Matthew F. Reese is an American conductor, cellist, and tenor, active on both sides of the Atlantic. His chamber orchestra, Consortium Novum, has been heralded for its “splendid sound” (Oxford Culture Review)—a dynamic young ensemble on both the concert platform and in the opera pit. Recent highlights include Mozart’s Così fan tutte and Le nozze di Figaro, Stravinsky’s Petrushka, and Strauss’s Tod und Verklärung. The orchestra closed its final season with a charity performance of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 in aid of homelessness relief. A recipient of Oxford’s conducting prize, Matthew has held the Music Directorships of the Oxford University Philharmonia (2016-2017), and the Oxford University Wind Orchestra (2015-2017). In 2016, he was named the University’s inaugural Conducting Scholar, assistant-conducting the St. Anne’s Camerata. Matthew has studied conducting under the Celibidache student, Angel Gil-Ordóñez (PostClassical), Paul Spicer (Finzi Singers), Akiko Fujimoto (Minnesota Orchestra), and with the Haydn scholar, James Armstrong (William & Mary), to name a few. 

Equally at home in the choir stalls, Matthew recently finished his tenure as Master of the Music at Pusey House, Oxford, where he conducted one of the University’s premier mixed-voice chamber choirs. He is an alumnus of the Choir of The Queen’s College, Oxford, and has sung with many of the finest Anglican choirs in Oxford and Washington D.C. Matthew earned his B.A. magna cum laude with High Honors in Music from the College of William & Mary, where he is the founding Music Director Emeritus of the William & Mary Schola Cantorum. Matthew also holds an M.Phil in Musicology from the University of Oxford, where he is currently a doctoral candidate in Music.

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Beginning in the autumn of 2018, Matthew began teaching at The Peabody Institute of The Johns Hopkins University, working with undergraduate and graduate students in the College and Conservatory.