Matt Stonehouse
Tom Beattie
Matt Stonehouse is a Melbourne based musician, composer and instrument maker based in St Andrews, Victoria. Matt is Australia’s foremost percussionist of Arabic and Turkish styles of drumming and is featured on more than fifty albums of both local and international artists. In addition to percussion, Matt is a highly regarded guitarist, mandolin and mandocello player and uses these instruments when composing. This can be heard on his 2016 vinyl album release, ‘Rosie’s point of view.ʼ
His recording credits as percussionist are both impressive and extensive. Internationally notable artists he has performed/ recorded with are: The Ross Daly quartet (Crete), The Tea Party (Canada), Coleman Barks (USA). In Australia his credits include the ARIA nominated album ‘Empires‘ by Latitude 37, Bashka, Mista Savona, Alwan, Yair Dalal ,My friend the chocolate cake, Zulya and the children of the underground, Kozmik County and surf rock group, The Reefers.
Matt specialises in crafting steam-bent Middle Eastern frame drums and these are played by professional musicians around the world. Matt was an artist-in-studio at Montsalvat artists colony where he also taught students to craft their own drums. Currently Matt teaches the Shaker box making courses at MGFW, performs live with several ensembles/bands and crafts frame drums from his workshop/studio in St Andrews.