Mediator, Director, Retired Performer. Member Spotlight: Matthew Carroll
Matthew Carroll has had an interesting career trajectory from his undergraduate studies in music and business to his current roles as a divorce mediator, mediation trainer, speaker, and professor.
To begin with his education, he initially pursued a degree in business at Baldwin Wallace University. However, he soon switched his program of focus to musical theatre to follow his passion. He graduated with a B.M. in Music and Music Theater as well as a minor in business. From his senior showcase in New York, many auditions, and a year touring the country on the national tour of Les Miserables, he auditioned for and received a full scholarship for a Masters in Vocal Performance at the University of Michigan. After much thought, he decided not to re-audition for the national tour and to instead matriculate to UM. Continuing after his Masters program at UM, he obtained a Specialist in Music Degree.
He ultimately ended up working full-time at the Lyric Opera of Chicago in their ensemble. This was a demanding job requiring abilities singing in multiple languages, acting, dancing, and many more things. The ensemble performed approximately a hundred performances per year. In 2018, he recorded Dmitri Shostakovich’s Symphony 13 with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra–which he also worked with–to win a Classical Music Grammy award. When Covid hit, his ensemble at Lyric performed and recorded a live version of the opera Pagliacci, which won the Best Live Theatrical Production Regional Emmy award.
As a performer, Carroll negotiated contracts on behalf of the performing arts unions the American Guild of Musical Artists and Actors Equity with organizations like Lyric. Of this, he said “Instantly, there’s conflict from the beginning. It was very eye-opening. I think as a performer, and as any employee with an employer, you think the employer values you and appreciates you. And then you go into negotiations only to find out that they feel you’re very replaceable and that you’re not worth the salary they’re paying you and they want to restrict work rules and they want you to be available more. It became my introduction into the positional bargaining process.” Carroll described the disputes as “petty” and “often a huge waste of time” over such issues like replacing expired water filters and purchasing sufficient, safe equipment for rehearsals and performances. He and the artists felt that they were not valued by the administration for the difficult work they did.
These negotiations were Carroll’s introduction to mediation. On many occasions, the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service (FMCS), a government agency dedicated to mediating labor disputes–in this case, strikes and lockouts–to minimize disruptions to the American economy, was brought in to mediate. Carroll was inspired by how “they would change the positional conversations to needs-based conversations. And that was often like the key to the lock for these negotiations.”
Having fallen in love with mediation, Carroll had initially planned a five-year transition from professional musician to professional mediation. However, he accelerated his timeline when COVID hit due to the negative effects on the performance industry.
Initially, he tried to mediate general disputes but ended up specializing in domestic-related and divorce mediation. He also became involved with the Center for Conflict Resolution – Chicago, one of the organizations that makes Chicago a leader in conflict resolution. Carroll participated in a six-month intensive mentorship program consisting of twenty hours a week of roleplaying, mediating, and learning in partnership with other cohort members and mentored by experienced mediators. As a part of that program, he was required to serve as a volunteer mediator for three years. He has been volunteering for seven years so far. This experience exposed him to many different types of cases from the courtroom to the community. He then became involved with the Association of Family and Conciliation Courts, American Bar Association, Academy of Professional Family Mediators, and Indiana Association of Mediators. In 2021, he was hired as an adjunct lecturer at Northwestern University, where he co-teaches the Divorce Mediation Training Program. Through these organizations, he has led numerous trainings, given lectures, inspired many people, and otherwise contributed to his field.
As his latest project, Carroll is in the midst of preparations for the first International Peace Camp for Teenagers. Directed by Carroll with assistance from numerous organizations like MBBI and other partners worldwide, this program seeks to “equip young people, ages 14-17, with practical conflict-resolution skills while bringing together participants from different countries to foster meaningful cross-cultural connections.” As a parent experiencing firsthand the effects of global changes in our styles of life and communication abilities–particularly due to the COVID era and the rise of modern technology and social media, Carroll, with the help of his teams, view it as a matter of key importance to teach foundational active listening and communication skills to a diverse group of teenagers; they hope the participants will acquire these skills through a fun-filled, engaging curriculum combined with traditional camp activities and then bring what they have learned to their respective communities, thus creating a ripple effect of leadership and enhanced organizational and social abilities. The inaugural camp will be held in-person next summer at the YMCA Camp Elphinstone facilities, located on an island off the coast of British Colombia, Canada. More details about the camp, promotion, and registration can be found here and Carroll can be reached at matt@keystonemediation.com.
Article by Hunter Siegel, MBBI Writer