Matthew has enjoyed a busy career in music as a performer and teacher for nearly 30 years.
As a teacher he has held the position of Head of Wind, Brass and Percussion at St Paul's Girls' School since 2015. He was Head of Percussion at the Junior Dept of the Royal Academy of Music between 2006 and 2018, and has taught on the Royal Academy of Music's LRAM course since 2022.
He has taught percussion and drum kit for over 20 years at a number of prestigious schools, and has been a tutor for the National Children's Orchestra and Hertfordshire Youth Orchestra.
As a performer he has had a long association with the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, playing in over 250 productions since 2002, broadcasting regularly and performing on numerous tours to Japan and Europe. He has been lucky enough to work with many of the world's most distinguished conductors and singers, including Lorin Maazel, Sir Antonio Pappano and Placido Domingo. Recent projects have included Joby Talbot's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Max Richter's Maddaddam and Mark-Anthony Turnage’s Festen.
He also works regularly with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment with whom he tours and performs with at Glyndebourne, the South Bank Centre and the BBC Promenade concerts. Forthcoming engagements with the OAE include Elgar's Enigma Variations and Handel’s Saul in 2025 and Mozart's Die Entfuhrung aus dem Serail and Berlioz’s Symphonie Fantastique with Sir Simon Rattle in 2026.
He also works extensively in West End theatre and was a member of the orchestra for The Phantom of the Opera between 2018 and 2020. He deputises on the marimba chair at The Lion King and is an associate player on Wicked. He has enjoyed working with a variety of stars in this field including Rowan Atkinson, Michael Crawford and Sarah Lancashire.
Matthew contributed to the Benjamin Britten centenary celebrations of 2013 by performing on two of the last works to be commercially recorded: The Ascent of F6 and On the Frontier, both for NMC. This recording was later nominated for a Grammy award in 2014. He has also taken part in two recording projects with Onyx Brass: their Fanfares album of 2017 and their latest disc, Transatlantic, which was released earlier this year. He has also appeared on a number of film soundtracks.
He has acted as a consultant to the ABRSM on their orchestral percussion syllabus. He also provides drum kits for the American jazz drummer Peter Erskine when he performs and records in the UK.