Matthew Otto

Matthew Otto is a passionate and innovative conductor, clinician, and pedagogue. He has conducted choirs while on tour in Italy, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, USA and Ireland, and guest-conducted the University of Auckland Chamber Choir in New Zealand. As President of Choirs Ontario, the provincial choral federation, he is quickly establishing himself as a leading voice on the Canadian choral scene. Since 2010 Matthew has been part of the artistic team of the award-winning Toronto Children's Chorus. In 2013, he became Associate Conductor and directs the newly formed Toronto Youth Choir and Chorealis, and co-conducts Chorale alongside artistic director, and mentor, Elise Bradley.
Twice-recipient of the Elmer Iseler Fellowship in Choral Conducting, and finalist in both the Leslie Bell Prize for Choral Conducting (2014) and Sir Ernest MacMillan Foundation Fellowship Award in Orchestral Conducting (2010), Matthew holds a Bachelor of Music in Composition (2007) and a Master of Music in Conducting (2009). He studied conducting with Dr. Karen Grylls, Dr. Doreen Rao, Agnes Grossman, David Briskin, Raffi Armenian and Noel Edison, and participated in masterclasses with Helmuth Rilling, Simon Carrington, Jacques Lacombe and David Hayes. In September 2016, Matthew begins a PhD in Music Education at the University of Toronto. His research interests include cultural identity as seen in the choral music of Canada in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, and choral music education in a pluralistic context.