Matthew Dirst
Associate Professor of Musicology
Director, Collegium Musicum

e-mail: mdirst@uh.edu
office: MSM 215 
office phone: (713)743-3150
address: 120 School of Music Bldg, Houston, TX 77204-4017

Matthew Dirst is the first American musician to win major international prizes in both organ and harpsichord, including first prize at the American Guild of Organists National Young Artist Competition (1990) and second prize at the inaugural Warsaw International Harpsichord Competition (1993). In demand as a soloist and as a chamber player, his stylish performances of Baroque music in particular have aroused considerable interest in the American and European press. Recent performances include recitals for the Berkeley Early Music Festival, the International Festival-Institute at Round Top (TX), the Kalamazoo Bach Festival, the Los Angeles Harpsichord Center,  national convention programs for the American Guild of Organists and  Music Teachers National Association,  concerto appearances with the Houston Symphony, the El Paso Symphony, the Marin Symphony, the Texas Baroque Ensemble, and the Dallas Bach Society.

Appointed Assistant Professor of Music at the University of Houston in 1996, Dirst directs the Moores School of Music Collegium Musicum and Ars Lyrica Houston, two groups that have won both local and national acclaim for their innovative and musically satisfying presentations of Baroque chamber and theatrical works.

Equally active as a scholar, Dirst holds degrees from the University of Illinois, Southern Methodist University, a PhD in musicology from Stanford University, and was the recipient of a Fulbright Fellowship for study in France. His publications include several articles on the music of Johann Sebastian Bach as well as translations, transcriptions, and cooperative projects in computer-assisted studies of musical complexities. A book entitled Bach and the Public Sphere: Early Advocacy and Performance of the Keyboard Music (Cambridge University Press) is forthcoming in 2002.