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ANDREW MATTHEWS-OWEN: PIANIST, COACH AND CURATOR

Biography

Andrew Matthews-Owen is among the most sought after collaborative pianists of his generation, regularly appearing in concert, and on commercial recordings with some of the finest classical artists of our time. Recent engagements include appearances at the Southbank Centre (Queen Elizabeth Hall and Purcell Room), Wigmore Hall, Kings Place, Birmingham Symphony Hall, St. David’s Hall, Warehouse and National Portrait Gallery with singers including Patricia Bardon, Susan Bickley, Claire Booth, Susan Bullock, Anne-Sophie Duprels, Rebecca Evans, Helen Field, Gail Pearson, Natalya Romaniw, Nicky Spence, Katie Van Kooten, Elin Manahan Thomas, Sir Willard White, French horn player Richard Watkins, percussionist Joby Burgess and the Allegri and Brodowski String Quartets.
 
Andrew broadcasts for BBC Radio 3, most notably from a Purcell Room concert, on St David’s Day, which included the London Premiere of Alun Hoddinott’s A Contemplation upon Flowers with his regular duo partner Claire Booth. Commercial recordings to date include a critically acclaimed solo album, Halo (Nimbus), and song recital discs of music by Debussy, Fauré and Satie (Nimbus), Jonathan Dove (Naxos), Alun Hoddinott (Naxos), Charlotte Bray (NMC) and Augusta Read Thomas (Nimbus). These albums are frequently heard on BBC Radio 3 and Classic FM, and have a featured in the UK Classical Charts. A landmark survey of songs by Welsh composers of the 20th and 21st centuries will be released in 2021. 
 
A passionate commitment to contemporary music has seen Andrew commission, and give first performances of, major scores from some of the most distinguished composers of the 21st century including Michael Berkeley, Charlotte Bray, Philip Cashian, Laurence Crane, Jonathan Dove, Alun Hoddinott, Simon Holt, Hannah Kendall,  Joseph Phibbs, Arlene Sierra, and Augusta Read Thomas. Andrew studied at the Royal Academy of Music, where he was recently elected an Associate, generously supported by the RAM Trust, S4C Wales Television, Sir Edward Heath, Coutt’s Bank and the Rayne Foundation. He has also studied privately with Christine Croshaw, Roger Vignoles and Eugene Asti. Competition successes include a coveted Sir Henry Richardson Award for Accompanists (MBF/Help Musicians), John Ireland Trust Prize, Elisabeth Schumann Lieder Prize and the Ryan Davies Memorial Award. Andrew was recently honored, with the inaugural T.Glanville Jones / Leo Abse and Cohen Award, by the Welsh Music Guild, for his ‘Outstanding Contribution to Welsh Music’. Andrew is a Fellow of the Royal Society of the Arts.
Discography

 

Andrew has recorded critically acclaimed CDs for the Naxos, NMC and BMS labels. These discs have been Editor's Choice and Recommended Recording of the Month in Gramophone magazine, and are often heard on BBC Radio 3 and Classic FM. A landmark survey of songs by Welsh composers of the 20th and 21st Centuries will be released later in 2020.

To purchase the discs below, please click on the cover image.

Taliesin's Songbook

 

Taliesin’s Songbook is an exploration of Welsh song of the 20th and 21st Centuries, featuring unique performances by a range of prominent Welsh artists.

Andrew Matthews-Owen: Piano

Catrin Finch: Harp

Rebecca Evans: Soprano

Gareth Brynmor John: Baritone

Susan Bullock: Soprano

Elin Manahan Thomas: Soprano

Elgan Llŷr Thomas: Tenor

Natalya Romaniw: Soprano

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Track 2: Deilen - Dilys Elwyn Edwards: Rebecca Evans and Andrew Matthews-Owen 

Track 20: Slumbersong of the Madonna - Morfydd Owen: Natalya Romaniw and Andrew Matthews-Owen

Track 14: Spring from 'Soul Candle' - Mark Bowden: Gareth Brynmor John and Andrew Matthews-Owen

Track 6: Four Welsh Songs Op.38: Cysga di, Fy Mhlentyn Tlws (Lullaby): Rebecca Evans and Andrew Matthews-Owen

Track 9: Menna (Excerpts from Menna arr. Soprano and Piano) - Arwel Hughes - Susan Bullock and Andrew Matthews-Owen

The Auditions: Chamber Music

Augusta Read Thomas (World Premiére recordings)

Claire Booth (soprano),

Andrew Matthews-Owen (piano)

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Track 15: Your Kiss: Claire Booth (soprano) and Andrew Matthews-Owen (piano)

As usual in this series, performances leave nothing to chance. Fortunate is the composer who has such committed exponents. (Gramophone)

The American composer Augusta Read Thomas has an intense ‘voice’, with an exceptional ear for timbral detail, clarity and the control of ebb and flow...Perhaps the vocal works are ultimately the most touching.  The composer carries us with her into another world which, this time, becomes human. (5 stars: BBC Music magazine)

Very well recorded and superbly performed, this is a very fine programme indeed of one of today’s leading composers. (Musicweb International)

ALUN HODDINOTT

Landscapes: Song Cycles and Folksongs

(released 1st December 2014)
Landscapes (Ynys Mon), Two Songs of Glamorgan, The Silver Hound, One Must Always Have Love, Towy Landscape, Six Welsh Folksong Arrangements

Claire Booth: Soprano,
Nicky Spence: Tenor,
Andrew Matthews-Owen: Piano
Jeremy Huw Williams: Baritone (Towy Landscape),
Michael Pollock: Piano Second (Towy Landscape)

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Original release available exclusively from BMS.

Track 5: Y Hen Gapel: 'Landscapes - Ynys Mon' Nicky Spence (tenor) Andrew Matthews-Owen (piano)

Track 19: The Ragged Wood: 'One Must Always Have Love' Claire Booth (soprano) Andrew Matthews-Owen (piano)

Track 25: The Golden Wheat: Six Welsh Folksongs Nicky Spence (tenor) Andrew Matthews-Owen (piano)

Track 26: Fairest Gwen: Six Welsh Folksongs Nicky Spence (tenor) Andrew Matthews-Owen (piano)

Impeccable diction and enunciation, wonderful nuancing of text, and sensational technique make Spence a singer I am eager to hear again...With secure facility and elegant phrasing the excellent accompanist for this program, Andrew Matthews-Owen, expressively draws out the rich palette of sound in Hoddinott’s imaginative writing. (American Record Guide)

Both cycles are given highly nuanced and powerfully projected performances by Nicky Spence, underpinned with some accomplished piano playing from Andrew Matthews-Owen...This recording...bears witness to Hoddinott's fecund imagination and invention in bringing such poetic landscapes to lustrous musical life. (Gramophone magazine – Recommended Recording of the Month)

This is a distinguished record for which the British Music Society deserves high praise...The composer is wonderfully served by these artists: Claire Booth negotiates the demanding soprano lines with seeming effortless ease, and Nicky Spence, in the two main tenor cycles, is astonishingly good. Andrew Matthews-Owen is an admirable partner throughout…an outstanding issue, consistently of very high quality as regards music, performance, recording and presentation. (International Record Review)

If you want to find out what has happened to English song since Britten, this is as good a place to start as any. The four song-cycles on this disc share the characteristics that give Dove his individual voice – not least the skill, perhaps learnt from Britten, to light upon a simple idea that encapsulates a whole song – and yet they are strikingly different. In the unaccompanied Ariel, soprano Claire Booth… so completely embraces the world of The Tempest, glimpsed in shards of Shakespearean text, that the cycle almost feels like an opera in miniature… Nicky Spence puts them across with Pears-like point. The other two cycles fall to mezzo Patricia Bardon. Her singing is all earth and fire in the brief Lorca cycle but All You Who Sleep Tonight, sensuous and playful, is carried to an ecstatic climax on waves of minimalist rhythmic energy… Andrew Matthews-Owen is the supportive accompanist. Here are four highly imaginative new song-cycles, each deserving of a life of its own. (Gramophone magazine)

CHARLOTTE BRAY

At The Speed of Stillness

Fire Burning in Snow, Oneroi, Replay, Yellow Leaves, Caught in Treetops Part 1 & 2

Aldeburgh World Orchestra
Sir Mark Elder: Conductor
Lucy Shaufer: Mezzo-soprano
Alexandra Wood: Violin

BCMG
Oliver Knussen: Conductor
Claire Booth: Soprano
Andrew Matthews-Owen: Piano
Huw Watkins: Piano.

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Track 7: Still Standing: Yellow Leaves Claire Booth (soprano) Andrew Matthews-Owen (piano)

Track 9: While the Bell Tolls...: Yellow Leaves Claire Booth (soprano) Andrew Matthews-Owen (piano)

Track 11: Old Tales: Yellow Leaves Claire Booth (soprano) Andrew Matthews-Owen (piano)

These six new works by a new British composer attest a sharp ear and a vigorous imagination. (The Times)

Charlotte Bray is now at the forefront of younger British composers...There is little doubt as to the commitment of these performances (not least the vocal pieces)... (Gramophone magazine)

These performances must have thrilled the composer and the recording is ideal. (Musicweb International)

JONATHAN DOVE

All You Who Sleep Tonight: Song Cycles

Out of Winter, Cut My Shadow, Ariel, All You Who Sleep Tonight

Claire Booth: Soprano
Patricia Bardon: Mezzo-soprano
Nicky Spence: Tenor
Andrew Matthews-Owen: Piano

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Track 3: Song III: 'Out of Winter' Nicky Spence (tenor) Andrew Matthews-Owen (piano)

Track 7: Surprise: 'Cut My Shadow' Patricia Bardon (mezzo) Andrew Matthews-Owen (piano)

Track 11 : I boarded the King's ship!: 'Ariel' Claire Booth (soprano)

Track 15: Condition Patricia Bardon (mezzo), Andrew Matthews-Owen (piano)

Track 27: All You Who Sleep Tonight': Patricia Bardon (mezzo) Andrew Matthews-Owen (piano)

Despite Dove's celebrated place as an opera composer and a career so dominated by writing for voices, his songs are not heard often. Here is an excellent opportunity to hear a good sampling of them. (American Record Guide)

I cannot imagine anyone with an interest in singing, or music for voice and piano, or young singers, or British music not responding to this...Dove's music does not sound like Britten, in particular. He seems to have found his own distinctive voice, and relatively early. Others may hear differently, but to hear. they must acquire this superb disc - a purchase I strongly urge! (Fanfare magazine)

These song cycles give the listener another opportunity to engage with the composer’s writing for solo voice. All of them except Ariel here receive their world première recordings. Patricia Bardon encompasses the wide vocal range without any sense of strain, and her diction again is commendably clear… The first performance was given by Tear as soloist, and Nicky Spence here sounds very like his distinguished predecessor in both tone and style although more youthful… Apart from his excellent booklet notes, Andrew Matthews-Owen is a superlative pianist…Throughout these cycles one is grateful to encounter a composer whose writing for the voice, and his understanding of its technique, is so approachable. We must be grateful to Naxos for making these works available in such excellent performances. (Musicweb International)

On this thrilling and satisfying CD from Naxos a collection of representative works by British composer Jonathan Dove leave the listener in no doubt that [his song-writing] is bristling with energy and red blood. Each [work] is performed with great conviction and aplomb by the singers and pianist here. …they completely understand the delicate balance between pushing an object into motion and guiding it throughout the course of its natural vector. Then they pull their hands away; and leave us wanting more. Equally noteworthy is the extent to which pianist and singer create almost orchestral sonorities… Recommended not only as an emblem of how successful and apposite British songwriting is, but as substantial music in its own right. (ClassicalNet)

Elan, intelligence and passionate engagement…technical accomplishment…this is a richly stimulating recital. (BBC Music Magazine)

The four works that make up this delightful anthology demonstrate not only that Jonathan Dove is heir to the 20th-century English song tradition but also that he is one of the most vivid painters of words in music today. (Financial Times)

HALO: Music for Piano

Hannah Kendall, Joseph Phibbs and Dobrinka Tabakova

Preludes, Modetudes, On the Chequer'd Field Array'd, Halo

Andrew Matthews-Owen: Piano

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Track 1: Prelude No.1 - Phibbs

Track 5: Prelude No.5 (Neon) - Phibbs

Track 6: Prelude No.6 (Elegy) - Phibbs

Track 15: On the Chequer'd Field Array'd (Mindplay) - Kendall

Track 17: Halo - III. Calm and Settled Glow - Tabakova

Track 20: Nocturne - Tabakova

A contemporary music specialist...Matthews-Owen captures its delicacy and inner steel superbly and his playing throughout is a marvel, as is Nimbus's recording. (Gramophone magazine) 

Pianist Andrew Matthews-Owen has long been noted as a sensitive collaborator in his more usual role as an accompanist. But he also holds dear working with composers and, for the first time on disc, he steps out solo to present music by three rightly held in high regard. The title describes colours shimmering from the moon - as they do, evocatively, from the piano thanks to Matthews-Owen's unshowy finesse. (BBC Music Magazine)

Songs and Vexations: Debussy, Fauré, Satie and Dove

Claude Debussy: Cinq poème de Charles de BaudelaireJonathan DoveLetters from Claude

Gabriel Fauré: Mélodies, Erik Satie: Chansons and Vexations

Claire Booth: soprano

Susan Bickley: mezzo soprano

Andrew Matthews-Owen: piano

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Track 2: Erik Satie: Statue de Bronze Susan Bickley and Andrew Matthews-Owen

Track 5: Claude Debussy: Le Balcon Claire Booth and Andrew Matthews-Owen

Track: 12 Song III Dove: Letters from Claude Susan Bickley, Claire Booth and Andrew Matthews-Owen

Track 18: Gabriel Fauré: Au bord de l’eau Claire Booth and Andrew Matthews-Owen

Track 24: Erik Satie: Je te Veux Susan Bickley and Andrew Matthews-Owen 

A careful and astute selection of some wonderful songs by Debussy and those around him, clustered around an eminently enjoyable new commission from Jonathan Dove. And it's difficult to imagine it much better performed than here...Essentially the emotional centrepiece of the disc nevertheless is Debussy's own ever-remarkable Cinq poemes de Charles de Baudelaire. Booth throws herself fully into their heady world, her voice breathy and open in its timbre and often indecently sensuous - and always used intelligently. Matthews-Owen rises to the challenges of the various piano parts very impressively ..a valuable addition to the catalogue (Gramophone)

In this beautifully curated postlude to the Debussy centenary year, pianist Andrew Matthews-Owen is joined by singers Claire Booth and Susan Bickley in a programme that looks both outward to Debussy's contemporaries and inward to his personal life...It is enchanting...The mood is lifted by songs from Bardac's former lover, Fauré, shared between the two singers, and Bickey sings the quixotic Satie melodies that frame the recital...there is much to enjoy here. Matthews-Owen judges the pace of exquisitely throughout, while the segue from Satie's Vexations to the closing 'Je te veux' is a masterstroke. (BBC Music magazine)

There are plenty of recordings of French art songs from Fauré up through Satie, but this British release has several special features going for it. First is the presence of two fine contrasting voices,  both expertly accompanied by pianist Andrew Matthews-Owen. Highly recommended. (AllMusic.com Award: Vocal Disc of the Year 2019)

Press Reviews

Matthews-Owen rises to the challenges of the piano parts (Debussy: Poèmes de Charles Baudelaire) very impressively. (Hugo Shirley, Gramophone)

In this beautifully curated postlude to the Debussy centenary year...Matthews-Owen judges the pace exquisitely throughout, while the sequence from Satie's Vexations to the closing 'Je the Veux' is a masterstroke (BBC Music magazine)

Claire Booth and Susan Bickley...both expertly accompanied by pianist Andrew Matthews-Owen (AllMusic.com - Classical Vocal Disc of the Year 2019)

t is to the credit of the three singers and pianist Andrew Matthews-Owen that they completely understand the delicate balance between pushing an object into motion and guiding it throughout the course of its natural vector. (ClassicalNet)

…underpinned with some accomplished piano playing by Andrew Matthews-Owen. (Gramophone magazine)

...the ideal Claire Booth, and her meticulous pianist. (Musicweb International)

Top notch performers too: Claire Booth, Andrew Matthews-Owen, Richard Watkins and Nicky Spence. (Classical Music magazine)

Dove’s 20-minute cycle…casts a spell - not least in the ecstatic finale where pianist Andrew Matthews-Owen contributes to the theatrical atmosphere. (Financial Times)

The star of the show is Matthews-Owen. So much of the effectiveness of these songs lies in Dove's inventive piano writing with its cross rhythms and shifting patterns. He catches the jarring rhythm of a train, and is able to tease from the keyboard the sounds of the stringed instrument in 'The Guitar'. In all these changing moods, Matthews-Owen is in command. (American Record Guide)

The playing of Matthews-Owen is full partner in the musical writing. He is clearly a splendid keyboard player. (Fanfare magazine)

Pianist Andrew Matthews-Owen shows his versatility in cycles of such varied atmospheres. (Ritmo magazine, Spain)

…intense intelligence and musicality… (Telegraph)

Andrew Matthews-Owen is the supportive accompanist. (Gramophone magazine)

With secure facility and elegant phrasing the excellent accompanist for this program, Andrew Matthews-Owen, expressively draws out of the rich palette of sound… (American Record Guide)

Andrew Matthews-Owen is a superlative pianist... (Musicweb International)

Special mention must be given to his perceptive responses to each of the singer’s reflections. Matthews-Owen’s rich sweeping sound works marvellously in Landscapes, The Silver Hound and Towy Landscape but, like Spence, he tones it down to perform with touching simplicity in the folksongs. (Musical Pointers)

Sympathetically partnered by Andrew Matthews-Owen at the piano. (Tempo magazine)

Both Booth and especially Spence display great sensitivity and communicativeness in their interpretations, as does their stalwart pianist Matthews-Owen…he is always technically au fait and reliably expressive, and his responsiveness towards Spence in particular is exemplary. (Musicweb International)

Andrew Matthews-Owen is an admirable partner throughout. (International Record Review)

Matthews-Owen matched [Anne Sophie] Duprels on each step of the journey. His playing is a combination of conviction and intelligence (he is no stranger to complex modern scores) paired with an array of vivid pianistic colours, which illuminate the singer's reflections. A fine duo. (Musical Pointers)

It is compelling stuff, as delivered by Spence and pianist Andrew Matthews-Owen, who is a rock throughout. (Classical Music Quarterly)

Claire Booth’s clarity and quality of voice were exemplary throughout, likewise Andrew Matthews-Owen’s skilled navigation of the varied piano parts. (Seen and Heard International)

All were beautifully played by a top selection of performers, making for an excellent demonstration of the power of new music…Andrew Matthews-Owen gave a dynamic, sensitive reading…Matthews-Owen gave another fine performance at the piano, and Claire Booth sang the soprano part with her typical sense of drama and poise. (Bachtrack)

At every turn, the work of her [Natalya Romaniw] experienced accompanist Andrew Matthews-Owen was beautifully judged and poetic. (Seen and Heard International)

Andrew Matthews-Owen is an immaculate accompanist, showing a particularly clean pair of fingers in the dashing virtuosity of Song III. (BBC Music Magazine)

This is an intriguing collection of music that you won't be able to find anywhere else, performed by an intrepid artist from whom we can only hope to hear more in the near future. (Musicweb International)

Irresistible - especially as played here by dedicatee Andrew Matthews-Owen, another persuasive advocate for new keyboard music (theartsdesk.com)

Music at Work

The concert was a great success for the Foundation and the two series we organised, bringing several sponsors and a dedicated audience of supporters to the project for the next two years. The series culminated in summer 2010, at a gala concert and discussion with Sir Peter Maxwell Davies. Mr Matthews-Owen was always highly sensitive to the Foundation’s other projects and exhibitions, making sure that the concerts were put together and performed with minimal disruption to the galleries at the Foundation. Mr Matthews-Owen always coordinated the musicians and their rehearsal times in the space and handled their individual needs with great diplomacy, tact and calm understanding. Working with Mr Matthews-Owen has always been a pleasure; he is utterly professional and infectiously enthusiastic about his work. (Scott Bauer, Gallery Director, Louise Blouin Foundation, London)

 

Andrew and I worked together on an inaugural concert we were putting on at GS, off the back of discussions he and I had about encouraging music in the workplace. Andrew was a pleasure to work with - he came with plenty of ideas, he was flexible and thoughtful about the audience and what would work best. He was professional at all times and dealt with the logistical side of things in a timely and organised fashion. The concert was a huge success with Andrew and his colleagues putting on a top class performance. (Sarah Harper, MD and Head of Recruitment EMEA and India, Goldman Sachs)

Teaching and Coaching

Andrew has a reputation as an inspirational performance coach, whether as a vocal coach or piano teacher. He is currently Lead Tutor for Piano (Junior Trinity) at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance, London, where he gives individual lessons and takes weekly performance classes with gifted young pianists in solo, chamber music and accompaniment. His students have won numerous competitions, and performed as soloists at platforms including LSO St. Luke’s, Wigmore Hall, St. John’s Smith Square and Cadogan Hall. Andrew has given master classes and workshops at the Royal College of Music and the universities of Cardiff and Hull.

As a Vocal Coach, Andrew works regularly with some of the most respected opera singers working at the major houses internationally in mainstream repertoire and his specialism of new and challenging scores by living composers. He has recently led workshops in contemporary song with postgraduates at the Royal Academy of Music, London, and coaches undergraduates and postgraduates at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance.

Curating

Andrew has devised many concerts and events for large-scale organisations and bodies. He has curated, and performed in, major retrospectives of composers Claude Debussy and Benjamin Britten at the Southbank Centre for their anniversary years. To mark Britten @ 100, Andrew curated ‘Benjamin Britten: Artistic Crucible’, a three-day festival at Kings Place celebrating the great man’s centenary year. Andrew established and directed the Louise Blouin Concert Series, which saw fascinating evenings of art and music with performances by leading performers, and talks given by Sir Peter Maxwell Davies and Michael Berkeley.

In recent years, Andrew has enjoyed taking music into major banks and law firms. For 5 five years he has curated monthly concerts at BNPParibas for employees to enjoy with their lunch, and two annual concerts in which the employees themselves perform. This has led to duos, trios and chamber music ensembles forming within the bank's workforce. Andrew curated a concert of bankers and lawyers in a fund-raising concert for Desmond Tutu in 2015.