Melissa Matson
Instrument: Viola
With the RPO since: 1983
My earliest musical memories are playing recorders with my parents and siblings, and falling asleep listening to orchestra concerts.
I decided to be a professional musician after two summers at Aspen Music School during high school. I enjoyed being surrounded by great music, interacting with other performers and presenting music to the audience.
Most influential teachers: Martha Katz, Heidi Castleman and Karen Tuttle as well as the Cleveland and Juilliard Quartets.
Favorite composer and/or musical period: My "desert island" composers would probably be Mozart and Bach - their music continues to inspire me regardless of how often I hear or play it. But there are also Beethoven, Strauss and Bartok - and Brahms - and Shostakovich ... there is so much music which speaks to our emotions.
My favorite part of working in the RPO is ... Being able to do what I love to do - play the viola with others - among colleagues who have such high standards of integrity and dedication.
When not performing with the RPO, you might find me practicing, performing with Chamber Music Rochester or the Skaneateles Festival, teaching viola orchestra repertoire courses at the Eastman School of Music or mentoring violists with the RPYO. I also spend time with the fiber arts -- sewing, quilting and weaving have now given way to creating unique fabrics through various dyeing techniques -- and enjoy gardening and spending time with teenage son and my husband, RPO cellist Robert Taylor.
What do you think is the Orchestra's most important role in our community? To bring the excitement and sponteneity of the best live classical music to the largest, most diverse audience possible.
Biography
Melissa Matson is well known to Rochester audiences as the principal violist of the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, as well as a versatile chamber musician. She has been a frequent performer since 1987 with Chamber Music Rochester and the Skaneateles (NY) Festival. She is the artistic director of First Muse Chamber Music, a series of concerts at First Unitarian Church of Rochester (www.FirstMuse.org). Ms. Matson is a member of the newly formed Amenda Quartet (with violinists David Brickman and Patricia Sunwoo, and cellist Mimi Hwang) whose “Project Ludwig” aims to study and perform all of the Beethoven string quartets (www.AmendaQuartet.org).
Previous solo appearances with the RPO include Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante (with violinist David Brickman), Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 6, Bruch’s Romanze, and on the Pops series, Jeff Tyzik’s original Blue Adagio and his arrangement of Autumn Leaves. Ms. Matson has premiered works written for her by Rochester composers Verne Reynolds, David Liptak, and Jeff Tyzik.
As a founding member of the Chester String Quartet (1978-83) Ms. Matson performed throughout the U.S. and won top chamber music awards at the Munich and Portsmouth (England) international competitions. The quartet was on the faculty of Indiana University at South Bend, and recorded works of Warren Benson, Karl Weigl, and Ernest Chausson. After her tenure with the Quartet she joined the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra and also the faculty of the Eastman School of Music. Her current duties as an associate professor at Eastman include teaching viola orchestral repertoire classes, for which she has written numerous guides to preparing orchestra excerpts. Ms. Matson presented two sessions on orchestral excerpts and audition preparation at the 2004 ViolaFest in Binghamton, NY. She also mentors the violists of the Rochester Philharmonic Youth Orchestra.
Originally from northern California, Melissa was raised in a music-loving family - they played recorders together, her three siblings studied string instruments, and her mother built a harpsichord. Ms. Matson received her bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Eastman, where she studied with Martha Katz and was awarded the coveted Performer’s Certificate. She also studied with Heidi Castleman and Karen Tuttle. Her chamber music training includes work with the Cleveland and Juilliard Quartets, as well as study at The Quartet Program and the Aspen Center for Advanced Quartet Studies. Ms. Matson has been a chamber music participant in the Aspen, Norfolk, and Grand Teton summer festivals. For three years she was the principal violist and on the faculty of Eastern Music Festival, where she appeared as soloist with bassist Gary Karr and performed chamber music with violinist Franco Gulli and pianist Andre-Michel Schub.
In her free time, Melissa enjoys creating artisan-dyed fabrics and garments. Some of her works can currently be seen at the Mill Art Gallery in Honeoye Falls NY.
