Matthew Gonzalez is an accomplished percussionist— bongo, conga, timbales and drums.  Gonzalez has great hands, an excellent inner sense of time, is an excellent reader and great section player.

Along with Nate Velázquez and Jorge Vázquez, Gonzalez is one of three co-leaders of the New York-based band Kinto Zonó.  Additionally, he performs with Omba y Plena Collective, Aurora y Zion del Barrio, Los Pleneros de la 21, The Bobby Sanabria Multiverse Big Band, and Eugene Marlow’s Heritage Ensemble.        

Matthew was raised in a musical family where his grandfather, Benny Ayala, is a seasoned Plenero, composer, folklorist and mask maker. As a young child, Gonzalez was immersed in an environment filled with the Afro-Caribbean beats of Puerto Rican folkloric music. Gonzalez began his formal study of music at the Harbor Conservatory along with Latin percussion instruction beginning on conga at age 11.

He studied drum set with Tony Devito; conga and bongo with George Delgado; Afro-Cuban Folkloric drumming with Louis Bauzo, and Adult Latin Ensemble Level II with Ramon Rodriguez. He was a recipient of the 2010-2011 Tito Puente Scholarship Fund at Harbor Conservatory.