OS OBITUARIES
MATTHEW BEST 1957-2025
Matthew Robert Best was born in Farnborough, Kent, and joined Sevenoaks School in 1968 at the age of 11.
He was brought up in a household where his parents listened regularly to classical music on the radio. One day when still quite young he heard someone on the radio singing the role of Wotan in Wagner’ s Ring Cycle and said to his parents,‘ I’ m going to sing that one day,’ quite unaware how true that would turn out to be. While at primary school Matthew taught himself to play the harmonica, and his first instrument was the clarinet.
In 1973, at the start of the Lower Sixth, Matthew founded a madrigal choir of just eight singers, including a few members of the teaching staff. Called the Corydon Singers, this small group quickly grew in size and ambition and became one of the foremost chamber choirs in the country, with a sizeable and extremely successful discography under the Hyperion Records label. Matthew somehow managed to keep the choir going in its early days while he was a choral scholar at King’ s College, Cambridge, and then a student at the National Opera Studio, from where he joined the Royal Opera, Covent Garden, as a principal bass.
After going freelance, Matthew pursued a dual career as both singer and conductor. He made appearances as guest conductor with a host of orchestras, most notably and frequently with the English Chamber Orchestra and London Mozart Players, but also ensembles such as the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic and the BBC National Orchestra of Wales. For the 1998-99 season he was principal conductor of the Hanover Band.
Eventually, Matthew had to decide between conducting and singing. He chose singing and went on to perform over 100 bass and bass-baritone operatic roles. Between 2000 and 2003 he made a reality of his boyhood prediction that he would sing the role of Wotan, doing so triumphantly for Scottish Opera’ s production of Wagner’ s Ring Cycle.
Adding to his list of accomplishments, from 2014 Matthew became a much sought-after teacher at the Royal Northern College of Music. Held in the highest regard by staff and students alike, he was awarded a Fellowship in April 2025. Apart from being a consummate musician, Matthew loved literature, art, travel and all things Italian, not least double espressos! Above all, he loved his family by whom he will ever be remembered as a devoted father to Natasha and Alexander, grandfather to Charlie and Lara, brother to Jonathan( OS 1978) and husband to Roz.
Peter Young and Roz Best
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