28/10/2025
We’re very pleased to be working with Matthew Harrison, who has joined University Singers as our new Assistant Conductor.
Matthew is an award winning multi-instrumentalist, choral conductor and composer.
He is Music Director at Risca Male Choir and led them to victory as ‘best in Wales’ at the 2024 National Eisteddfod, where he was also awarded the Ivor E. Sims memorial medal as winning conductor.
As a freelancer he has performed as Principal Bassoon at the Welsh Chamber Orchestra and at the Bath Festival Orchestra, with whom he has recorded for BBC Radio 3.
Matthew is a graduate of the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama where he was awarded a First Class Batchelor of Music (bassoon) and a dual specialism Master’s Degree.
He was a finalist in the College’s prestigious Sir Ian Stoutzker Prize and received awards from the Leonard and Marian Jones Scholarship, the South Square Scholarship, Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama Scholarship and the Tillet Trust.
He studied bassoon with Meyrick Alexander, (Philharmonia Orchestra, London), Jarek Augustinyak, (BBC National Orchestra of Wales), Steve Marsden (Welsh National Opera); contrabassoon with Christopher Vale (Welsh National Opera), and saxophone with recording artist Lara James.
Matthew has worked in the choral sector since 2015, having previously held conducting roles at Cwmbran, Pontypool, and Bargoed Male Voice Choirs, and was the founder of Torfaen Male Choir. In 2018 he was awarded the Welsh Association of Male Voice Choirs’ Layton Watkins Memorial Award for Conducting.
As a composer, Matthew has written a collection of diverse works for the Royal Welsh Chamber Winds Ensemble, the Atmospheres Festival and the Band of The Welsh Guards. He was commissioned by the National Museum, Cardiff, to compose the soundtrack for the museum’s Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibition.
