George Matthew, Jr.
In May 1986, Mr. Matthew played the dedicatory recital of the new Middlebury College (Vermont) carillon, a 48 bell Paccard instrument, returning to play concerts and conduct master classes.
Born in Bronxville, NY in 1935 and currently a resident of Stamford, CT, George Matthew is a graduate of Columbia University (AB), Bridgeport University (MA), and Wesleyan University (CAS). He studied organ with Hugh Ross and Ernest White and carillon with Arthur Bigelow. Among his other mentors have been Tsvya Matsuki (Theory), David Barnett and Douglas Moore (Composition), Richard Moore (French Horn), Anne Modugno and Nicholas Collins (Electronic Music), Cantor Maurice Jampol (Jewish Music), and K. Subramanian (Indian Music).
He has been active in teaching, liturgical music, recital and concert performance on organ and carillon, and composition for various media. He has taught at Norwalk Community College and at the University of Bridgeport, where, as a graduate assistant, he was accompanist and assistant director of the Concert Choir. A church organist since the age of thirteen, he has served several area churches including First Congregational Church of Old Greenwich, CT, The First Congregational Church of New Canaan, CT, and Grace Church, Episcopal, White Plains, NY. He also was organist of Temple Sinai of Stamford, CT For 18 years.
As an undergraduate, he played French Horn and Tuba with the Columbia University orchestra and concert band, and also as a graduate student, with the University of Bridgeport orchestra and concert band. For several years he held the unusual double position of tuba plays and harpsichordist with the Stamford Symphony.
He has composed For various media, including woodwinds, handbells, carillon, electronics, organ and vocal ensembles. In May 1979, a concert of his works was given at Wesleyan University.
Mr. Matthew is currently organist/choirmaster of St. Andrew's Church (Anglican), and carillonneur of First Presbyterian Church, Stamford, CT, where he presides over the Maguire Memorial Carillon. He is also carillonneur of Middlebury College and of Norwich University in Vermont. For 23 years he was director of instrumental music of Rogers School in Stamford, retiring from that position in 1995.
Mr. Matthew has made eighteen carillon concert tours of the USA and Canada, and seven of Europe. His European debut at Ostend, Belgium was rather unusual; an all ragtime program for the Ostend International Jazz Festival. In 1985, he was Summer Carillonneur at Munich, Germany, playing twice each weekend at the Olympic Stadium. He has played concerts in Belgium, Holland, France, Germany, Denmark, Switzerland, England and Ireland, besides Canada and the USA. In July 1988, he was the first recitalist of the first summer series on the new carillon in the Tiegarten, Berlin. In 1989, he was the first American carillonneur to play a recital at Armagh, Northern Ireland.
Every year, since 1969, on the Sunday that falls between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, Mr. Matthew has presented a program of music of the High Holy Days on the carillon of First Presbyterian Church, Stamford. He has played this program at least once on every carillon in Connecticut, but its regular presentation in Stamford is unique, it is believed, in the world. Mr. Matthew has developed other annual programs celebrating Stamford's various ethnic festivals -- Greek, Polish, Irish, Black, and Scottish.
In May 1986, Mr. Matthew played the dedicatory recital of the new Middlebury College (Vermont) carillon, a 48 bell Paccard instrument, returning to play concerts and conduct master classes.
He has contributed numerous articles to Carillon News and the Bulletin of The Guild of Carillonneurs in North America, was in charge of the American presentation at The World Carillon Federation in Zutphen, Holland in 1990, and has served on several committees of the GCNA, of which he has been a carillonneur member since 1980. He is chairman of the Bellfounding in America committee.
Mr. Matthew has played organ recitals in the New York and Connecticut area, and as far afield as Copenhagen, Denmark and Munich, Germany. In 1959, he played the dedicatory recital of a small organ in Our Savior Lutheran Church, Croton-on-Hudson, NY, and has returned every year since to play a Christmas program.
Mr. Matthew is married, the father of two daughters, and also has two grandchildren. A homeowner in Stamford, CT, he has lived there since 1963. He also maintains a home in Brandon, VT, close to the Middlebury and Norwich carillons. |
