“To this day, whenever things get completely crazy in the movie business, I still go back to the wonderful years growing up with great friends, amazing parents, surrounded by some of the beautiful farmland and views of Merrimack Valley.” Matt Pavolaitis, MHS Class of ’91, whose updated score of the holiday Coca-Cola ad will be released nationwide Thanksgiving Day

To professional music composer Matt Pavolaitis, who has worked with some of the biggest celebrities in Hollywood and on some of television’s most popular shows, his formative year in Methuen were pivotal to his successful career – participating in bands at Methuen High School, receiving support and encouragement from family and teachers, and playing in bands with friends.

Over the years, Pavolaitis, 51, has stacked up several awards and award nominations, and he soon may have another – he is being considered for a GRAMMY nomination for his work on a high-profile event for Hewett-Packard Enterprises that was held at the revolutionary venue, The Sphere, in Las Vegas. 

GRAMMY nominations will be announced Nov, 8. Awards will be bestowed in early February.

Despite his success – he has worked with George Clooney, Joaquin Phoenix and Jessica Alba – Pavolaitis said he tries to keep his career low-key.

“I guess that’s from having those humble beginnings in Methuen,” he said. “I literally grew up next to a live working farm on the west side by the water tower, mowing lawns, delivering the paper, playing in the cornfields. It was incredible looking back.”

He was 5 or 6, he recalls, when he was playing hymns on his mother’s organ. He received his first synthesizer in 1984, and played “Jump” by Van Halen, Journey’s “Separate Ways” and other “really cool rock songs” in his first band in middle school.

His father, Joe, bought him an amplifier and microphone and mic stand. A Korg Poly-800 synthesizer was a gift from his mother, Lois Connolly. Support from his parents at an early age enabled him to drill into music composing, performance and orchestrating, he said.

“To this day, whenever things get completely crazy in the movie business, I still go back to the wonderful years growing up with great friends, amazing parents, surrounded by some of the beautiful farmland and views of Merrimack Valley,” Pavolaitis said. “I draw from these positive vibes to keep me fresh, uplifted and driven.”

“I can remember my first music track recorded in Methuen that used a (digital audio workstation) program called Calkwalk which (classmate and future composer) Curtis Moore hooked me into. Without his help I probably would have stayed in the land of synth hardware versus computer software,” he added. “It’s funny how we’re both still composing after all these years and we both graduated together at Methuen High in ‘91.”

After high school, Pavolaitis earned a Bachelor of Arts of Music degree with emphasis in Sound Recording Technology at UMass-Lowell. A college promotional flyer posted in a MHS band room had caught his attention.

“It was basically like my calling. I saw that flyer and it was like the angels were saying, ‘This is what you’re supposed to do,’” he recalled. “It really changed me. I was like, ‘Hey, I can do this for a living.’”

Teachers who positively impacted Pavolaitis included David West, who helped him prepare for his college audition, and Frank Savory who opened up a new world of music when he gave his student four cassettes that included the works of Bill Evans, Dave Brubeck, Michel Camillo and Count Basie.

“I’ll never forget wearing out those tapes every day after school,” Pavolaitis recalled. “What an impact that had on my career as a writer and performer.”

The night he graduated from college in 1995, Pavolaitis flew to California to intern for composers Jeff Rona and Hans Zimmer at Media Ventures in Santa Monica. The month-long scoring internship was followed by a recording internship in the city at 4th Street Recording, where recording sessions included working with Live, Incubus, Michael Penn, King’s X, and Hoobastank.

During his career, Pavolaitis has worked on some of the biggest shows on TV, including “Breaking Bad,” “American Horror Story” and “Better Call Saul.”

Work on the soap opera “The Bold and the Beautiful” has brought him Daytime Emmy Award nominations and wins. He composed the theme music for the TV series “Making of the Mob.” He was nominated for a Rocky Mountain Emmy this year for “Living Wild,” a documentary about an environmental school currently airing on Prime and PBS.

He holds four ADDYs (American Advertising Awards) and three Telly awards (best work created within television and across video).

Time spent on films includes recording work for Jessica Alba’s supernatural horror-thriller movie, “The Eye,” and working with Joaquin Phoenix on a short film about Mother Earth.

One of Pavolaitis’ favorite projects involved composing the music for a short documentary and working closely with George Clooney on its sound, musical style and voice-over recording.

Clooney and wife, Amal, had donated money to create a school in Lebanon that uses laptops from Hewlett-Packard, which also financially supported the cause.

“This was a completely new style of scoring for me as it entailed using Middle Eastern instrumentation mixed with western technology cinematic elements,” Pavolaitis said. “It came out beautifully. Being in his house, working with him one-on-one, and his wife, discussing the score with them, it was one of those projects where (I think), ‘I can’t believe I’m here.’”

When Hewlett-Packard Enterprises President and CEO Antonio Neri keynoted an address, “Intelligence Has No Limits,” at The Sphere last June about how AI-led transformations increase productivity and accelerate innovation and discovery, Pavolaitis was the composer/writer for the music and also the music producer, orchestrator, arranger and conductor. He is being considered for a GRAMMY nomination.

His work in Las Vegas is not the only high-profile Pavolaitis project that consumers enjoy this year. He was hired to update the score for the classic “Holidays are Coming” Coke ad, which he said people will see this holiday season in movie theaters, online, on television and on YouTube.

The project required Pavolaitis to work with lots of musicians, producers and other talented professionals, including music producer Colleen Rourke, his wife.

“It (required) a huge team of people,” Pavolaitis said, “to pull this off.”