Mr. Croft studied throughout middle & high school with Judith Wade, and expanded his studies to include composition, music technology, collaborative piano, conducting, and music theory. After high school, he studied Music Composition & Conducting at Wayne State University under professors Kypros Markou, Gerrie Ball, James Hartway, and Gerald Custer. Since 2006, he has played, conducted, music directed, and been a part of the music staff for over 120 shows, and music directed his first show - an Equity production of "Hair!" - at the age of 16. In early 2014, he began playing as Keyboard 2/Associate MD at Meadow Brook Theatre in Auburn Hills, MI - the largest AEA regional theater in MI - playing and programming keyboards for their regional premieres of Lysistrata Jones and Cole Porter's You Never Know. Since then, he has returned for multiple shows - vocal directing their production of A Christmas Carol twice, as well as writing new arrangements for the acapella singing group featured in the show, as well as music directing and playing Altar Boyz, I Love A Piano, and Forever Plaid. In December 2014, Matthew was offered the Keyboard 2/Associate MD chair on the 2014-2015 national tour of Guys & Dolls. After completing that tour, he went back on the road with the 2015-2016 national tour of "The Producers".