
Mathew Ward is currently an active violinist on the Gulf Coast, having previously lived on the east and west coasts as a soloist, chamber musician, orchestral player, and mentor. Currently based in Baton Rouge, Mathew is a former member of the Boston Civic Symphony and studio musician with SoundtRec Symphony Orchestra. Recent projects include contemporary improvisation with groups such as the New Music Ensemble at Tufts University and String Theory. As an opera enthusiast, he has had the pleasure of performing with Boston Opera Collaborative and New England Music and Performing Art Center’s Opera Project in Boston. In 2014 he joined forces alongside the American Symphony Orchestra to perform Verdi’s epic Missa da Requiemin at the Richard B. Fisher Performing Arts Center New York. As a native Californian, Mathew is a former member of San Diego City Ballet Symphony, Moonlight Stage Productions, and San Diego Musical Theatre. In 2010 he was the recipient of the Alan Lee Memorial Scholarship and Concerto Competition Winner with the La Primavera Symphony. Mathew has also toured with La Primavera throughout Italy, and participated in the Australian International Music Festival, where the orchestra clenched a silver medal with a performance in the Sydney Opera House.
Mathew believes the modern musician has a responsibility to share the passion, technique, and perspective they have acquired through their musical journey, and supports access to high quality music education to students of all ages and backgrounds, most recently mentoring teenage instrumentalists in the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s Take a Stand Festival. He was a frequent and enthusiastic mentor, as well, in the El Sistema Side-by-Side Orchestra at the Longy School of Music. He has served on the string faculty of the Arrowbear Chamber Music Festival, Youth and Family Enrichment Services (providing high quality musical education to underserved neighborhoods in the Greater Boston area), and Page Music Studios in Boston, distinguished by Boston Magazine as a “Best of 2016”. Mathew is a graduate of the Longy School of Music and a current Doctor of Musical Arts candidate in violin performance and conducting at LSU as an Ora May Scholar.