Matthew Whitaker plus Raul Midon
SATURDAY, APRIL 6, 2025 6:00 PM
MILLER CENTER FOR THE ARTS
Matthew Whitaker's musical journey began at age 3 with a keyboard gift from his grandfather. He's now an artist, captivating audiences globally and appearing on notable T.V. shows like Showtime at the Apollo, the Today Show, Ellen, and a feature on 60 Minutes.
Matthew is a versatile artist, starring, producing, and scoring the All-Arts Emmy-nominated documentary "About Tomorrow" and scoring the film "Starkeisha," which is currently streaming on Hulu. He also appeared in and contributed music to the Emmy-winning Apple T.V. commercial "The Greatest." Matthew made his musical director debut for the award-winning "Billy Strayhorn: Something to Live For." A musical on the life of pianist and composer Billy Strayhorn. He’s had guest soloist appearances with orchestras and symphonies including Aspen Chamber Symphony, under the baton of guest conductor, Marin Alsop, and the National Arts Centre Orchestra in Ottawa, CN, Alexander Shelley, conductor. He also composed a song for the 82-piece Bulgarian Symphony Orchestra, in Sofia, Bulgaria, which was included in the aforementioned All-Arts documentary, “About Tomorrow,” and collaborated with Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater’s choreographer Hope Boykin, creating an original music score for her piece, “Finding Free.”
Matthew believes that music connects us all and that every child should have access to music education. Beyond music, Matthew advocates for persons with disabilities, consulting with companies to improve accessibility features.
He is a three-time ASCAP Foundation Herb Alpert Young Jazz Composers Award winner, with three studio albums as a leader; "Outta The Box," "Now Hear This," and "Connections." His fourth recording, "On Their Shoulders: An Organ Tribute," is an homage to some of Matthew's heroes on the instrument. Matthew has collaborated with industry greats like pianist, multiple Grammy-award winning composer, vocalist, and band leader Jon Batiste; Grammy-winning bassist Christian McBride; NEA Jazz Master, violinist Regina Carter; pianist, composer, and musical director Ray Chew, bassist, composer, producer Derrick Hodge, and Anderson Paak during the Paralympics 2024 closing ceremony.
Singer, Songwriter, Guitarist and Engineer, Raul Midón established himself as a first-call session singer upon graduation from the prestigious Studio Jazz program at the University of Miami in 1991. He sang background vocals on more than 60 Latin recordings, many Grammy winning. In 1999 he was asked to join the touring band of Shakira. During that time, he was creating his own original music and was signed to a development deal with Warner Chappel. He left Shakira’s band to move to NYC to pursue his own career. Within a year he debuted at Carnegie Hall with the Movie Music of Spike Lee. Spike engaged him to write the end credit song for “She Hate Me.” At the same time Raul was signed by legendary producer Arif Mardin to his label under the Blue Note moniker, Manhattan Records. Together with his son Joe Mardin they produced and released two albums, the acclaimed “State of Mind” and “A World Within A World.” Raul made his television debut on The David Letterman Show, followed with performances on Leno, Ferguson, & Jimmy Kimmel. In England, Later with Jools Holland and in France, One Shot Not with Manu Katche.
Raul has worked with countless legends in the industry including Bill Withers, Herbie Hancock, Sting, Terence Blanchard, & Dianne Reeves to name several. He received two Grammy nominations back-to-back in 2017 and 2018 for his albums “Bad Ass and Blind” and “If You Really Want” in the Best Jazz Vocal Category. Since moving to the DMV he established himself as an accomplished recording engineer, recording all the vocals for both of the aforementioned in his home studio. In 2019 he was invited to speak at his high school Alma Mater Santa Fe Prep and also was given the Distinguished Alumnus Award from the University of Miami. In 2021 his latest album released on March 20, 2020 The Mirror was nominated for Best Jazz Album from the A2IM Libera Awards. Also, in 2021 he was awarded the Disability Rights Ambassador of the year award, presented to him in a virtual ceremony by his friend and colleague Jason Mraz.
During the lockdown Raul continued to collaborate with colleagues and appears in a duet on the Grammy winning album “Mendo” by Alex Cuba. He chose to pursue a long-time dream of recording a guitar duets album with some of his favorite guitarists including Mike Stern, Dean Parks, Lionel Loueke, Julia Bailen, Stephane Wrembel, Alex Cuba and more. This album ‘Eclectic Adventurist’ was released on his own label, ReKondite ReKords on 11/11/ 2022, to acclaimed reviews.
He continues to tour, write, record and is working on a novel, ‘Tembererana.’
ARTIST WEBSITE: Matthew Whitaker and Raul Midon