Matthew Venner began his singing career as a Chorister at Westminster Abbey and, following a Music Scholarship at Bedford School, went on to become a Choral Scholar at New College, Oxford.
He is now in demand as a consort singer and soloist. He was appointed a member of the St Paul’s Cathedral choir, London in 2004 and he joined the Orlando Consort in 2008, succeeding the founder-member Robert Harre-Jones. He has performed with many of the UK’s leading vocal ensembles including The Cardinall’s Musick, The King’s Consort, The Monteverdi Choir, The Sixteen and The Tallis Scholars.
As a soloist, recent concerts have included J.S. Bach’s St Matthew Passion with the King’s Consort in Pamplona and Valencia, and J.C. Bach’s Ach, dass is Wassers gnug hätte at Wroclaw Symphony Hall, Poland. He has also performed several world premieres, including James Macmillan’s Seven Angels and Alec Roth’s A Time To Dance.
He has sung on many recordings and can be heard as a soloist on Ex Cathedra’s disc of Bach’s St Matthew Passion recorded live at Birmingham Symphony Hall, and the Gabrieli Consort’s disc, Incarnation. He regularly records as a soloist for the National Forum of Music, Poland.
He has appeared in several stage productions including Heiner Goebbel’s I went to the house but did not enter with the Hilliard Ensemble at the National Theatre, Prague; Purcell’s King Arthur with I Fagiolini at the Spitalfields Festival, London; and the incidental music to Shakespeare’s The Tempest at the Globe Theatre, London. Most recently, he performed Gluck’s Orphée et Eurydice at the Royal Opera House with Sir John Eliot Gardiner and The Monteverdi Choir.