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    Matthew Owens

    Level 1 Tutor

    Founder and Music Director of the Ulster Consort, Artistic Director of Gordonstoun 

    Matthew Owens is a conductor, composer, and organist based in Northern Ireland and Scotland. He is Founder and Music Director of the Ulster Consort, Northern Ireland’s newest professional vocal and instrumental ensemble. In August 2025 he was appointed Artistic Director of Gordonstoun, one of the world’s leading independent schools.

    Educated at Chetham’s School of Music, Manchester, The Queen’s College, Oxford, the Royal Northern College of Music, and the Amsterdam Conservatorium, Matthew won all the major prizes in the diplomas of the Royal College of Organists and the Silver Medal of the Worshipful Company of Musicians. He has given recitals in Australia, France, New Zealand, Republic of Ireland, Spain, Switzerland, the USA, and throughout the UK.

    Matthew was the director of music at St Mary’s Episcopal Cathedral, Edinburgh (1999-2004), and Wells Cathedral (2005-2019). Under his leadership, Wells Cathedral Choir was named by an international jury for Gramophone as the best choir in the world with children. From 2019–2022, he was Director of Music of Belfast Cathedral, where he re-established the choir as a professional adult ensemble, winning international acclaim for its work: “it could well be the finest all-adult standing choir of its kind anywhere, with near-perfect vowel harmony, blend, enunciation, nuanced awareness of phrase and an exceptional, bright and pure soprano group.” (Gramophone).

    Matthew served as President of the Cathedral Organists’ Association (2010–13); he was made an Honorary Fellow of the Guild of Church Musicians in November 2012; and in October 2017 he was made a Prebendary (Canon) of Wells Cathedral ‘for outstanding service’ to the Diocese and the Cathedral. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.

    As a conductor he has made over 30 albums with major labels, and, among others, has guest conducted the London Mozart Players, Ulster Orchestra, English Symphony Orchestra, Scottish Ensemble, Nash Ensemble, and the Hungarian National Philharmonic Orchestra.

    As an educator, Matthew has directed choral workshops and summer schools throughout the UK and abroad, including Australia, China, Germany, Hong Kong, Kenya, Luxembourg, New Zealand, and the USA; he was Tutor in Organ Studies at the Royal Northern College of Music (1995–2001); and has contributed academic papers and publications on choristers and on contemporary sacred music (OUP; Journal of Voice; Open Book Publishers). He is the sole accredited teacher for the Royal College of Organists in Northern Ireland, and from 2023-25 he was Professor of Vocals at the Royal Marines School of Music and Head of Voice for the Royal Marines Bands Service.

    Matthew has championed new music, particularly of British composers, conducting over 250 world premieres, including works by leading composers ranging from Jools Holland and Sir John Rutter to Sir James MacMillan and Sir Peter Maxwell Davies. He is Director of the Cranmer Anthem Book, a project that will set all 88 Collects from the Book of Common Prayer to music, by some of the world’s finest composers. As a composer himself, he is published by Oxford University Press, Novello, and the Royal School of Church Music.

    UC-1300