Matthew Owens (b.1971)

Matthew Owens studied at Chetham's School of Music and became Organ Scholar at The Queen's College, Oxford from where he graduated in music. He won many prizes and awards as an organist, then studied at the Sweelinck Conservatorium in Amsterdam. He was Tutor in Organ Studies at the Royal Northern College of Music and at Chetham's and worked for BBC Religious Broadcasting. Matthew worked extensively as Assistant Conductor of the National Youth Choir of Great Britain from 1993-1999 and conducted many distinguished orchestras. He is in demand for choral workshops, masterclasses and adjudications in the UK and abroad and has made over twenty-five CDs as a conductor or solo organist. He has championed new music, particularly of British composers, premiering many new works by leading composers ranging from Jools Holland to James MacMillan, and John Rutter to Sir Peter Maxwell Davies. He is Organist & Master of the Choristers of Wells Cathedral and a composer. John Rutter studied music at Clare College, Cambridge and first came to notice as a composer and arranger of Christmas carols and other choral pieces during those early years; today his compositions, including such concert-length works as Requiem, Magnificat, Mass of the Children, The Gift of Life, and Visions are performed around the world. John edits the Oxford Choral Classics series, and, with Sir David Willcocks, co-edited four volumes of Carols for Choirs. In 1983 he formed his own choir The Cambridge Singers, with whom he has made numerous recordings on the Collegium Records label, and he appears regularly in several countries as a guest conductor and choral ambassador. John holds a Lambeth Doctorate in Music, and was awarded a CBE for services to music in 2007.