Matt Vander Ende (born May 26 th, 1969), raised in Oakland, CA., started playing drums at the age of 13. Trained as a classical percussionist, Matt graduated from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music in 1993 with a Bachelors degree in Music. He was a member of the award-winning San Francisco Youth Orchestra that toured Asia in 1986. Matt also attended the Interlochen Center for the Arts for a summer in 1987. When he was at Interlochen, Matt realized playing drums is what he wanted to do for the rest of his life. During his high school years, he helped form the Heavy Metal Thrash band Defiance. Defiance was a part of the well-known Bay Area thrash scene that spawned notable bands like Metallica, Testament, Machine Head, Violence, and Forbidden. Defiance recorded three records for Roadrunner Records, Toured the United States opening for bands such as Violence, Flotsam & Jetsam, Testament, Forbidden, Death Angel, and Dark Angel.
Matt began studying drum set with Greg Sudmeier while studying at SFCM. Greg, aka “suds,” trained Matt in all facets of the music industry, Jazz, Big Band, Rock, Pop, Chart interpretation, Recording Session Studio work, and Musical Theatre. Greg is the single reason why Matt started to pursue a career in Musical Theatre. As music director of Broadway by the Bay theatre company, Greg brought in Matt as his drummer for 5 seasons from 1994-99.
During this time, Matt was juggling a freelance carrier in the studio, performing casuals. He was a member, touring and recording, with several bands including Defiance, Laaz Rockett, None of The Above, Yellow 5, Thirst, and Shelly Streeter opening for notable country artist as Sammy Kershaw and Trace Adkins. After his 5 seasons with Broadway by the Bay, Matt joined the Musicians Union and began working for several theatre companies all over the San Francisco Bay Area. The most notable companies are Theatre Works, American Musical Theatre, and Nederlander Shorenstein-Hays in San Francisco. While working in Musical Theatre, he has performed with many movie stars such as Tony Curtis, Alfred Molina, Carol Kane, David Garrison, Ben Vereen, Neil Patrick Harris, and performing with 1st National Tour of Wicked on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.
In 2004 Matt moved to New York City to further his career in Musical Theatre. Soon after moving to NYC, he began to Sub on several Broadway shows such as Fiddler on the Roof, Assassins, and Wicked. While subbing on Wicked, Matt was offered to open the First National Tour of Wicked, performing in Toronto, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and many others. After working on the tour for a year, Matt took over the drum chair for Wicked Broadway in March of 2006, where he continues to perform at the Gershwin Theatre to this day. While at Wicked, Matt has worked side by side with Steven Swartz, Wayne Cilento, Stephen Oremus, Alex Lacamoire, and many others. Matt has also performed with the Atlanta Symphony. He most recently toured China with The Unreachable Stars in 2017-18 and Teaching and Recording sessions out of his studio in Long Island City, Queens.