For a great many years Matthew Best was a regular guest artist for all the major UK opera houses, and was familiar to concert audiences across the country and in Europe and the USA. He appeared regularly for The Royal Opera, English National Opera, Welsh National Opera, Scottish Opera and Opera North, for Glyndebourne Festival Opera and Glyndebourne Touring Opera, for Grange Park Opera and Buxton Opera Festival. Abroad he worked as a guest artist for Opéra de Lyon, Théâtre du Châtelet (Paris), in Nancy, Rouen and Nice, at the opera houses of Frankfurt, Stuttgart and Cologne, for Oper Leipzig in Hong Kong, at the Théâtre de la Monnaie (Brussels), Vlaamse Opera, Netherlands Opera, Royal Swedish Opera, Santa Fé Opera and Florida Grand Opera. He appeared regularly at all the major UK concert halls, including on several occasions at the BBC Promenade Concerts; in addition he worked as soloist in over eighty European and UK cities, in Tokyo, Kuala Lumpur and Hong Kong, and in the USA in New York, Miami, St Louis and Los Angeles.
Over his long career Matthew Best’s extensive repertoire included over one hundred bass, bass-baritone and baritone roles. Chief amongst these were Wotan in the complete Wagner Ring Cycle, The Flying Dutchman, King Mark, Amfortas, Kurwenal, King Heinrich, Scarpia, Jochanaan, La Roche, Orest, Peneios, Commendatore, Timur, Arkel, Ramfis and Sparafucile, and he premiered roles in new operas by Jonathan Harvey, Julian Anderson and (US premiere) Kaija Saariaho. He worked with a great many of the world’s leading conductors, including Gergiev, Muti, Haitink, Colin Davis, Andrew Davis, Mehta, Nelsons, Salonen, Svetlanov, Sanderling, Mackerras, Marriner, Runnicles, Gardiner, Hickox, Leppard, Nelson and Gilbert.
Matthew Best was equally well known as a conductor specialising in choral, vocal and orchestral music. Founder (1973) and artistic director of Corydon Singers and Corydon Orchestra, he made over thirty highly-regarded recordings for the Hyperion label, three of which were runner-up for the Choral Award in Gramophone, and several others selected as the recommended version on 'Building a Library' on BBC Radio 3, most recently his recording of Vaughan Williams Dona Nobis Pacem and Toward the Unknown Region. Recordings included a cycle of all the major Bruckner choral works, Vaughan Williams’ opera Hugh the Drover, Serenade to Music and a four-disc set of Vaughan Williams choral works, the Beethoven Mass in C and ‘Emperor’ Cantatas, the Rachmaninov Vespers and Liturgy of St John Chrysostom, Fauré and Duruflé Requiems, Britten St Nicolas, Berlioz L’Enfance du Christ, Finzi Intimations of Immortality and discs of music by Mendelssohn, Cherubini, Britten, Tchaikovsky, Copland and Villa-Lobos. He conducted at festivals throughout the UK and Europe, at the BBC Proms, Royal Festival Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall, St. John’s, Smith Square, and in the cathedrals of Westminster, Salisbury, Lichfield, Gloucester, Chester and Southwark. Earlier in his career he appeared regularly as guest conductor with the English Chamber Orchestra, London Mozart Players, Northern Sinfonia, City of London Sinfonia and BBC Singers; he also appeared with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, Manchester Camerata, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, English Northern Philharmonia, New Queen’s Hall Orchestra, Royal Seville Symphony Orchestra and Sonderjyllands Sinfoniorkester. For the 1998-9 season he was Principal Conductor of the Hanover Band, conducting a Beethoven cycle in London including the 1st, 3rd, 5th and 7th symphonies and Emperor Concerto. At the start of 2017, Best became Music Director of the Academy Choir Wimbledon and Academy Baroque Players.
At the start of his career Matthew Best was very active as a composer and arranger. He conducted the premiere of his operetta Alice (based on Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland) in Cambridge in February 1979, directed by Nicholas Hytner; further performances were given in the Jubilee Hall, Aldeburgh, as part of the 1979 Aldeburgh Festival, with a guest appearance by Sir Peter Pears. His other works included choral music (first performances including by the choir of King’s College, Cambridge and Corydon Singers) and song cycles. He produced performing editions for a number of works, including of a rare Bruckner manuscript for inclusion in his Bruckner cycle for Hyperion Records.
In latter years, Best added adjudicating, teaching and coaching to his busy schedule. He adjudicated several competitions at the Guildhall School of Music, Royal Academy of Music and Birmingham Conservatoire, gave masterclasses at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music, RNCM and Cardiff University, and held a teaching post at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester, which he combined with his singing and conducting commitments. He was part of the jury for the 2016 Kathleen Ferrier Competition.
Updated in May 2025. Not to be altered without permission.