I help creative teams turn chaos into clarity through all-in-one, narrative-driven Sound and Music that keeps Story, Schedule, and Sanity in sync
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Theatre & Live Storytelling
Sound & Music that tell the story — onstage, backstage, and everywhere in between.
I cut my teeth in theatre, where every cue, underscore, and silence has to serve the story in real time.
Whether designing immersive sound worlds for Shakespeare or crafting new musicals from the ground up, I love collaborating with creative teams to shape moments that resonate emotionally and rhythmically with an audience.
It’s live. It’s ephemeral. And it’s where I learned that story always comes first.
Featured
“Nielson’s score…works to perfectly invoke the majesty of the Wyoming landscape”
SHANE
Directed by Blake Robison. June 2023-Aug 2025
Cincinnati Playhouse, Guthrie Theatre, Dallas Theatre Company, Oregon Shakespeare Festival
A rugged re-imagining of the Western classic, Shane rides into the heart of Wyoming with a sonic world built on original music and live rhythms. Across Cincinnati, Minneapolis, Dallas, and Oregon, I crafted soundscapes that root the action in the land, the dust, and the tension of myth and reality.
“The score…is perfection, so evocative of the Western genre, full of mournful steel guitar and other era appropriate instrumentation.”
“Nielson’s sound design evokes the rolling thunder of presses down below”
INK
Directed by Jason Loewith, Sept 2023
Round House Theatre, Olney Theatre Center
Ink chronicles the bold birth of tabloid journalism through incisive drama and a charged sonic landscape. For this production, I layered composition and sound design to evoke the pressroom’s rhythm—sampling typewriters, recording print presses, diving in to human ambition—and give the story its heartbeat.
“Sound design and composition by Matthew M. Nielson was variegated and fit the mood of the play perfectly.”
“Remarkably conceived… brought to elegant life with excellent design”
WHERE WORDS ONCE WERE
Directed by Colin Hovde, September 2016
The Kennedy Center, The Lincoln Center
For Finegan Kruckemeyer’s poetic dystopia about a city that limits its citizens to a thousand sanctioned words, I created a soundscape of loss and resilience — where silence itself becomes music. I wrote an original song, “The Song of See Leaf Fall,” to Kruckemeyer’s lyrics for this production.
“Sound Designer/Composer Matthew M. Nielson has done it again with a haunting soundscape, which conveys everything musically that Kruckemeyer is doing verbally in his script.”
TV, Film, & Screen Storytelling
Music & sound that shape emotion frame by frame, world by world
Every frame tells a story, and sound is what pulls you inside it
Whether crafting sonic detail for a blockbuster set or designing the voice of a brand, I approach film, television, and broadcast work as an exercise in rhythm and empathy — shaping each cue, texture, and transition to serve the story on screen.
My work spans from production audio and dialogue editing to full sound design and mix, ensuring clarity and storytelling from the moment of capture to final delivery.
Featured
THE ADAM PROJECT [BTS]
Directed by Dylan Trivette, 2022
Sound Design
Created immersive behind-the-scenes soundscapes highlighting the intersection of sci-fi spectacle and human storytelling. Designed to echo the film’s time-bending energy while maintaining clarity and intimacy in dialogue and environment.
THE MAGICIANS [PROMO]
Directed by Greg Herman, 2015
Original Music & Sound Design
Built a darkly whimsical world of magic and menace for SyFy’s first look at The Magicians. Blended live instruments, manipulated textures, and rhythmic spell motifs to introduce the tone of the series before its premiere.
EPIX DRIVE-IN [BRANDING PACKAGE]
Directed by Greg Herman, 2012
Original Music & Sound Design
Composed and produced a complete sonic brand for the channel’s debut — dozens of short spots, “Up Next” transitions, and idents. Each cue drew from a different era and genre of 1960s–70s cinema: spy thrillers, spaghetti westerns, grindhouse horror, and classic car-chase epics.
Radio Theatre & Audio Storytelling
Worlds built from sound and music — where imagination does the seeing
Podcasting and audio theatre combine everything I love about storytelling: character, emotion, and the raw immediacy of sound.
From intimate adaptations to expansive fiction and branded series, I create and collaborate on projects that live between genres — where story, performance, and sound design become one language.
Featured
TROUBLESOME GAP
Creator/Composer/Sound Designer
A serialized Appalachian mystery blending folklore, science, and the supernatural. Troublesome Gap is currently back in development as a narrative podcast, expanding on its original three-episode run.
THE GIFT OF THE MAGI
Music Arrangements/Sound Designer
A re-imagined audio adaptation of O. Henry’s classic holiday tale, produced with original underscoring and detailed sound environments. Brought back every few years as part of my continuing exploration of seasonal storytelling.
JOHNNY’S GOT SNACKS
Theme/Transitions/Stingers
Original music and sound package for the indie podcast Johnny’s Got Snacks. A bright, rhythmic theme paired with playful transitions and subtle underscore built the show’s sonic identity from the first beat.
GAMES & INTERACTIVE STORYTELLING
Immersive sound design & music built for play
I design, implement, and mix interactive audio systems that make gameplay feel alive.
Using Wwise, Unreal Engine, and adaptive composition techniques, I create responsive sonic worlds that react to player choices and environments in real time.
My work bridges creative storytelling and technical execution — from sound design and asset creation to full in-engine implementation.
FEATURED
demos coming soon…
Storytelling
Where story, sound and imagination intertwine…
Original works blending music, narrative, and sound design into immersive storytelling experiences that bridge theatre, film, and audio.
From sweeping musical tales to atmospheric mysteries and satirical worlds, his writing explores the spaces between craft and emotion, invention and memory, laughter and loss.
THE LAST WIDE OPEN
Book & Lyrics by Audrey Cefaly, Music by Matthew M. Nielson
Set in a late-night diner, Lina (waitress) and Roberto (immigrant dishwasher) share three alternate realities in one evening. With songs crafted to mark transitions of hope, regret and renewed possibility, the music becomes the voice of connection when words falter.
“A marvelous love story with an exquisitely defined musical quality that makes the dialogue float off the page into beautiful imagery that takes us into the immersive experience. Lovely!”
THE CLOCKMAKER’S SON
A New Musical
When a clockmaker vanishes on the winter solstice, his son sets out across 19th-century Boston to find him—uncovering a hidden world where time itself is kept, stolen, and restored by those who guard its turning.
MIND EMERITI
A Silly Satirical Audio Anthology
In the town of Lick Skillet, a missing mayor, a secret government lab, and a self-proclaimed evil genius collide in a web of absurdity and intrigue. Mind Emeriti explores the fine line between brilliance and breakdown — one broadcast at a time.
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