Colin Matthews

Colin Matthews was born in London in 1946. He studied at the Universities of Nottingham and Sussex, and subsequently worked as assistant to Benjamin Britten, and with Imogen Holst. He collaborated with Deryck Cooke for many years on the performing version of Mahler's Tenth Symphony. Since the early 1970s his music has ranged from solo piano music through five string quartets and many ensemble and orchestral works. From 1992-9 Matthews was Associate Composer with the LSO, a fruitful partnership which lead to many substantial works including a Cello Concerto for Mstislav Rostropovich. Later, he was Composer-in-Association with the Halle Orchestra (2001-10) and is now their Composer Emeritus. International commissions include Berceuse for Dresden (2005) for the New York Philharmonic, Grand Barcarolle (2011) for the Leipzig Gewandhaus and Turning Point for the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra (2006). Recent pieces include a second piano trio – Hidden Agenda – for the London Bridge Trio, a setting of Edward Thomas’s It Rains for Roderick Williams and the Nash Ensemble, and an orchestration of Debussy’s Images Book 1 to be premiered by the Luxembourg Philharmonic in 2018. Matthews is Founder and Executive Producer of NMC Recordings, Executive Administrator of the Holst Foundation and Music Director of the Britten-Pears Foundation. The co-director (with Oliver Knussen) of the Aldeburgh Composition Course since 1992, he holds honorary posts with several universities and is Prince Consort Professor of Composition at the Royal College of Music.