Member
Contact Information
mdirst@uh.eduhttps://www.matthewdirst.com/
Location
Houston, Texas
Early Music Skills & Interests
Conductor, Harpsichord, Organ
Early Music Affiliations
Conductor, Music/Artistic Director, Musicologist, Performer
Biography
Conductor, keyboard player, and musicologist Matthew Dirst is widely admired for his stylish playing and conducting of Baroque music especially. He is featured on two new recordings on the Acis label: Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 1, and Alessandro Scarlatti’s 1710 oratorio La sposa dei cantici. About the former, the American Record Guide enthuses that “his playing sounds like great conducting…the musicians are his own fingers; while about the latter, Early Music America notes that “Dirst brilliantly brings it all to life” with Ars Lyrica Houston, a period-instrument ensemble he founded in 2003. His recordings with Ars Lyrica have also been recognized with a Grammy nomination for Best Opera (2011). Professor of Musicology at the Moores School of Music, University of Houston, and organist of St Philip Presbyterian Church in Houston, he is the author of Engaging Bach: The Keyboard Legacy from Marpurg to Mendelssohn (Cambridge University Press, 2012) and Bach’s Art of Fugue and Musical Offering (Oxford University Press, 2023).
