Matt Skelton is a drummer equally at home in modern and vintage Jazz styles enjoying a diverse musical career that has already spanned three decades. He has accompanied many leading Jazz luminaries such as Harry ‘Sweets’ Edison, Conte Candoli, Bucky Pizzarelli, John Pizzarelli, Warren Vache, Scott Hamilton, John Hendricks, Kurt Elling, Curtis Stigers, Gregory Porter and most recently Georgie Fame. He has recorded and appeared with singers such as Marion Montgomery, Dame Cleo Laine, Claire Martin and Jessye Norman. In 2015 he toured in the USA and recorded with Seth Macfarlane. He was Sir Richard Rodney Bennett’s drummer of choice and for eight years toured and recorded as a member of Stacey Kent’s group, including her Grammy-nominated 2007 release Breakfast on the Morning Tram on BlueNote.

Matt Skelton is a founding member of the Grammy nominated John Wilson Orchestra. He regularly appears with the BBC Big Band and often with the BBC Concert, BBC Philharmonic and BBC Symphony orchestras including the Last Night of the Proms 2017. Traveling as John Wilson’s drummer he has most recently performed with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Stockholm Philharmonic, Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra and the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra. In 2018 Matt toured internationally with Sir Simon Rattle with the London Symphony Orchestra for various Leonard Bernstein centenary concerts, including performances of Bernstein’s second Symphony, The Age of Anxiety and a concert version of Wonderful Town.

West End musical theatre credits include the 2015 Savoy revival of Gypsy and the Broadway transfer of An American in Paris at the Dominion theatre 2017. Recent film soundtracks include Motherless Brooklyn, Catch 22, Four Kids and It and Blithe Spirit.

At Guildhall School, Matt teaches for both the Jazz and Wind, Brass & Percussion departments