New Essex Choral Society

Matthew is a professional conductor, singing teacher and singer. Choirs with which he has worked include the hundred-voice Reading Festival Chorus, the prestigious professional choir of Ealing Abbey and Glasgow University Chamber Choir and he was Choral Director for Westminster Adult Education Service. A recent highlight was conducting the London Symphony Chorus in a workshop with their Chorus Master Joseph Cullen.

After studying for a music degree at Glasgow University Matthew studied conducting as a postgraduate at both London College of Music and Trinity College of Music, where he won the Ricordi Conducting Prize. He has gone on to study conducting with Denise Ham from the Royal Academy of Music and singing with Lyndon Van Der Pump from the Royal College of Music.

Matthew conducted the European Première of Quest by the American composer George Crumb and was Chorus Master and Assistant Conductor for the critically acclaimed British Staged Première of Goldschmidt’s opera Beatrice Cenci at the Spitalfields Festival.

He was a Choral Scholar at both St. Martin-in-the-Fields Church and in Glasgow University Chapel Choir and has sung tenor with some of London's finest church choirs, such as at St. Bride's, Fleet Street, and the Guards' Chapel, Birdcage Walk. He is a qualified and busy singing teacher, teaching in two schools. Presently he conducts the New Essex Choir, the Schroders Choir in the City of London and Halstead Preparatory School Chamber Choir in Woking, and is Director of Music and Organist at St. Peter and St. Paul's Church, Clerkenwell, where he runs the children's and adults' choirs. When not working, he enjoys Lindy hop dancing, art and football.