Matthew Pray

Matthew Pray

Music Director / Trumpet

Matthew Pray is the Music Director for the Adirondack Jazz Orchestra. Since 2005, Pray has been the instrumental music director at Moriah Central School. He conducts two elementary bands, a High School Concert Band, and Jazz Ensemble. He also teaches 7th grade General Music.  He has also spent every summer since 2002 as an Employee at AuSable Chasm.

Pray graduated from Schenectady County Community College in 2002 and from the Crane School of Music at SUNY Potsdam in 2004. During his last year at Crane he was performing with the Symphonic Band, Jazz Ensemble, Jazz Band and a Jazz Combo. At the same time he was looking toward the future and wanted to perform regularly near his home town of Keeseville.

Upon returning to his home town, Pray briefly was subbing at Peru Central School , and working at “Border’s Books and Music” full time. At the same time he started performing with the SUNY Plattsburgh Jazz Ensemble. He has also performed in a variety of local musicals, and has returned to his High School, AuSable Valley Central School to perform with their Jazz Ensemble in a few fund raising events.

After encouragement from family, friends, and college professors he finally decided to create a big band made of local music educators and professional musicians. Within an hour of sending out emails to mostly people he had never met, he had a band!

In the summer of 2004 the band had a few rehearsals and put together a first performance. Getting inspiration from the Big Band Era giants such as Glenn Miller and Count Basie as well as other big bands in Central New York, the name “Adirondack Jazz Orchestra” was given to his group.

Pray is also a freelance trumpet player and enjoys performing for a wide variety of different events. He has performed as a trumpet soloist in many churches during holiday seasons. In 2005, Pray was looking to create a jazz combo and took the AJO rhythm section and formed the “Wallace Hill Jazz Quartet”. Later that group changed into a very creative jam band called “Groove Theory” and performed in both New York and Vermont. In 2006 Pray joined the Adirondack Brass Quintet and has performed with the Adirondack Wind Ensemble.

In 2007, he started working towards a Master’s Degree in Teaching and Curriculum from SUNY Plattsburgh. During that time, he had the opportunity to briefly study with Bobby Shew and Wayne Bergeron.

In 2016, he began hosting the “MrpTech Podcast” which is produced on the Podnutz Tech Podcast Network.  It is a technology based podcast that discusses every day technology topics for everyday people.  He also holds an Licensed Amateur Radio Operator (Extra Class).

At home, Matt loves spending time with his wife Angie and their 11 year old Husky, Rocky. He is an avid hiker, and loves being outdoors. Since 2002, he has worked various summer positions at AuSable Chasm. He is also a computer hobbyist and enjoys learning and talking about free and open-sourced software.