Matthew Best’s career unusually combines a fast-growing international reputation as an exponent of the great Wagner and Strauss Heldenbariton roles with a distinctive conducting career featuring a distinguished contribution to the recorded repertory.
Matthew studied at Kings College, Cambridge, and at the National Opera Studio, and in 1982 won the Decca-Kathleen Ferrier Prize. His teachers include the late Otakar Kraus, Robert Lloyd and Patrick McGuigan, with whom he continues to study. At the outset of his career, he sang as a principal bass with The Royal Opera, Covent Garden, and as a guest with many other companies, and in recent years he has moved into the bass-baritone and Heldenbariton repertory. This process reached a significant landmark when he sang the role of Wotan/The Wanderer in Scottish Opera's new production of Der Ring des Nibelungen, first seen at the Edinburgh International Festival.
Other engagements have included Scarpia Tosca, Amfortas Parsifal, Kurwenal Tristan und Isolde, Vladislav Dalibor, Don Pizarro Fidelio and the High Priest Alceste for Scottish Opera; Swallow Peter Grimes for ROH, Scarpia for Florida Grand Opera; Count Walter Luisa Miller and Scarpia for Opera North; Kurwenal in Nancy; the title role in The Flying Dutchman, Wotan The Rhinegold, Marke Tristan und Isolde, Jochanaan Salome and Marshall Kutuzov War and Peace for ENO; Jochanaan for WNO; Cadmus The Bassarids at the Chatelet, Paris and in Cologne; Jochanaan and Mr. Flint Billy Budd (also recorded by Chandos) with LSO/Richard Hickox; Kurwenal Tristan und Isolde with La Monnaie, Brussels; Don Pizarro Leonore under Gardiner at the Proms, Salzburg Festival, the Concertgebouw, Amsterdam and the Lincoln Center Festival, New York (also recorded by DG); and Pizarro in concert performances of Fidelio with CBSO and with the Swedish Chamber Orchestra.
Recordings include Beethoven's Leonore, Berlioz' L'enfance du Christ, Britten's Billy Budd and Peter Grimes, Elgar's The Dream of Gerontius, Falla's El Retablo di Maese Pedro, Menotti's Martin's Lie and Rossini's Il barbiere di Siviglia.
Recent engagements include Wotan in Siegfried and Walküre and Orest Elektra in Stuttgart; Elgar's The Dream of Gerontius with Hallé Orchestra/Mark Elder, Beethoven 9 with the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra, Shostakovich 14 with the Northern Sinfonia/Thomas Zehetmair; Commendatore Don Giovanni with Scottish Opera and a concert of Wagner arias and scenes with CBSO and Kazushi Ono.
Current and future engagements include; extracts from Die Meistersinger with RTE Dublin, the role of Vairochana in the world premiere production of Jonathan Harvey's Wagner Dream in Luxembourg, Amsterdam and Paris, Peneios Daphne for his debut with Santa Fe Opera and Wotan in Siegried for Opéra de Lyon.
Matthew Best's conducting activities include his long-standing association with The Corydon Orchestra and Singers, of which he is founder and artistic director. His many notable recordings with them include highly acclaimed performances of Bruckner's Masses and Te Deum, Berlioz' L'Enfance du Christ and Vaughan Williams' opera Hugh the Drover. His guest conducting includes appearances with the English Chamber Orchestra, London Mozart Players, City of London Sinfonia, Royal Seville Symphony Orchestra, English Northern Philharmonia, the New Queen's Hall Orchestra, the RTE Concert Orchestra, The Manchester Camerata and The Hanover Band (where he was Principal Conductor for the 1998/99 season). In December 2000 he made his debut with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, and then he began an association with the Northern Sinfonia.
Matthew Best is represented by Intermusica.
February 2007 / 544 words. Not to be altered without permission. Please destroy all previous biographical material.