‘That’s not research; you’re just the performer. Composer-performer collaboration and understanding the role of the creative process’.

Matthew is acknowledged as one of Australasia’s leading classical guitarists and is the Head of ideaschool. The audience at his inaugural lecture was treated to an inspiring performance of his skills, both as a performer and as a speaker. With a performing and recording career that spans more than 30 years of solo performances, chamber music and orchestral performances, EIT is indeed fortunate to have him on the staff.

 Music requires an intermediary between the composer and the performer and the process is not complete until the work is performed and experienced by others. The key role of any performer is one of interpretation, adding creative and artistic input. Matthew recognises that due to the imperfect nature of musical notation, every performance is unique.

His mission, as a performer, is to build a distinctive and unique repertoire of New Zealand music that has international appeal.  Collaboration between composer and performer is essential, and to this end, Matthew has commissioned 50 works from 25 composers within New Zealand, many of whom are not guitarists.

 “For an instrument and its music to evolve and for it to flourish, composers of every generation must write for it, and their music must be performed and heard. This is really important to me and I love exploring new musical ideas and experimenting with new techniques on the guitar – and of course encouraging others to do so too.”