangement of the classic American song “In The Wee Small Hours Of The Morning” with Trumpeter Chris Botti. He arranged “You’ll Never Walk Alone” for The Three Tenors-Live In Paris CD and was the arranger and guitarist on the last six Pavarotti and Friends concerts held each year in Modena, Italy, Luciano Pavarotti’s hometown. 

As a composer, Grammy winning conductor Leonard Slatkin commissioned Rob to write a piece based on Gershwin themes called “Gershwiniana” for The Los Angeles Philharmonic. His “A Standing Ground: Concertino For Orchestra” was just premiered by The Nashville Symphony conducted by Slatkin in February. He is currently working on a piece for The Britten Sinfonia, one of London’s finest contemporary ensembles.

As a songwriter, his songs have been recorded by Bonnie Raitt, Oleta Adams, Aaron Neville, The Rascal Flatts, Wynonna Judd and Vanessa Williams among many others. 

Rob was the guest artist for The Boston Pops National Christmas Tour in 2000 and PBS televised his own Christmas special the same year featuring Michael McDonald, Vanessa Williams, David Sanborn, and renowned actor Ossie Davis.  His record “Evening Train” came out in 2002, and he has recently released a new double CD “Orchestral Songs” recorded at London’s famed Abbey Road Studios featuring songs for Orchestra and Voice.

In collaboration with Sade’s Stuart Matthewman, Rob has orchestrated and co-composed three film scores for directors Mark and Michael Polish: Twin Falls Idaho, Northfork and, most notably, The Astronaut Farmer featuring Billy Bob Thornton and Bruce Willis.