About

Baritone Matthew Markham enjoys an active career on the operatic, concert, and recital stages. He has appeared on the operatic stage with Ash Lawn Opera, Janiec Opera, Spoleto Festival, New Jersey Opera, Manhattan Opera Theater of the French Institute Alliance Française, Da Ponte Concert Opera, Westminster Opera Theater, and Florida State Opera. Roles span Mozart through lyric French and English/American opera. He is a frequent soloist in oratorio ranging Bach to Britten and has performed in prestigious concert venues including Weill Hall at Carnegie Hall in New York City and Suk Hall at the Rudolfinum in Prague, Czech Republic.

An avid interpreter of art song, he has worked with musical luminaries Martin Katz, Graham Johnson, John Harbison, Jake Heggie, Ricky Ian Gordon and the late Craig Smith in performances at Songfest in Malibu, California. Dr. Markham has participated in master classes with Elly Ameling, Wolfgang Holzmair, Helmut Deutsch, Rudolf Jansen, Edith Wiens, Robert Tear and Jorma Hynninen at the Franz Schubert Institute in Baden bei Wien, Austria where he received a diploma in Poetry and Performance of the German Lied. He has twice been selected to participate in the Baldwin-Wallace Art Song Festival in Ohio where he has worked with Warren Jones, François Le Roux, Anthony Dean Griffey, Vladimir Chernov, George Vassos, and Stephanie Blythe.

Awards include being named a Finalist in the Franco-American Vocal Academy French Art Song Competition in Tribute to Gérard Souzay; winner of various competitions including the Regional MacAllister Awards, the Glenys Gallaher Memorial Award for Musical and Academic Excellence, numerous Florida and New Jersey State and Regional National Association of Teachers of Singing competitions, winner of the Westminster Choir College Graduate Voice Competition; and various Rotary Club and regionally sponsored competitions.

Discography includes baritone soloist on the international world premier recording of Antonio Rosetti’s Requiem Es-Dur (Murray H-15), conducted by Johannes Moesus with the Camerata Filarmonica Bohemia, released commercially in 2011. He is also on the recording It’s About Love, conducted by Kenneth Dake as a member of The Marble Choir in NYC, released in 2013.

In the field of music research, Dr. Markham was a national recipient of the prestigious Theodore Presser Grant Award for Graduate Research in Music and a recipient of a Florida State University Dissertation Research Grant Award. These grants have enabled him to conduct research on the vocal compositions of Czech composer Petr Eben and have culminated in his doctoral treatise "A Study of Písně z Těšínska of Petr Eben." He has collaborated with Dr. Timothy Cheek, author of Singing in Czech, in lecture recitals on this subject at the Fort Wayne Art Song Festival where he also served as guest artist/teacher, at the International Czech Song and Aria Competition at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay, and at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point. Dr. Markham was published in the January/February 2015 NATS Journal of Singing: "Petr Eben's Písně z Těšínska: A Guide for Singers, Teachers, and Coaches."

Dr. Markham holds the Bachelor of Music degree in Voice Performance from The Florida State University College of Music, Master of Music degree in Voice Performance and Pedagogy from Westminster Choir College, and the Doctor of Music degree in Voice Performance from The Florida State University College of Music.

As a pedagogue, Dr. Markham has established himself as a reputable teacher of voice and has taught many students who have received awards and scholarships in regional, national, and international voice competitions; who have been accepted to summer apprentice programs at the national and international levels; and who have been accepted to some of the nation’s most renowned graduate voice programs.

Dr. Markham continues to expand his professional development as a voice pedagogue by attending and participating in various workshops throughout the country. In early 2019, he was the recipient of a university professional development award enabling him to participate in the David Jones Voice Teacher Mentoring Program in NYC. In the summer of 2017, Dr. Markham received a University Professional Development Grant Award enabling him to participate and complete all three levels of the LoVetri Institute for Somatic Voicework™ in residence at Baldwin Wallace University. In the summer of 2015, he was selected as a professor within the University of Wisconsin system to attend Faculty College. In 2013, he received a faculty grant enabling him to participate in the 2013 Naked Voice Summer Institute at Northwestern University under the tutelage of W. Stephen Smith to which he was accepted as a voice teacher. As a NATS Teaching Intern in 2008, Dr. Markham was featured on a PBS Film Documentary and presented lectures on art song repertory and pedagogy for the college level voice student.

Dr. Markham joined the voice faculty at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point in the fall of 2012 and was promoted to Associate Professor of Voice in the spring of 2017. Dr. Markham received a UWSP Excellence in Teaching Award for the 2017-18 academic year. He teaches applied voice, vocal pedagogy, song literature, diction, a wellness course in vocal technique, and opera workshop. He made his directorial debut in the 2014 UWSP Opera Workshop production “American Opera Triptych” which included Barber’s “A Hand of Bridge,” and Menotti’s “The Telephone” and “The Old Maid and the Thief.” In the spring of 2016, he produced and directed the UWSP Opera Workshop production of Mozart’s “Die Zauberflöte,” and in 2018, Dr. Markham directed a Puccini double bill including “Suor Angelica” and “Gianni Schicchi.” He will be the director and producer for the upcoming 2021 UWSP Opera Workshop virtual production of "Don Impresario di Figaro: A Medley of Mozart Madness."

Prior to his position at UWSP, he maintained a large private studio and taught voice at the Purnell School in New Jersey; taught applied voice and assisted courses in song literature, diction, foreign language for singers, and vocal pedagogy at Florida State University; served a one-year term position on the voice faculty of the DePauw University School of Music where he taught applied voice and song literature; and taught on the voice faculty of the Steinhardt School at New York University while maintaining a private studio in NYC.

He is an active member of NATS and currently serves on the Wisconsin NATS Board as Treasurer. He serves as an adjudicator in various competitions including the NATS Student Auditions and the Classical Singer competition. He presented a co-masterclass entitled “Make Your Performance Count” at the National Classical Singer Convention in Chicago in May 2017. He is also a member of the New York Singing Teachers Association (NYSTA), College Music Society (CMS), Music Teachers National Association (MTNA), and the Dvořák Society of London.

Dr. Markham has been a faculty resident-artist at the Ameropa Solo and Chamber Music Festival in Prague, Czech Republic for three summers and has taught for the Metropolitan International Music Festival in NYC. He is delighted to return to the International Lyric Academy in Vicenza, Italy to teach for the third time this coming summer. 

For more information, please visit www.matthewmarkham.net.