Matthew Owens became Director of Music at Belfast Cathedral in September 2019 where he leads the fully professional, all adult choir of Northern Ireland’s national cathedral. He is the head of the cathedral’s music department and responsible for all aspects of the cathedral’s music. Later in 2019 he founded the Ulster Consort, a new professional vocal and instrumental ensemble for Northern Ireland. Previously, he had been Organist and Master of the Music at St Mary’s Episcopal Cathedral, Edinburgh (1999–2004), and Organist and Master of the Choristers at Wells Cathedral (2005–2019). Under his leadership, Wells Cathedral Choir was named by an international jury for Gramophone as the best choir in the world with children, and the sixth greatest overall. Matthew served as President of the Cathedral Organists’ Association (2010–2013); he was made an Honorary Fellow of the Guild of Church Musicians in November 2012; and in October 2017 he was made a Prebendary (Canon) of Wells Cathedral ‘for outstanding service’ to the Diocese and the Cathedral. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts in October 2020.

Matthew was educated at Chetham’s School of Music, Manchester; The Queen’s College, Oxford; the Royal Northern College of Music; and the Amsterdam Conservatorium. Studying with Gordon Stewart, Margaret Phillips, and Jacques van Oortmerssen, he won all the major prizes in the diplomas of the Royal College of Organists and the Silver Medal of the Worshipful Company of Musicians. As an organist, he has given recitals in Australia, France, Ireland, New Zealand, Spain, Switzerland, the USA, and throughout the UK.

He has guest conducted, among others, the London Mozart Players, English Symphony Orchestra, Scottish Ensemble, and the Nash Ensemble. As a conductor he has made over thirty discs with major labels, and now records exclusively for the award-winning label, Resonus Classics.

He has championed new music, particularly of British composers, conducting over 200 world premieres, including works by leading composers ranging from Jools Holland to Sir James MacMillan, and John Rutter to Sir Peter Maxwell Davies. He is Director of the Cranmer Anthem Book (launched in October 2017); a project that will set all eighty-eight Collects from the Book of Common Prayer to music, by some of the world’s finest composers. As a composer himself, Matthew is published by Oxford University Press, Novello, and the Royal School of Church Music.