Matthew Coley

Just out today on the Steve Weiss Music Channel - this is my piece Seasons May Change for solo marimba! This was such a cool day in Willow Grove, PA.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3aGFmU1NKCA

Salyers Percussion | The Matthew Coley Signature Series - Complete Demo Steve Weiss Music had the pleasure of hosting Marimba artist Matthew Coley at our in house studio in Willow Grove, PA, to demonstrate his new series of Marim...

We are thrilled to welcome Matthew Coley as the High School Solo Category Audio Round Judge for the 2026 Great Plains International Marimba Competition!

Matthew Coley is an internationally acclaimed percussion performer and the founder and executive/co-artistic director of Heartland Marimba (HM).

Primarily performing on marimba, hammered dulcimer, and cimbalom, Matthew travels regularly as a soloist and collaborator, bringing the beauty of the marimba's singing wood and the diverse soundscape of other percussion and dulcimers to many audiences. He has performed in most of the US states.

As a soloist, Matthew has performed with organizations throughout the US and abroad including the Philadelphia Baroque Orchestra, Chamber Orchestra of Pittsburgh, Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra, HBO/Giant Spoon’s Game of Thrones Experience at South by Southwest, American Ballet Theatre, University of Edmonton-Alberta Wind Ensemble, Sudar Percussion of Croatia, San Francisco Sinfonietta, Kurpfalzisches Kammerorchester Mannheim, and the Moldavian Philharmonic and Teleradio Symphony Orchestras. He is the “multi-dulcimerist” with The Way Out, a mixed quintet performing the cross-over fusion music of Bjorn Berkhout, and the Ataraxia Duo with harpist Jennifer Ruggieri. Matthew was the first executive director and curator at the Center for Mallet Percussion Research at Kutztown University, Kutztown, PA, in 2023-2024.

Matthew’s work with Heartland Marimba (including the HM Quartet, Ensemble, Festivals, and Publications) has brought the marimba art form in front of audiences in more than 50 cities with 250 concerts for audiences of all kinds, including thousands of children. Additionally, HM's continual work with virtual content during 2020-2021 has led them to release 19 different remotely recorded videos of chamber works. Matthew has several critically acclaimed albums available. Between the Lines (2015) was released on the New Focus Recordings label, and Circularity (2010), Souvenirs (2012), Heartland Marimba Dances (2016), and Vision (2019 – HMQ’s album) are available through HMPublications and for download and streaming everywhere.

He has performed as a soloist at five Percussive Arts Society International Conventions and in numerous universities, institutions, and concert halls across the nation. Matthew has won several prizes from national and international competitions and holds percussion performance degrees from Northwestern University (DM and MM) and the University of North Texas (BM).

He is a signature artist with Salyers Percussion, where you can find his marimba mallet line of seven models, and a concert artist with Marimba One.

Please visit www.hearMatthewColey.com and www.HeartlandMarimba.com.

Salyers Percussion Marimba One Heartland Marimba

👼🏼🪽🙏🏼 Hello! Here's a bit of a new arrangement of "Amazing Grace" that I'm working on! Available soon through .
I performed it this morning for the lovely parishioners at the First Congregational Church in Waterloo.
And, it was a fantastic way to promote the show at the with the and on April 11, as well as our other activities in the Cedar Valley this April and July! (See 2nd photo.)

*Major news* for the community!
I've located the one and only Marimba Celeste (M.C.), designed by Clair Musser, and built by Deagan in 1929.
Long thought to have been sold for war time scrap metal in the 40s, and lost forever. This sui generis and remarkable creation has survived, but hasn't been seen by anyone other than members of the Miller family in more than 70 years! Musser sold the instrument to the Miller family in 1938. Leroy "Larry" Miller performed with it a handful of times in PA and New York, as seen in the photos. He continued to concertize through his teens and after returning from the war, but primarily used smaller instruments.

I was connected to the Miller family late last year through a serendipitous series of events. As one of the marketing/educational efforts for HM's Musser Marimba Festival in October 2025, I created a marimba history page on my website [ https://www.hearmatthewcoley.com/marimba-history ]. There, I specifically posted David Harvey's article about the M.C., as we were using the colorful promotional image of Musser behind the instrument as key in the branding, and the history of this instrument is just fascinating. Even more so after discovering and viewing it! David has meticulously connected the dots of our history for decades, but there has virtually been no M.C. trail since c.1940.

From my understanding, Megan Miller, the granddaughter of Leroy Miller was playing with her daughter in late October, when her daughter coincidentally said she wanted to play xylophone when she grew up. Megan searched for images of her grandfather with the M.C., and my website popped up! She reached out to me to essentially let it be known that the instrument was still with the family.

I had a lovely video call with Megan and Bob Miller, Leroy's son. And in February, they invited me into a family home to view the instrument. There it was! After 70 some odd years in an attic, assembled once in the 90s, but still in existence. It's hard to articulate what this means to me, David Harvey, and others in the field. I can't report what will be the next chapter for the instrument, but I hope that we get to hear and see it in lights again.

This tango adaptation is now available through HMPublications! Enjoy one of the smooth tangos by an early pioneer of the style – Ángel Villoldo.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aqPpBcy35eY

https://www.heartlandmarimbapublications.com/product/el-choclo

El Choclo - by Ángel Villoldo | arr. Matthew Coley for Solo Marimba “El Choclo,” composed in 1903 by Ángel Villoldo, is one of the earliest and most enduring tangos of Argentina’s Golden Age. Originally written for small ense...