Hailing from Wagga Wagga, NSW, Matthew is undertaking his third year at the Australian National Academy of Music (ANAM), studying with pianist Timothy Young.
He completed a Bachelor of Music with first class Honours and the University Medal, studying with Daniel de Borah at the Queensland Conservatorium Griffith University. A passionate chamber musician, he has been a member of award-winning chamber groups with prizes including The Ursula Hoff Award for Most Outstanding Chamber Music Performance in 2021, and the Basil Jones Sonata Prize in 2020 and 2018. In 2017, Matthew was selected to perform in the first side-by-side student/faculty concert, and in 2021, performed as a mentee in Ensemble Q alongside acclaimed musicians Natsuko Yoshimoto, Paul Dean, Trish Dean, and Peter Luff. A highlight of Matthew’s career was performing alongside ANAM musicians and internationally renowned violinist Anthony Marwood, performing Schumann’s Piano Quartet in E-flat.
Matthew began learning the piano at the age of seven with his grandmother, before continuing his studies at the Riverina Conservatorium of Music, Wagga Wagga with Hamish Tait. During that time, he won numerous awards including the Conservatorium’s Senior Piano Scholarship, and the Dr Ray King Scholarship. He made his concerto debut with the Riverina Community Orchestra, performing excerpts from Chopin’s Piano Concerto no. 1 in E Minor. More recently, Matthew has reappeared as a soloist with the South Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, performing Beethoven’s Piano Concerto no. 2 in B-flat, and will join forces again in 2024 to perform Mozart’s Piano Concerto no. 24 in C Minor.
Outside of his musical life, Matthew enjoys eating chocolate.
FROM: Wagga Wagga, NSW. Lands of the Wiradjuri nation.
Matthew is supported by ANAM Syndicate donors Jan Grant, Louise and Hermann Bischoff, Meredith Baldwin, Carolynne and Geoffrey Dobbin, Robyn Harris, Eric Dias and Roger Bau, Anthony Knight OAM and Beverly Knight, Ian Hogarth and Peter Larsen
Photo credit: Pia Johnson.