Matthew Schellhorn

Born in Yorkshire in 1977, Matthew Schellhorn studied in Manchester and Cambridge. His teachers included Peter Hill and Yvonne Loriod-Messiaen. He has given recitals in many major venues throughout the UK, including Wigmore Hall and the Purcell Room. He is a regular guest soloist at international festivals and has performed live on numerous international radio stations. 

A prominent performer of new music, Matthew Schellhorn has given numerous territorial and world premieres with recent commissions including a collection of studies by Nicola LeFanu and various works by Gráinne Mulvey, Linda Buckley and Colin Riley. He has a particularly close working relationship with Irish composer Ian Wilson of whose music he is a frequent dedicatee. In 2012, he gave the world premiere of Ian Wilson’s Flags and Emblems in the Belfast Festival with the Ulster Orchestra, followed three years later by another world premiere with the same orchestra of Ian Wilson’s Mutazione: Piano Concerto; both performances were recorded live for BBC Radio 3. In 2014, Diatribe Records released Matthew Schellhorn’s solo disc, Ian Wilson: Stations, the world premiere recording of a new commission featured on RTÉ lyric fm as one of the ‘great cycles of 21st-century piano music’. His recent commission from Colin Riley, As the Tender Twilight Covers, was recorded for NMC and released in 2017 on the album Shenanigans (NMC Recordings NMC D241). 

Matthew Schellhorn’s performances of the music of Olivier Messiaen have been met with superlative critical approval. He has been regular guest soloist in performances of Trois petites Liturgies de la Présence Divine, Turangalîla-Symphonie, Réveil des Oiseaux and Oiseaux Exotiques with orchestras including the London Mozart Players. His first disc, with the Soloists of the Philharmonia Orchestra – Messiaen: Chamber Works (Signum Classics SIGCD126) – received positive reviews on both sides of the Atlantic and was awarded an AllMusic Classical Editors’ Favourite. 

Matthew Schellhorn is also a successful collaborative artist. Past seasons have seen performances with the Carducci, Fitzwilliam and RTÉ Vanbrugh Quartets. He also features on Outside (Nonclassical NONCLSS013), debut album of violinist Aisha Orazbayeva, with whom he took part in the 2013 Festival de Radio France et Montpellier Languedoc-Roussillon. As a duo with soprano Susanna Fairbairn, he has performed at several major venues; in 2017, Naxos released their disc of songs by Joseph Horovitz and Geoffrey Bush (Naxos 8.571378), which Gramophone hailed as ‘a splendidly stylish and communicative alliance’. 

He is also active as a teacher, giving regular masterclasses and workshops in the UK and abroad. For several years, he has taught at the University of Cambridge, where he gives instrumental tuition and chamber coaching to numerous students; in October 2016 he was elected to membership of the Faculty of Music. He has also been involved with various educational projects to bring the music of young composers to concert halls. He has made teaching visits to numerous university music departments and conservatoires and maintains a private teaching practice from his home in London, where he lives with his wife and two young sons. 

Matthew Schellhorn is a Liveryman of the Worshipful Company of Musicians.