Matthew Lombard is a South African saxophonist and educator who recently completed his Master of Music degree with distinction at the prestigious Royal Northern College of Music in the United Kingdom, where he specialised in saxophone performance and studied under Rob Buckland, Andy Scott, Carl Raven, Mike Hall, Julian Arguelles, and international tutor Vincent David (France).

Matthew obtained his Teachers Licentiate in Music for alto saxophone with distinction from the University of South Africa in 2011. He also holds a Bachelor of Music degree with distinction from the University of Pretoria (completed in 2009). He has also received a Diploma in saxophone performance from the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music (UK).

Matthew has won several awards in significant South African competitions, including the UNISA Overseas Scholarship for Teachers (2011), category prizes in the ABSA National Youth Music Competition (2005) and Lubner (2007) Music competitions respectively, and has been a semi-finalist in the SAMRO Overseas Scholarship Competition (2008, 2012). Most recently, Matthew has been awarded second place overall in the First UNISA South African Wind Competition (2013), where he also was awarded the saxophone category prize.

Matthew has attended Master Classes locally and abroad with artists including Vincent David (France), Arno Bornkamp (Holland), Raaf Hekkema (Holland), John Harle (UK), Kyle Horch (UK), Simon Haram (UK), Gerard McCrystal (UK), Douglas Masek (USA), and Jan-Schulte Bunert (Germany).

He has appeared as soloist with the Kwa-Zulu Natal Philharmonic Orchestra, the Chamber Orchestra of South Africa, the Odeion Sinfonia and the University of Pretoria Symphony Orchestra. He recently also performed as soloist with the Johannesburg Festival Orchestra for the final round of the First UNISA South African Wind Competition.

Matthew has extensive teaching experience with a particular focus on classical saxophone. He has been full time saxophone teacher at Pretoria Boys High School since 2010, and prior to that was teaching at the same school part-time. He also teaches part-time at various schools in the Pretoria area.

Matthew performs extensively in South Africa as a chamber musician and soloist. He is currently in the process of organising, with the help of UNISA, the First UNISA National Saxophone Symposium in South Africa to be held in Pretoria, Durban and Cape Town in April 2014.

Published 3 March 2014