Nicol Matt

Interested in many kinds of choral music, conductor Nicol Matt has been a prolific maker of recordings with his the Chamber Choir of Europe and other groups. A champion of contemporary music, he has collaborated with composers from continental Europe, Britain, and the U.S. Matt was born on December 18, 1970, in Sankt Georgen im Schwarzwald, in the Black Forest region of what was then West Germany. He studied with Manfred Schreier at the Hochschule für Musik Trossingen nearby, taking courses in both choral conducting and Protestant church music. Matt moved on to the Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst Stuttgart, studying voice with Thomas Pfeiffer, and took courses in vocal coaching and accompaniment at the Strasbourg Conservatory across the border in France. He rounded out his education with choral conducting master classes with Frieder Bernius and Eric Ericson. Matt became the music director of the amadeus-choir, near Nuremberg, in 2001. The following year, Matt assumed the directorship of the Nordic Chamber Choir, which that year changed its name to the Chamber Orchestra of Europe. He has remained in these posts with both groups and has toured widely with them around Germany and the world. Matt has also guest conducted a variety of ensembles and has appeared at leading German summer festivals, including the Rheingau Music Festival, the SWR Festival, and the MDR Musical Summer. Matt has collaborated with composers of contemporary choral music not only in Germany but in Britain and the U.S., including John Rutter, Morton Lauridsen, and Ola Gjeilo. He has also developed choral music projects for television and radio. Matt has a large catalog of recordings, beginning in 1998 with a performance of Rossini's Petite Messe Solennelle with the Nordic Chamber Choir on the MDG label. Many of his recordings have been made for the Brilliant label, with the Chamber Choir of Europe, covering standard choral repertory from Bach to Bruckner. Matt led the choir in a 2018 recording of choral music by Lauridsen for Deutsche Grammophon, and he moved to Sony Classical for the album Peaceful Choir: New Sound of Choral Music in 2020, leading the World Choir for Peace. Matt gives lectures in choir direction at the Internationaler Arbeitskreis für Musik in Kassel, Germany. ~ James Manheim