From chamber music and Baroque repertoire to opera and solo recordings, Tamara Matthews performs in all classical genres as a soprano. She has risen to international status with debuts in France, Italy, Spain, Israel, Singapore, Mexico, Canada, and Hong Kong, as well as many major venues in the United States. Possessing "a glorious instrument, velvety and warm, glistening with light and dramatically forceful", Matthews' singing resulted in her acclaimed Carnegie Hall debut in 1994 as first-prize winner of the Musica Sacra Bach Vocal Competition.
International debuts for Matthews include the Orchestre Philharmonique du Strasbourg (Strauss Vier Letzte Lieder, Wagner Liebestod/Jan Latham Koenig conducting), Violetta (La Traviata) with the Festival Lyrique-Belle Ile en Mer, Haifa (Israel) Symphony (Opera Arias and Mahler Symphony#4/Stanley Sperber), a concert tour and recording with the Orchestra of New Spain (Madrid) of classic works by Nebra and Soler, and Messiahs with the Singapore Symphony and Mexico City Symphony Orchestra.
Matthews has been featured as soloist in over 15 professional albums, including the repertoire of Alma Mahler, Beethoven, Bach, Haydn, Vivaldi, and Buxtehude. She has taught at Westminster Choir College, Swarthmore, Bryn Mawr, and Haverford Colleges, as well as a private studio in Paris, France.
Training
Edward Baird and Harold Hieberg
University of North Texas
Stephen Harpichick
University of Houston
Pat Brown, Susan Straley, Marcy Lindheimer, Marlena Malas, Dan Marek, Ken Noda, William Hicks, Michael Elisason, Gary DiPasquazio and Max van Egmond
Independent study
Since the beginning of my performing career, I have also taught private voice. Teaching has not only complimented my singing, but it has crystallized my technical as well as philosophical ideas. I believe that singing is a form of spiritual communication. We connect, through the avenue of music and words, to people we don't know, but who are sharing the common human experience with us. Singing has much less to do with displaying the individual ego and skill. Rather, it elicits a person to become a marvelous communicator and emotionally open. I am honored to have such talented students here at Furman, and to facilitate them discovering the wonderful, magical and selfless art of singing.