Nave Choir Director
Matthew has been involved with the Edington Music Festival since 2001, and has
been directing the Nave Choir since 2008, taking over from Robert Quinney.
In his ‘other’ life he is Precentor and Director of College Music at Gonville & Caius
College, Cambridge. He read Music at Magdalen College, Oxford before studying at
the Royal Academy of Music and with Marie-Claire Alain in Paris. From 2015-2020
he was Director of Music at Keble College, Oxford and Artistic Director of the Keble
Early Music Festival.
Matthew spent much of his early life immersed in cathedral music and in 2010, after
six years as Assistant Master of Music at Westminster Cathedral, he decided
to focus more on composition. Since then he has been commissioned to write music
for the The Tallis Scholars, the choirs of Westminster Abbey, St Paul’s
Cathedral, The Gabrieli Consort and The Sixteen. Matthew won the Liturgical
category in the 2013 British Composer Awards, and the first disc of his choral music
(Jubilate Deo) was recorded by Daniel Hyde and The Choir of Magdalen College,
Oxford (Opus Arte/2014).
More recently, he has written for the Cheltenham Music Festival (Trumpet Sonata)
and The Tallis Scholars (Lamentations of Jeremiah). His Rose Magnificat for Paul
McCreesh and The Gabrieli Consort won the Choral category in the 2019 BBC Music
Magazine Awards. Earlier in 2019, he was asked to write a festival anthem (In the
midst of thy Temple) for the choir of Westminster Abbey, marking the 750th
anniversary of its refounding, and a test piece for organ (Triptych) for the 2019 St
Albans International Organ Competition.
