Matthew Hunt
Biography
Matthew is the visiting Clarinet consultant at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland.
Matt began his musical career as a chorister at Lichfield Cathedral. He later studied at the Guildhall School of Music in London, where his teachers included the late Dame Thea King, and in Paris with Pascal Moraguès. He is now a member of Ensemble 360 in Sheffield and one of the solo clarinetists of Die Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie (the German Chamber Orchestra).
In addition to his work with Ensemble 360, Matt enjoys a career as a chamber musician that takes him round the globe, in the past season he has performed in Japan, the United States, Romania,
Germany, France and at the Wigmore Hall and Edinburgh Festival with partners including Pekka Kuusisto, Natalie Clein, Thomas Adès, the Arditti Quartet, Christine Schäffer, Lawrence Power and the Nash Ensemble. Matt is a regular visitor to the International Musicians’ Seminar, Prussia Cove, taking part in the 2007 tour of the UK.
As an Orchestral musician, Matt is a frequent guest principal clarinetist with the Scottish Chamber and BBC Symphony Orchestras, and was a member of Claudio Abbado’s Lucerne Festival
Orchestra. Since 2005 he has been a member of the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie, and Matt has been involved in projects playing and recording the cycle of all 9 Beethoven Symphonies with their principal conductor Paavo Jarvi. Matt has also recorded many film soundtracks, and can be heard playing the solo clarinet part on Love Actually and Pride and Prejudice.
Education is an important part of Matt’s schedule, in the past year, in addtion to the work of Ensemble 360 at York and Sheffield Universities, he has given masterclasses in Japan at the Minato Mirai, at the RNCM in Manchester and has taught on a chamber music course at the Britten-Pears School in Snape.
Matt’s plans for the future season include appearances in the USA, Finland and Japan, and the release of a disc of romantic music for clarinet and piano on the ASV label.