Discipline: Music Composition

Thomas Matthews

Discipline: Music Composition
MacDowell Fellowships: 1949
Thomas Matthews (1915-1999) was an American composer. In 1936 he accepted the post of Organist/Choirmaster at St. Martin-in-the-Fields (Chestnut Hill) in Philadelphia where he met and married Mary Newberry in 1943. During WWII Dr. Matthews conducted the famous Blue Jacket Choir and after the war assumed the music position at St. Luke's, Evanston, Illinois. He also served on the Northwestern University School of Music faculty and was director of music for Seabury-Western Theological Seminary. While in Tulsa he founded the music department at Holland Hall School, served on the faculty of the University of Tulsa, and supervised the design and installation of the IV/82 Moller which continues to serve the greater Tulsa community. Dr. Matthews composed over thirty published anthems of which The Lord Is My Shepherd is best known. It has sold well over one million copies. Tom's skills as an improviser were legendary and some of the extant recordings of his improvisations are being transcribed for publication.

Studios

Van Zorn (formerly Kirby)

Thomas Matthews worked in the Van Zorn (formerly Kirby) studio.

Constructed thanks to a bequest from Sarah L. Kirby, Kirby Studio was the last new building to be erected during Mrs. MacDowell’s leadership (1907-1951). The load-bearing masonry walls were laid by local mason Augustus Beaulieu atop a fieldstone foundation. A 1995 renovation preserved the brick fireplace with wooden mantel and…

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