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.