Matthew Denton

Biography

Matthew Denton (violin) has performed for more than 20 years as the leader of the Carducci Quartet – one of the UK’s most successful string quartets.
As a chamber musician he has won prizes at international competitions including the Concert Artists Guild (USA), Kuhmo (Finland), Charles Hennen (Holland), Osaka (Japan), Bordeaux (France) and London (UK).
In the UK he also won awards from the Royal Overseas League, Tillet Trust, Tunnel Trust, Countess of Munster Trust and the Parkhouse Award.

His discography with the Carducci Quartet numbers over 20 CDs, for labels including Signum, Naxos, BMG, Somm, Nimbus and Carducci Classics – the quartet’s own label. Matt has performed at major concert halls around the world including Carnegie Hall, Washington Library of Congress, Wigmore Hall, Concertgebouw Amsterdam and Tivoli Hall Copenhagen, and the quartet performs around 90 concerts each year.

Known for their complete cycles of Bartok, Beethoven and Shostakovich, in 2015 they won a Royal Philharmonic Society award for ‘Shostakovich15’  – a project which included a performance of the complete Shostakovich quartets in one day, at Shakespeare’s Globe theatre in London.

Matt studied with Felix Andrievsky at the RCM for 4 years and was awarded Junior Fellowships in chamber music for a subsequent 2 years, studying with members of the Amadeus, Alberni and Chilingirian Quartets.

With the quartet he was then a Bulldog Scholar and Richard Carne Junior Fellow at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance, where he now continues to visit as Violin professor and quartet in residence.

As a soloist he has performed concerti by Bach, Mendelssohn, Vivaldi, Delius, Beethoven, Bruch and Brahms, and is regularly invited to guest lead a range of ensembles and orchestras. Matt can regularly be heard on TV and film scores including Downton Abbey, Poldark, The Theory of Everything, Everest, Boxtrolls, Murder on the Orient Express, Shazam and Paddington. As a violinist Matt has also featured recently on albums by Ed Sheeran, Ellie Goulding and Jethro Tull.