Matthew McKinney is a Scottish tenor and graduate of the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. He has recently recorded Gastone La traviata for OperaGlass Works’ forthcoming film and Rodolfo La bohème on Robin Norton-Hale’s feature produced by Finite Films. In 2022 he sang Damon Acis & Galatea for Ryedale Festival and covered Henrik A Little Night Music for Opera North, having sung the role for Buxton International Festival in 2021. In 2023 he sang Luigino Il viaggio a Reims and Rustighello Lucrezia Borgia in new productions for ETO and will sing with the Glyndebourne Festival in 2024.
As a soloist Matthew has sung Haydn’s Creation, Harmoniemesse and Nelson Mass with the RCS Symphony Orchestra and Handel’s Messiah, Mozart’s Requiem and Mass in C Minor, Vaughan Williams’ Mass in G minor, Howell’s Requiem, Tippett’s 5 Negro Spirituals, Bernstein’s Chinchester Psalms and Goodhall’s Eternal Light Requiem. In 2019 Matthew premiered a new English arrangement of Erwin Schulhoff’s The Communist Manifesto and appeared as a soloist in the Usher Hall as part of Edinburgh International Festival’s concert series celebrating Young performers.
Matthew has performed as a chorus member in Berlioz’ La Damnation du Faust, Jonathan Dove’s The Day After, Prokofiev’s The Fiery Angel, Johann Strauss’ Die Fledermaus, Gilbert and Sullivan’s Trial by Jury, Wagner’s Tannhäuser, Kurt Weill’s Street Scene and as a Ghost Soldier in Benjamin Britten’s Owen Wingrave. In 2020 he sang as a chorister with the New Generation Festival in their production of La Cenerentola at the Palazzo Corsini in Florence.
Matthew has twice appeared with the Monteverdi Choir at the BBC Proms and in France for a performance of Berlioz’ La Damnation de Faust. He joined the prestigious Genesis 16 choral apprenticeship programme and was one of four young singers joining Dunedin Consort as part of the Bridging the Gap initiative (2018-19). In 2016 he featured as a soloist in the National Youth Choir of Scotland’s US tour with concerts including the annual 4th of July Independence Day celebration in Grant Park, Chicago.
At the RCS Matthew won the Norma Grieg French Song competition, Molly Robb competition for voice (adjudicated by Karen Cargill) and RCS Governors’ recital prize. Matthew is grateful to the Robertson Trust, John Mather Rising Star scholarship, Help Musicians (Ian Fleming) Award, Sir James Caird Travelling Scholarship, WFT Anderson Scholarship, The Underwood Trust Scholarship and The Dale Scholarship for supporting him through his studies with then voice tutor Professor Stephen Robertson. Matthew now studies with Robert Dean and has regular coachings with Jane Robinson and Nicky Spence.
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Video
YouTube playlist includes:
- La Ricordanza, Bellini
- Un momento di contento, Alcina, Handel
- Phidylé, Duparc
- At Day-Close in November, Midnight on the Great Western or The Journeying Boy, Wagtail and Baby (A Satire), Winter Words, Britten
Reviews
“Matthew McKinney stood out for his character acting skills as Alfonso’s murderous henchman, Rustighello: a promising young tenor.”
Opera Magazine
“The easy tenor of Matthew McKinney was to be relished musically as much as it was dramatically.”
Bachtrack
“Top of the list must come Matthew McKinney’s Rustighello, Alfonso’s sidekick who seemed to take great joy in murderous deeds and McKinney brought this out with his body language, aligned to a finely lithe and characterful voice.”
Planet Hugill
“The best voices belong to Daniella Sicari as the young wife Anne Egerman and Matthew McKinney as her repressed son Henrik.”
The Telegraph
“Henrik, Frederick’s son, is a combustible mixture of uptight, intense trainee Lutheran pastor and teenage sexual frustration. Matthew McKinney nails both aspects of a character at odds with just about everyone.”
Classical Music Daily
“Matthew McKinney expertly charts Henrik’s self-lacerating sense of inadequacy”
The Stage
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