Australian-born tenor Matthew Shorten is a multifaceted musician and artist, dedicated to the interpretation of repertoires spanning the last millennium. He finds tremendous fulfillment in plumbing the bottomless depths of the musical art form, and his foremost passions as a tenor include the celestial choral, oratorio, and operatic works of the Renaissance, Baroque, and Classical periods; the delights of the 19th and 20th century art song repertoires; and the countless gems of today’s thriving, global ecosystem of choral and vocal music. Matthew is based in Massachusetts, where he is pursuing an M.A. at the Williams College Graduate Program in the History of Art at the Clark Art Institute and a Curatorial Intern at the Williams College Museum of Art.

Matthew performs with ensembles internationally, and recently served full-time as a Tenor & Artistic Co-Director of the acclaimed Minneapolis-based choral ensemble Cantus for the 2022-23 season. He has performed as a soloist in several gems of the repertoire, including Bach’s St. Matthew Passion, Beethoven’s Choral Fantasy and Elegischer gesang, Franck’s Panis angelicus, Mozart’s Coronation Mass and Requiem, Vaughan Williams’ Serenade to Music, Telemann’s Deutsches magnificat, and Dove’s The Passing of the Year, which he recorded on the Vanderbilt Chorale’s acclaimed debut album, Music in the Listening Place. He also made his Singaporean solo and recital debuts as a tenor with Voices of Singapore, at the Capitol Theatre, the Pasir Panjang Power Station, and the National Gallery Singapore, and with esteemed early music ensemble Red Dot Baroque, with whom he curated a concert of works by Dowland, Handel, and Purcell.

In 2021-22, Matthew was also a Henry Luce Scholar in Asia, forging an array of international artistic partnerships across Japan, Singapore, Thailand, and beyond. As part of this work, he was a Visiting Artist with Voices of Singapore, and a Visiting Researcher at the esteemed Tokyo University of the Arts, and its Global Arts Division. Matthew’s diverse artistic interests engage with cross-cultural coalescence; traditional Japanese music, literature, and art; the proliferation of historical performance practice; and global choral repertoires.

With an enduring commitment to the global proliferation of the arts, Matthew possesses a breadth of experience in arts management, leadership, and curation. At Vanderbilt, he served as the Curator of the Blair Salon Concert Series, a thriving partnership between the Blair School and Vanderbilt’s residential colleges, and the Living Sounds Concert Series, a thrice-yearly extravaganza featuring works by the Blair Composers Forum. Matthew also co-created the Adopt-A-Choir Initiative for low-income choir students in Nashville, forging a partnership between the Nashville Symphony and the Vanderbilt ACDA Chapter, the latter of which he co-founded and led. A dedicated advocate of the choral arts, Matthew was also a VOCES8 Scholar from 2019-2021. As the youngest scholar, he studied the art of choral singing with renowned ensemble VOCES8, composed a work that was premiered and recorded at Minnesota Public Radio, co-led engaging educational workshops for underserved school populations across the United States, and served as tenor section leader. Additionally, in his capacity as a Henry Luce Scholar, he taught as a Guest Artist at the Phuket School of Music in Thailand, presenting a masterclass and workshop in composition, theory, and musicianship. As a member of Cantus, Matthew worked with thousands of students across the United States, both as part of the ensemble’s touring engagement and its thriving High School Residency program.

Matthew received his Bachelor of Music summa cum laude in Composition, Voice, and Violin from the Blair School of Music at Vanderbilt University, where he graduated as the 2020 Founder’s Medalist, the university’s highest honor. Matthew has received several awards and grants, including the Henry Luce Scholarship, Cortona Sessions Fellowship in Composition and Voice, designation as a Rhodes Scholarship Finalist, the Margaret Branscomb Prize, the S.S. and I.M.F. Marsden Prize in Musical Scholarship, New Haven Symphony Orchestra Young Composers Fellowship, an Oregon Bach Festival Fellowship in Voice and Composition, designation as an American Composer’s Orchestra EarShot Residency Finalist, and the James Toland Vocal Arts Competition General Director’s Award.