MATTHEW
SCHELLHORN -
Piano
 Selected as a 'Talent to
Watch' for 2007 by BBC Music Magazine, and described
as ‘a rising star’ (BBC Radio 3) and ‘one
of Britain’s most exciting young pianists’ (Classic
FM), Matthew Schellhorn has a growing international career,
which in recent seasons has seen recitals in Europe,
Ireland and North America. Forthcoming highlights include
appearances in Scotland, a concerto recording in Belgrade
with the Belgrade Strings, and a solo recital at the
Wigmore Hall. Chamber recitals include collaborations
with violinists Elizabeth Cooney and Ruth Rogers, and
the Carducci Quartet.
Matthew Schellhorn has been
guest soloist at several international festivals, including
the Three Choirs Festival, the Windsor Festival, the
Hertford Music Festival, the Presteigne Festival of Music
and the Arts, the Messiaen International Conference,
and the Britten Sinfonia–BBC Radio 3 ‘Tippett 2005’ festival
in Cambridge. He has given solo recitals in many major
venues throughout the UK, including the Purcell Room and
St Martin-in-the-Fields in London, the Adrian Boult Hall
in Birmingham, the Djanogly Recital Hall in Nottingham,
the Sir Jack Lyons Concert Hall in York, the Huntingdon
Hall in Worcester, West Road Concert Hall in Cambridge,
the Jacqueline du Pre Music Building in Oxford, and the
De Montfort Hall in Leicester. He has given live solo performances
on BBC Radio 3, and in 2005 he was featured on Classic
FM’s The Guest List. In 2006, he made his
debut appearance at the South Bank Centre in London as
part of the prestigious 'Fresh' series.
Recent concerto performances
have included appearances with the London Mozart Players
(St John’s, Smith Square, London), sinfonia ViVA
(The Assembly Rooms, Derby), and Cambridge University Chamber
Orchestra (West Road Concert Hall, Cambridge). He has worked
with numerous conductors, including Jane Glover, Peter
Stark, David Hill and Andrew Fardell. The past few seasons
have also seen chamber performances with pianist Peter
Hill, soprano Lynette Alcántara, flautists Kathryn
Thomas and Louisa Dennehy, clarinettists Peter Sparks
and Catriona Scott, bassoonist Shelly Organ, cellists
Gemma Rosefield and Rosie Biss, and the Fitzwilliam Quartet.
Several leading composers
have written works for Matthew Schellhorn, including Jeremy
Thurlow (The Will of the Tones) and Tim Watts
(Two Scherzos). Composers with whom he has worked
include Hugh Wood, Robin Holloway, Alexander Goehr, James
Francis Brown, John Hawkins, Jeremy Thurlow, Jane O'Leary,
Adrian Williams, Lloyd Moore, Gabriel Jackson, and Cecilia
McDowall. In 2005 he gave the UK premiere of Lim by
Irish composer Ian Wilson, from whom he has recently commissioned
a major new work.
Matthew Schellhorn’s
performances of the piano music of Olivier Messiaen have
been met with superlative critical approval. Yvonne Loriod-Messiaen—the
acclaimed interpreter and dedicatee of Messiaen’s
piano music—has described Matthew Schellhorn as ‘an
excellent pianist and an excellent exponent’,
and has praised his playing as ‘in every
way wonderful’: ‘Accuracy, rhythm,
sonority, technique, emotion. ... Everything is played
as Messiaen wished it.’ In 2002 he was invited
to perform at the Messiaen International Conference,
where Christopher Dingle of BBC Music Magazine described
one solo recital as ‘a cherished memory for those
privileged enough to experience it’.
Born in Yorkshire in 1977,
Matthew Schellhorn studied in Manchester, Cambridge and
London with David Hartigan, Maria Curcio, Ryszard Bakst
and Peter Hill, and later in Paris with Yvonne Loriod-Messiaen.
Matthew's website is www.matthewschellhorn.com/
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