Who I am

Matthew grew up with a strong interest in music, learning the flute and piano and having tuition in singing, all at a young age. As a teenager, Matthew focused largely on choral performance but found his real passion in composition, writing for his friends and peers while he was still at school. Around the same time, he had the opportunity to work with the London Festival Sinfonia, who premiered his first orchestral work. He would use this experience when he went on to study as an undergraduate in composition at the Royal Northern College of Music (RNCM) in Manchester, where he studied with Steven Daverson. 

It was here that he developed his music style, working closely with other student musicians as well as in a workshop with the Piatti Quartet and a master class with Anna Thorvaldsdottir. A particular highlight came in his final year, when the RNCM Symphony Orchestra chose his work “Façade” to be performed at their end-of-year concert at the Bridgewater Hall in July 2022 for the second time after the RNCM brand new orchestra premiered it in January of the same year.

Matthew is now studying at the Royal College of Music with Kenneth Hesketh and Nicholas Moroz, where he is supported by the Nancy Wolfer’s Scholarship. Drawing from a wide range of influences, from Lachemann to Bach and Frey to Fernyhough, his style is eclectic, drawing inspiration from both contemporary techniques and traditional idioms, and he looks forward to developing this at the Royal College of Music. His style has a strong emphasis on noise and extended performance technique while staying grounded with a strong, colourful, harmonic foundation.