Matthew F. Reese is a conductor and musicologist, focusing on Anglo-American music and the Transatlantic exchange. His current research deals with American intellectual history and musical aesthetics at the fin de siècle. Reese graduated magna cum laude with High Honors in Music and History from the College of William & Mary in Virginia (2013), where his thesis was supervised by James Armstrong, Tuška Beneš, and Chandos Michael Brown. He completed both his M.Phil (2016) and D.Phil (2019) in Musicology at The University of Oxford (St. Hugh’s and Brasenose Colleges, respectively). There, his masters supervisors were Daniel Grimley (Merton) and Michael Burton (New). His doctorate was supervised by the Mahler scholar, Peter Franklin (St. Catherine’s). His dissertation, ‘“Voices of All the Nations”: Strauss, Saint-Saëns, Scriabin, and the American Concert Tour at the Fin de Siècle’, was approved by the University examiners in December 2019.

Now in his fourth year at The Peabody Institute of The Johns Hopkins University, Reese has taken on a varied course load, teaching freshman ‘Great Books’, the undergraduate nineteenth-century survey, and graduate seminars on English music, music during the Reformation, Mahler, and Wagner.

Reese is currently a Postulant for Holy Orders in the Episcopal Diocese of Maryland, pursuing an M.Div at the Yale Divinity School and the Yale Institute of Sacred Music. There, he is also resident in the Berkeley Divinity School, the Anglican/Episcopal seminary at Yale. His studies are jointly underwritten by YDS and the ISM, with additional support from Berkeley, the Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society, the Diocese of Maryland, and Grace & St. Peter’s.

In addition to his academic work, Reese is an active performer, both as a conductor and a tenor. You can read more about his musical activities at https://www.matthewreeseconductor.com.