Matthew Cocker - Archiving
Biography
An honours degree music graduate of Goldsmiths College and accomplished concert pianist, Matthew joined Abbey Road in 1988. He was head of the editing department until 1996, when he went to work for Sony Music UK for some years. Returning to Abbey Road in 2005, Matthew took up his current position as Archive Engineer and is now responsible for restoring audio from a wide range of sources, both analogue and digital, in order to preserve it for the future on secure formats, making sure that it is transferred to the highest possible standard and without altering the original recorded sound. Over the years he has worked on a very diverse range of recordings, both classical and pop, with many high profile artists, including Martha Argerich, Bernard Haitink, Kiri Te Kanawa, Murray Perahia, Paul McCartney, Stephen Schwartz, Moby and Malcolm McLaren. Several recordings with which Matthew was involved went on to win Gramophone Awards and he also worked closely with pianist Murray Perahia on his acclaimed recordings of Bach ‘English Suites’ and Chopin ‘Etudes,’ which won Grammy Awards in 1999 and 2003 respectively. Besides his archiving work, Matthew has also produced a number of recordings for both EMI Classics and Sony Classical and he also played the piano on the chart-topping 2009 album, ‘Words for You.’
