JOSEPH MATTHEWS: TRUMPET

Born in 1996, Joseph Matthews is a young professional trumpet player based in London. He completed his undergraduate degree in music at Manchester University, graduating in June 2019, before going on to study a postgraduate degree at The Royal Academy of Music where he studied under the tutelage of the Head of Brass, Mark David, and Jeroen Berwaerts, Paul Beniston, John Hutchins and Gareth Small. He has previously been taught by Lewis Gibbs, Cameron Todd and Jamie Prophet, former Principal Trumpet of the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra.

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​As well as performing extensively in established orchestras around Manchester and London, Joe is an adept soloist and has a particular interest in trumpet repertoire from the 20th Century Soviet era/Eastern Europe. He performed his own orchestral arrangement of Ignat Leonov’s Trumpet Concerto in November 2018, the first performance of the work in the UK and world premiere of the orchestral version. Other solo performance highlights include performing Quiet City (Copland) with the Manchester University String Orchestra in February 2019 and taking part in competitions: successes include reaching the final of the Yamaha Music Foundation of Europe Competition (2019), the wind and brass semi-finals of the Royal Overseas League Competition (2020) and most recently coming second in the Ictus International Trumpet Competition (2020).

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​In the future, Joe wishes to perform more trumpet concertos from the Soviet era/Eastern Europe as these are not particularly well-known in the UK and he believes they are of high quality and should be more famous. In addition to solo performance, Joe wishes to be an orchestral player, building on his current performance successes. 

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​Whilst he is lucky enough to have received a scholarship to study at The Royal Academy of Music, Joe is grateful to have been supported by the Humphrey Richardson Taylor Charitable Trust, Help Musicians UK as one of their Postgraduate Award holders, the Chizel Trust, the South Square Trust and The Countess of Munster Musical Trust Derek Butler Award.