Matthew Marshall

Matthew Marshall is one of New Zealand’s leading classical guitarists. He was a prize-winner in the 1988 Young Musician of the Year Competition and a recipient of an AGC Young Achievers Award and the UDC/Rotary Young Musicians Prize in 1989. He also won prizes in the Royal Overseas League Music Competition in London in 1990, Australia/New Zealand Foundation Awards in 1991 & 1995 and a NZ-France Friendship Award in 2006.

Matthew has performed throughout Europe, Asia, Pacific Islands, America, Australasia, and from Iceland to Easter Island! He has also given over 80 concerto performances in New Zealand, Mexico, Russia and Germany including appearances with the Berlin Chamber Orchestra, the Guanajuato & Michoacan Symphony Orchestras in Mexico and the Kemerovo Philharmonic in Russia.

Matthew has been recording for Radio New Zealand since the age of 17 and features on nine CDs for solo guitar, chamber music and with orchestra. He is also an advocate for contemporary New Zealand music, with more than 40 works written for or premiered by him including six concertos and numerous solo and chamber works by David Farquhar, John Psathas, Philip Norman, Anthony Ritchie, David Hamilton and many others.

In 2005 he gave a critically acclaimed solo recital in the Purcell Room at the Royal Festival Hall, London premiering major new works by New Zealand composers. In 2006/07 he performed in New Zealand, Australia, New Caledonia, England and USA and 2008/09 will see Matthew releasing a CD featuring music by New Zealand composers and he will also be touring New Zealand, Mexico, USA, Spain and the UK.

Sought after as an educator, Matthew Marshall has been teaching guitar since 1983 and has given masterclasses throughout New Zealand as well as in Australia, USA, Mexico, China, Malaysia, Russia and England including the Conservatorio Nacional de Mexico, the Mannes College of Music New York, the Gnessin Academy Moscow, the Queensland Conservatorium Brisbane, the Canberra School of Music, the Dartington International Summer School UK, and many others. Matthew has been Head of Guitar at the New Zealand School of Music since 1991 and is also founding Director of the Centre for Guitar Studies at Massey University/New Zealand School of Music, a research centre dedicated to the guitar, its music, performers, composers and repertoire.

In 2006-2007 Matthew was appointed Professor and Director of Music at Dartington College of Arts (UK) and from 1996 to 2006 he was Head of the Conservatorium of Music at Massey University. He is currently Visiting Professor of Music at the University of Plymouth (UK) and Head of Classical Performance at the New Zealand School of Music.

Matthew Marshall was Artistic Director of the New Zealand International Guitar Festival in 1992, 1996 and 2005. He has also been responsible for appearances by some of the world’s leading guitarists including Benjamin Verdery, John Mills, Stepan Rak, David Leisner, Timothy Kain, Guitar Trek, Groningen Guitar Duo, Marc Teicholtz, Karin Schaupp, Slava Grigoryan, Anthony Field, Marco Schmidt, David Jacques, Peter Constant, Daniel McKay.