New Precentor and Director of College Music appointed

  • 10 October 2019

Matthew Martin, composer, conductor and organist, has been appointed as Precentor and Director of College Music from April 2020.

Matthew joins us from Keble College in Oxford where he is currently Director of Music and a Fellow. In this role, he directs the college choir and teaches academic music. Since joining Keble College in 2015, Matthew has led the choir on national and international tours, four BBC Radio 3 broadcasts and has made three commercial recordings, the most recent in collaboration with the Academy of Ancient Music.

Outside his role at Keble, Matthew continues his freelance activities as a composer and has written music for The Tallis Scholars, The Sixteen and the choirs of St Paul’s Cathedral, St John’s College and Clare College in Cambridge. His recent Triptych for organ was premiered by all competitors in this year’s St Albans International Organ Competition.

Matthew’s successful music career includes winning the Liturgical category in the 2013 British Composer Awards, recording numerous CDs, and, with the Gabrieli Consort, winning the Choral category in the 2019 BBC Music Magazine Awards for their ‘Rose Magnificat’ recording. Matthew has most recently been commissioned to write a new festival anthem marking the 750th anniversary of the founding of Westminster Abbey in October 2019.

This wealth of experience will be invaluable in his role at Caius, where he will also become Director of Studies in Music. He said, “Music at Caius has an enviable reputation, particularly through the choir’s innovative recordings and international touring profile, and I am honoured to be asked to lead it into the next stage of its development.”

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