Matthew Wright, lute
Photo by Patrick Holloway
Matthew Wright is a native of Baltimore, Maryland. After years of playing progressive rock on the bass guitar, he attended the Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore where he studied classical guitar with Ray Chester and lute with Mark Cudek. Upon moving to Cambridge in 1999, Matthew began concentrating on the lute, studying with Douglas Freundlich at The Longy School of Music and subsequently receiving an MM in Early Music Performance. There, he founded Seven Times Salt; a group specializing in English Consort music. Matthew has performed as a solo lutenist and continuo player for numerous soloists, with the ensembles Chatham Chorale, Capella Alamire, Renaissonics, Stranieri Qui and Boston Secession (MA), Fanfare Consort (CT), and Ensemble Al Verso (Switzerland) and in festivals such as the Boston Early Music Festival, Bloomington Early Music Festival (IN), Amherst Early Music Festival (CT), and New Brunswick Early Music Festival. (Canada). Recent concerts have included "Searching, Sharing, Six-course Lute"; a solo lute and collaborative recital of 16th Century Italian music, "Love's Constancy"; an English lutesong recital with soprano Claire Raphaelson, and "Rantin' Pipe and Tremblin' String"; a concert of Scottish music with Seven Times Salt as part of the SoHIP 2010 concert series. Matthew is a member of and contributor to the Lute Society of America, for which he conducted an interview with Arthur Ness. He also serves as the tenor section leader at Eliot Church of Newton under the direction of Charles Raines. As a guitar teacher, he currently has students at Riverside Theater Works (Hyde Park, MA), and the Longy School of Music (Cambridge, MA).
