About
Matthew Douglass Cramer is a dynamic voice in choral music – equal parts academic, curator, and artist.
As conductor, Matthew presents concerts that seek not to escape our world, but to engage with it. His inventive programming often introduces works to both audiences and performers. In an age full of complexity, he actively rejects reductivism. He views the role of conductor as curator – one who compiles in such a way as to draw connections which further illuminate. Matthew’s programming is often concerned with ethical and political themes drawn from the current zeitgeist.
Equally at home on either side of the podium, Matthew is an active performer of early and contemporary music as both soloist and ensemble singer. In recent seasons, he has presented a recital of lute songs and airs de cours, sung Pilatus and bass arias for Bach’s St. John Passion, and sung as both ensemble member and soloist for a Baroque Easter Vespers with the Christopher Street Collegium in New York.
Matthew is a sought-after choral musician throughout the northeast and Chicagoland. His particular interest in early music has led him to experiences as a member of the Carnegie Hall Chamber Chorus as part of their Spem in alium Project – a weeklong workshop for professional choral singers to work and perform with the Tallis Scholars and their director, Peter Phillips – and a summer at the American Bach Soloists Academy in San Francisco where he was a soloist in Bach’s Mass in B Minor and Purcell’s King Arthur. He also co-founded the ensemble Voce Concitato – a chamber ensemble dedicated to one-to-a-part performances of Baroque and Renaissance repertoire.
While a student at Yale, Matthew studied voice and historical performance practice with Judith Malafronte and was a member of the prestigious Yale Schola Cantorum, performing under conductors David Hill, Masaaki Suzuki, Matthew Halls, and Simon Carrington. With the Schola Cantorum, he performed throughout the northeastern U.S. as well as on international tours to Norway, Estonia, Latvia, Russia, and India and recorded two albums for the Hyperion label.
As part of Chicago’s vibrant choral scene, he has performed with the Grant Park Music Festival, Constellation Men’s Ensemble, The Strangers, the Calyx Ensemble, Stare at the Sun, Bella Voce, and with the Schola at the Episcopal Church of the Atonement and Church of the Ascension, among others. As a freelance choral musician, he has appeared with professional choirs RedShift (Baton Rouge), the New Consort, the New York Philharmonic Chorus, and The Crossing.
Matthew holds degrees from The Hartt School (University of Hartford) and Yale University. He has recently completed coursework towards the DMA in choral conducting at Northwestern University, working with Grammy-winning conductor Donald Nally. At Northwestern he has served as assistant conductor of both the Bienen Contemporary/Early Vocal Ensemble (BCE) and University Chorale and was chorusmaster for productions of Riders to the Sea (Vaughan Williams) and Savitri (Holst). With BCE, he assisted in preparing the choir for a workshop presentation of Justine Chen’s “The Life and Death(s) of Alan Turing,” a collaboration with Chicago Opera Theater. He received his MMus in Conducting from the Yale School of Music and graduated summa cum laude from the Hartt School, where he received a BMus in music composition. At Yale, he was an Assistant Conductor for the Yale Camerata and directed the Marquand Chapel Choir at Yale Divinity School. Upon graduation, Matthew was recipient of the Richard DeLong Prize from the Institute of Sacred Music, awarded to an exemplary church musician, and the Yale School of Music Alumni Association Prize, awarded to a student who has not only excelled in their respective field but have also made important contributions to the general life of the School. He has participated in conducting workshops and masterclasses with Dennis Keene, Simon Carrington, Matthew Halls, Masaaki Suzuki, and Craig Hella Johnson, among others.
For the 2019-2020 academic term, Matthew served as Interim Director of Choirs at the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh. In that capacity he led the Chamber Choir (the university’s flagship choral ensemble), Women’s Choir, and Choir Laboratory. He also taught studio voice, choral techniques (conducting/methods), and music theory. After returning to Connecticut in 2020, Matthew worked at The Hartt School in an administrative and advising capacity, working with the faculty and students of the Music Education, Academic Studies, and Contemporary Studies divisions. He currently serves as preparatory conductor for the Yale Schola Cantorum and choirmaster at St. Thomas’s Episcopal Church (New Haven), in addition to freelance work as conductor and singer.