Profile

Matthew Davidson has released eight compact discs (reflecting his interest in contemporary ragtime, jazz from the 1920s-1940s, and “classical”) through STOMP OFF RECORDS, MASTERSOUND, and CAPSTONE RECORDS featuring himself as piano soloist.

Dr. Davidson studied piano privately with John Powell and Rae de Lisle in New Zealand (through whom a lineage may be traced to Franz Liszt), with Bruce Greenfield and Phillipa Ward at the Wellington Polytechnical Institute’s Executant Music Course in New Zealand, privately with Lawrence Pitchko and Harold Heap in Canada and with William Heiles at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in the United States of America.

Davidson has performed works by New Zealand composers Nigel Keay, Andra Patterson, Jack Body, Mark Langford, and himself in New Zealand and in the United States.

Critical praise for Davidson has come from such diverse sources as Gramophone Magazine (”…a remarkably talented pianist…as a performer Davidson has few peers…”), to Steve O’Keefe in Cadence Magazine (”…this disk by…Matthew Davidson is extraordinary.”), to Jack Rummel in The Rag Times (“With his trademark leaps from pianissimo to fortissimo and his seemingly effortless mastery of all 88 keys, no other ragtime performer today explores the full range of the piano, both dynamically and geographically, as he does. He is a true virtuoso, and his feats of skill will amaze you.”), to recording artist for Vanguard, Epic, New World Records and Omega Classics, Max Morath (”…his [Davidson’s] stunning premier performances…mark…this pianist for landmark status and accolades – adjectives for which one reaches for the Thesaurus: prodigious, consummate, mighty. Well – sublime.”). Of his latest album, Talencourt, www.hbdirect.com said: ”He has…achieved a fine reputation as a concert pianist…his chamber music experience has given him exceptional insight into the workings of solo and chamber string music.”

• Performances (7)
• Recordings (1)