Matthew has been working as a professional musician, conductor and music educator for over 10 years.

 

His energy and enthusiasm for music in a multitude of settings has afforded him a rich and varied freelance conducting and education career.

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Between 2017 and 2020, Matthew held a full-time position as a choral delivery artist in the Opera North Education team before pursuing a freelance career. During his time with the company, he became responsible for many of the company’s flagship programmes. He became the assistant director with the Opera North Youth Chorus, where he prepared the choruses for many prestigious concerts with the Opera North orchestra and professional chorus. At the same time, Matthew was leading 2 schools on the company’s award-winning InHarmony programme which meant leading around 1000 children a week in whole class singing sessions from Y1 through to Y6, as well as leading wider school singing celebrations. He was heavily involved in developing, teaching and conducting the education team’s annual large scale singing project called “The Big Sing” for which he collaborated with a member of the management team to commission a brand new work for children’s choir, orchestra and professional chorus called Wonderland Restored by Will Todd based on his opera Alice in Wonderland, and was also engaged to oversee a collaboration with Oscar winning composer Rachel Portman for the re-imagining of her score The Water Diviner’s Tale.

 

As a choral education expert, he works closely with The Voices Foundation delivering training to teachers and music leaders across the UK to lead school choirs, classroom singing and singing assemblies. Matthew has worked with teachers and students from EYFS through to degree level. Matthew also conducts and devises large scale, aspirational school singing celebrations.

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Matthew has worked with the The Hallé since 2014, holding a number of positions with the various choirs within the organisation. He is currently the assistant director of the Hallé Youth and Youth Training Choir where he prepares the choirs for their concert season at the Bridgewater Hall, as well as their international tours. He is also the co-director of the Hallé Ancoats Community Choir. Previously, he was working alongside Shirley Court with the Hallé Children’s choir.

Outside of his education work, Matthew is the founder and musical director of Manchester Vocal Ensemble, a group that specialises in contemporary a Cappella repertoire and is the Musical Director of N-Choir, a 70 strong SSA choir based in Bramhall, Stockport.

 

Matthew is excited to have founded Sale Youth Choirs and, alongside a talented team, he hopes to bring all of his professional experience to the young people in his local area of Sale.