Peter Matz

Peter Matz was born on November 6, 1928 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA.

Studied Chemical Engineering at the University of California. Studied music in Paris and New York in the 1950's.

Peter Matz's name and musical reputation would have been secured for posterity even if the only thing he had achieved in life had been his accompaniments and arrangements for Noël Coward's cabaret concert appearances at Wilbur Clark's Desert Inn Hotel and Casino, Las Vegas during the month of June 1955. In New York City during late April of 1955, Noël learned his English piano accompanist Norman Hackforth had been refused a work permit for the USA. Peter Matz, on his arrival in New York City in 1954 from his two year sojourn in Paris, France, returned to New York to study music theory and piano. Matz gained a job as rehearsal pianist for Harold Arlen's Broadway musical "House of Flowers" based on the celebrated Truman Capote novella about love in a brothel in the West Indies, opening 30 December 1954, running 165 performances. Peter Matz provided the vocal and dance arrangements for the Arlen/Capote Broadway musical. Matz's varied musical skills obvious, as the job expanded to writing orchestrations and vocal arrangements for Arlen's next musical, "Jamaica" starring Lena Horne. It was Arlen who introduced Peter Matz to Marlene Dietrich, who needed someone to help construct and accompany her cabaret concert act. Frantic, running out of prep time for the 3 June 1955 opening at the Wilbur Clark's Las Vegas Desert Inn Hotel and Casino concert engagement, Noël confided to Marlene Dietrich of his long time collaborator-pianist's work permit denial by the State Department. Matz had been introduced to Coward by Marlene. Marlene urged Noël to grab Peter Matz at all costs. At Idlewild Airport, after seeing Marlene off, Noël was desperate to find a replacement for Norman Hackforth. Coward called Matz from the airport and came to Matz's apartment to audition him. The test came when Coward asked Matz to play the "Trolley Song". "I had no idea with his songs or the style of that English Music Hall comedy thing" Matz recalled. Coward asked "Can you be in Los Angeles tomorrow?" The answer was "yes" and rehearsals for Las Vegas started just three weeks before Noël was to open. What followed at Clifton Webb's residence in Beverly Hills, the next ten days, was that they worked on the Las Vegas material all day every day. Matz learned from Coward not only the songs but a whole new style of performance. "He made me learn, very forcefully, that this was about comedy. A couple of times he screamed, 'Don't play when I am making a joke', (and) I gradually learned that this was a whole other kind of music". Matz was writing the orchestral arrangements for Carlton Hayes's band, a typical Las Vegas dance band with saxophones and many trumpets and trombones, which needed finesse and much discretion if Coward's lyrics were to be clearly heard. The results were impressive: Coward wrote in his diaries that Matz's "orchestral arrangements and variations are incredible - vital and imaginative. Sometimes they go too far for my personal taste, but I cannot fail to be impressed by the expert knowledge of instrumentation. Peter Matz, at the age of twenty-six, knows more about the range of various instruments and the potentialities of different combinations than anyone of any age I have ever met in England ... very exciting and stimulating". Noël's four week engagement opened the first week of June, ending July 4, 1955. At the end of the Las Vegas engagement, Monday and Tuesday, June 27 and 28, Goddard Lieberson with his Columbia Records' recording myrmidons recorded four performances for a long-player platter release. This delighted the experts with the recorded results guaranteed an American LP album "Noël Coward at Las Vegas" on the LP market. Noël added 'Matelot' and 'A Room with a View' to the repertoire, also 'Alice is at it Again' for the recording 'performance' session.

Noël Coward (at age 55), his secretary-manager Cole Lesley (at age 43,1911-1980) and Peter Matz (at age 26, 1928-2002) departed Clifton Webb's residence in Beverly Hills and arrived in Las Vegas, Nevada, on June 1st to prepare for Noël's four week engagement at Wilbur Clark's Desert Inn Hotel and Casino. Frank Sennes (the booking agent for the Desert Inn) negotiated Noël to perform a supper club concert and a second concert every night, during the month of June through July 4th, 1955. Opening night produced rave notices flashed around the world in newspaper headlines "The greatest attraction Las Vegas ever had proving Noël Coward was the greatest performer in the world". The opening night, from the social-theatrical point of view, was fairly sensational. Frank Sinatra chartered a special plane and brought Judy Garland, the Bogarts (Humphrey and Lauren Bacall), David and his wife "Prim" (Primula) Niven, Gordon and Sheila MacRae; then there was Jane Powell, Joan Fontaine, Zsa Zsa Gabor, the Joseph Cottens, the English stage and film director Peter Glenville, Lawrence Harvey, Rosemary Clooney, Sammy Davis Jr.. After opening night, the following Friday, June 10, Noël was driven out into the Nevada desert, photographed by Life Magazine in his black dinner-jacket, black bow tie, red carnation in his lapel, sipping a cup of tea, the temperature at 118 degrees. (Life Magazine, June 20, page 20). During the sold-out engagement, the Desert Inn was flooded by a torrential desert rain storm causing three million dollars of damage in repairs to the casino. The Las Vegas four week engagement paid Noël $35,000.00 per week out of which Noël paid his own expenses, paid Cole, Peter Matz and Noël's agent Joe Glasser's commission. In addition, the Desert Inn paid $60,000.00 for an option and some shares of Noél's TV company formed to benefit from Noël's new CBS deal for three color television spectaculars, tax free as it is capital gain. Surviving Las Vegas like a two fisted armed casino slot black jack randy bandit! Noël preferred to call his Desert Inn concert audience "his Nescafé society".

Was nominated for Broadway's 1962 Tony Award as Best Conductor and Musical Director for "No Strings."

American composer and conductor for stage and screen, most famous for his work on Barbra Streisand's early albums (he conducted her 1963 debut, 'The Barbra Streisand Album' which made her a star) and as musical director on "The Carol Burnett Show".

He is known for his work on The Kraft Music Hall (1967), Funny Lady (1975) and Sills and Burnett at the Met (1976). He was married to Marilyn Lovell.