Matthew Watts

musical director, tenor,
singing & piano teacher

Matthew was described in the Ham & High as the “Gareth Malone of Primrose Hill” (see Press above) after he founded the Primrose Hill Choir and Children’s Choir in 2012. He was the winner of the Ricordi Conducting Prize and his work has received fine reviews in the national press – “Performance standards were high” (Opera Today), “The chorus delivered their contribution with intensity and conviction” (The Independent).

He enjoys working with singers of all ages and abilities. He ran learn-to-sing courses for Westminster Adult Education Service and has conducted the choristers and professional lay clerks of the Choir of Ealing Abbey, the Reading Festival Chorus and the Royal Tunbridge Wells Choral Society. He has taken part in premières by important classical composers. He was the chorus master for the British staged première of Goldschmidt's opera Beatrice Cenci at the Spitalfields Festival and conducted the European première of Quest by George Crumb. He has appeared on BBC Radio London, run choral workshops as far afield as Nepal and started the most remote choir in the world on Rapanui (Easter Island) in the Pacific! He is also the musical director of the London Classical Choir and Orchestra, professional London Classical Singers quartet (available for hire), and Let the Children Sing.

Matthew was brought up in Primrose Hill and still lives in the area. He studied at Glasgow University and Trinity College of Music, and furthered his conducting studies with Cathal Garvey and Denise Ham from the Royal Academy of Music, and singing studies with Lyndon Van Der Pump from the Royal College. He was a tenor choral scholar in Glasgow University Chapel Choir and at St Martin-in-the-Fields Church, Trafalgar Square (audio here), and has sung on the BBC, for Mark Elder and Princess Diana, and with Gonzo, the famous muppet, at the Albert Hall! Outside work he enjoys photography, writing blogs, football, languages, Lindy hop dancing and travelling the world.