Colin Matthews

Colin Matthews was born in London in 1946. He studied music at the Universities of Nottingham, and Sussex, where he subsequently taught. Matthews worked with Britten in Aldeburgh from 1972 - 6, 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, ranging from solo piano music through to three string quartets and many ensemble and orchestral works, has been played worldwide, with recordings on Unicorn, Collins Classics, Deutsche Grammophon/Decca and NMC.

From 1992-9 he was Associate Composer with the London Symphony Orchestra, writing amongst other works a Cello Concerto for Rostropovich. In 1997 his choral/orchestral Renewal , commissioned for the 50th anniversary of BBC Radio 3, was given the Royal Philharmonic Society Award for large-scale composition. His ballet score Hidden Variables opened the Royal Ballet's 1999/2000 season, and the large-scale ensemble piece Continuum was toured in Europe by the BCMG and Simon Rattle in 2000.

Recent works include Reflected Images for the San Francisco SO and Berceuse for Dresden for the New York Philharmonic. Turning Point was premiered by the Concertgebouw Orchestra in January 2007. He is currently Composer-in-Association with the Hallé, for whom he will complete his orchestrations of Debussy’s 24 Preludes. Other commissions include works for the London Sinfonietta and BBC Symphony Orchestra and a violin concerto for Leila Josefowicz and the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra.