Matthew Reid – Clarinetist and saxophonist:  Matthews musical interest started with folk, which included the clarinet and accordion/guitar, but has extended to light jazz with guitar and sax. Besides the many functions and events that Matthew has performed at, he has also accompanied Ivor Joffe at chuppahs and his klezmer band has accompanied Ivor as well as many of the Jewish singers in the city at the annual Yiddish Song Festival at the Baxter for 11 years.

Besides having a full band at his disposal Matthew also performs as a solo saxophonist with backing tracks or as part of either a french/Mediterranean duo or in a jazz duo

Matthew comes from Durban, he attained his Honours degree from UCT with Leslie Craven and completed a postgraduate course at the Royal College of Music in London and has a diploma in Orchestral Studies (Dip NCOS) from Goldsmiths College in Greenwich.

Matthew the SASOL and Oude Meester Prizes for instrumentalists in 1986 and studied with Alfred Prinz in Vienna, Guy Deplus in Paris, and John McCaw in London. He premiered and recorded Peter Klatzow’s Clarinet Concerto with the Cape Town Symphony Orchestra in 1992, and his Sonata with Pieter van Zyl.

Matthew performed extensively with pianist Pieter van Zyl winning the 2008 Kanna Award at the KKNK for classical music. He performed with the Sontonga String Quartet at the Arts Festivals in Grahamstown, Cape Town, Franschhoek, and the Stellenbosch International Chamber Music Festival, giving the first performances of Oswaldo Golijov’s extraordinary “Dreams and Prayers of Isaac the Blind” in this country. He was the music director of the annual Yiddish Song Festival in the Baxter Theatre for eleven years.