Matthew Carey
Spanning a career in which he has performed over 40 roles, Matt has sung with opera companies throughout the United States, including the San Diego Opera as Sid in Albert Herring; Greensboro Opera as Morales and Dancaire in Carmen; Mississippi Opera as Pelléas in Pelléas et Mélisande (see review); Santa Barbara Grand Opera as Guglielmo in Cosi fan tutte and the Shubert Opera as Valentin in Faust (see review). Other leading roles include Lescaut in Manon, Marcello in La Bohème, Ford in Falstaff, Silvio in I Pagliacci and Don Giovanni.
From 1992-1996 he was principle baritone with the prestigious opera ensemble at the Theater Lübeck, Germany, where his leading roles included Guglielmo, Valentin, Figaro in Barbiere di Seviglia, the Father in Hänsel und Gretel, Herr Fluth in Die Lustigen Weiber von Windsor, Ottone in L'Incoronazione di Poppea, Taddeo in L'Italiana in Algeri, Sherasmin in Oberon, Wolfram in Tannhäuser, Ping in Turandot, Paolo in Simon Boccanegra, Alfonso in La Favorita and the Heerufer in Lohengrin (see review).
More recently Matt was seen here in Jonesboro as Victor Velasco in Neil Simon's Barefoot in the Park and played the title role in The Will Rogers Follies.
As a concert artist, Matt has performed with the symphony orchestras of Hamburg, Kotka (Finland), Santa Barbara, the NDR Orchester of Bremen, the Northeast Arkansas Symphony and the University of Arkansas Symphony Orchestra. He is also a regularly featured soloist with the choral ensembles at ASU. Matt continues to perform recitals (see review) throughout the region in which he programs a wide variety of repertoire from the song cycles of Schubert and Schumann to popular standards of Gershwin, Kern,Berlin and Rogers.
Matt has conducted Vocal Master Classes at the Opera in the Ozarks, University of Arkansas, John Brown University, Ouachita Baptist University and California State University at Northridge. He is also a frequent clinician at the ASU Choir Camp as well as area highschools. Along with colleague Ellis Julien, he conducts a weekly joint Studio Class open to all voice students. He is a regular adjudicator at State and Regional NATS competitions and his students frequently reach the Final round.
Matt completed his Bachelor of Music degree from Oberlin Conservatory of Music in 1982, and received his Master of Music degree in 1985 from the University of Michigan. He has done post-graduate study at the University of California at Santa Barbara and Yale University. His former teachers include Richard Miller (Oberlin) and the late Martial Singher (Santa Barbara).
