Equally at home in classical and Contemporary Commercial Music (CCM) styles, Matthew Edwards has performed over thirty roles in musical theatre and opera with companies including Tri-Cities Opera, Ash Lawn Opera Festival, New Jersey Opera, Atlantic Coast Opera Festival, the Acadiana Symphony Orchestra, the Miami Valley Symphony, Dayton Philharmonic, Dayton Pops, Cincinnati Opera Outreach, Lyric Opera Cleveland Outreach, Tippecanoe Canal Days, Theatre Lab – Dayton, and KNOW Theatre where he was also Executive Director from 2008-2010 earning the Southern Tier Opportunity Coalition’s “Top 20 in their Twenties” award in 2009. He was a district finalist of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions in Tulsa Oklahoma and has also been a finalist in competitions sponsored by Dayton Opera, Tri-Cities Opera, and the National Association of Teachers of Singing.
His current and former students have performed on American Idol, on and off-Broadway, on national and international tours, in regional theatre, on cruise ships, at theme parks, and in bands touring throughout the United States. A leading researcher on the contemporary singing voice, his work has been presented at the NATS National Conference, the Voice Foundation Annual Symposium, The National Center for Voice and Speech, The International Congress of Voice Teachers, the Musical Theatre Educator’s Alliance, the Pan-American Vocology Association, and at the Southeastern Theatre Conference. He has presented workshops and master classes for the Duke Voice Care Center, Valley of the Sun NATS, Georgia NATS, North Carolina NATS, Virginia NATS, Brigham Young University, University of Toronto, Wright State University, Missouri State University, Mary Hardin-Baylor University, University of Northern Colorado, and Illinois Wesleyan University. He has written articles for The Journal of Voice, The Journal of Singing, American Music Teacher, NYSTA VoicePrints, Southern Theatre, GetAccptd.com,and has been interviewed by Classical Singer and MusiciansFriend.com. He has authored chapters for The Vocal Athlete by Dr. Wendy LeBorgne and Marci Rosenberg, A Dictionary for the Modern Singer by Dr. Matthew Hoch, and Get the Callback, 2nd ed. by Jonathan Flom. Edwards’ book So You Want to Sing Rock ‘N’ Roll? is published by Rowman & Littlefield and was the #1 New Release in Vocal & Singing in October 2014 on Amazon.com. Brian Manternach of Classical Singer magazine called it “an authoritative text on rock ‘n’ roll singing.” His blog AuditioningForCollege.com, has become a go-to resource for high school students interested in pursuing a college degree in musical theatre.
Professor Edwards holds degrees from the Cleveland Institute of Music and Louisiana State University and is a former faculty member of Hartwick College and SUNY Cortland. He is currently the secretary of the Pan-American Vocology Association and the Northeast Regional Director of the Musical Theatre Educator’s Alliance.
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Matthew Edwards
