Mary Matthews | Flutist
Biography
Lovely and elegant but also aggressively declamatory, with a gorgeous dark tone.
- Flutist Quarterly
Flutist Mary Matthews is currently on faculty at Tennessee Tech University’s School of Music, and in August of 2023, she will join the flute faculty at Florida State University’s College of Music. She enjoys an active career as an international soloist, chamber musician, orchestral flutist, and pedagogue, and has performed on four continents in venues such as Carnegie Hall, Severance Hall, the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, Fundação Universidade do Sul de Santa Catarina, Festival Goethe Institut Música Nueva, and Cité Internationale des Arts. She currently serves as principal flutist of the Bryan Symphony Orchestra and performs regularly with orchestras such as the Nashville Symphony, Knoxville Symphony, Chattanooga Symphony, and the Evansville Philharmonic Orchestra, among others.
An active studio musician and recording artist, Mary can be heard on soundtracks for film, TV, and video games on Netflix, HBO, and Disney. She has released four albums including Intersections on the Ravello Records label, Three-Nine Line on the MSR Classics label, Charuhas on the Naxos Label, and Preludes & Recitations on the Tonsehen Records label. She has a fifth album forthcoming in 2023 with the Maryland Chamber Winds.
Her solo and chamber performances have taken her around the world, including recitals in France, Australia, Brazil, and Bolivia, and she has appeared as a concerto soloist on several occasions with ensembles in the United States. Mary has been a performer and teacher at National Flute Association conventions across the country and is a frequent recitalist and teacher across the globe. She has presented masterclasses and lectures at universities such as Colorado State University, Baldwin Wallace Conservatory, Bowling Green State University, and El Instituto Eduardo Laredo in Cochabamba, Bolivia.
A sought-after performer of new music, Mary has premiered over 30 new works. She is known for her command of extended techniques and her adventurous programming. She is half of Duo Rossignol with soprano Hillary LaBonte, and the two have been featured at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall, the New Music Gathering, the Dairy Arts Center's Soundscape series, and the National Flute Association convention. She also performs as a member of the Khemia Ensemble, a 12-member ensemble dedicated to the programming of diverse and innovative repertoire. Khemia Ensemble has been featured at venues and festivals including National Sawdust, the Mizzou International Composers Festival, Strange Beautiful Music, New Music Gathering, Latin IS America, the Missouri Summer Composition Institute, and the Biennial New Music Festival in Córdoba, Argentina. Passionate artist educators, Khemia has also held residencies at more than a dozen universities in North and South America.
Mary is the winner of numerous competitions including the South Carolina Flute Society Young Artist Competition, the Kathryn E. MacPhail Young Artist Competition, and the Firelands Symphony Orchestra Young Artist Competition. She received an Honorable Mention in the Mary Graham Lasley Young Artist Competition and was a finalist in the Coeur D'Alene Young Artist Competition, the William C. Byrd Young Artist Competition, and the J.C. Arriaga Chamber Music Competition. Over the course of her career, she has been selected for over 20 performance, research, and community outreach grants, including the Boedecker Path to Excellence Grant at the Dairy Arts Center in Boulder, CO.
Dr. Matthews has been invited to speak on various research topics at conferences and institutions such as the Peabody Institute Career Development Series, the College Music Society National Conference, the congress of the International Alliance for Women in Music, and the Music by Women Festival in Columbus, MS. Her doctoral thesis is titled "The Flute Music of Anna Bon di Venezia in the Context of Eighteenth-Century Flute Repertoire" and provides a theoretical, historical, and pedagogical analysis of the composer's works for flute. The National Flute Association's Flutist Quarterly published her article about Anna Bon's life and works in their Fall 2018 edition. In June of 2021, she released her first method book co-authored by Nicole Chamberlain titled Beatboxing and Beyond. The book is published by Spotted Rocket and was reviewed as "a revelation - it's a worthy addition to all our libraries." (Flutist Quarterly). She was awarded the 2022 Scholastic Research Award from Tennessee Tech University for the book, and the National Flute Association named Beatboxing & Beyond a finalist in the 2022 Newly Published Music awards. The second volume will be released in 2023.
A Rochester, NY native, Mary began her formal flute studies at the Eastman School of Music's Preparatory Program. She holds a Doctor of Musical Arts Degree from The Hartt School, a Master of Music Degree from the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University, and a Bachelor of Music Degree from the Baldwin Wallace Conservatory of Music. Her primary teachers include Jan Angus, George Pope, and Janet Arms.
Mary lives in Cookeville, TN with her husband, trumpeter Brandon Norton, and their four-legged family members, Avery, Chipper, Nala, and Ariel.
