Sept 11 | 4 PM
Fire & Light
Larkin Singers MORE INFO
ABOUT MATTHEW LARKIN
A native of Oxford, UK, Matthew Larkin came to Canada shortly before his sixth birthday. His family settled in Kingston, Ontario, and he began singing as a boy soprano in the choir of St. George’s Cathedral. As a youth, he studied piano, organ, violin, and cello, and was appointed assistant organist of St. George’s in his junior year of high school. He attended both the University of Toronto and Royal College of Music, studying with John Tuttle and Nicholas Danby, respectively.
While in Toronto, he served as Organist of St. John’s Church, Weston Road, Organ Scholar of Trinity College, and Interim Organist of Grace Church-on-the-Hill. At the age of twenty-four, he moved to British Columbia to serve as Organist and Choirmaster at the Church of St. John the Divine in Victoria, remaining there for seven years. He returned to Ontario thereafter, and settled in Ottawa as Organist and Director of Music at St. Matthew’s Church.
After a further seven years there, he served for one season at St. James’ Cathedral, Toronto, as Music Associate and director of the Men and Boys’ Choir. He was appointed Organist and Director of Music at Christ Church Cathedral, Ottawa, in 2003. In addition to his ecclesiastical duties, Matthew directed the Anglican Chorale of Ottawa from 1997 until 2006, and founded Euphonia (Youth) Chamber Choir in 2000, working with them until 2003. He served as interim instructor in Choral Studies at Carleton University during the 2004-2005 academic year, and has served as Musical Director of the Ottawa Choral Society, the city’s most historic choir, since 2005.
In 2008, he founded the Larkin Singers, a chamber choir of professional singers based jointly in Ottawa and Toronto. Matthew is an accomplished conductor, accompanist and recitalist, and has worked in those capacities across Canada, and in some of the country’s most noteworthy venues.
He has led several choir tours of the UK, most recently with the Christ Church Cathedral Choir of Men and Boys and Larkin Singers, directed the Anglican Chorale of Ottawa at concerts in France and Belgium in 2006, and directed the Ottawa Choral Society on their 2008 tour of Italy.
He is a prolific composer of liturgical music, and has composed and arranged for film, documentary, musical theatre, and popular music. Above all, he loves to serve the Liturgy, and is, in particular, a tireless advocate of the men and boys’ choral tradition.
