Dr. Joe Matthews

Joseph Matthews, D. M., Professor Emeritus of Music in piano at Chapman University, received the Bachelor of Music and the Master of Arts in Music from the University of Missouri, and received the Doctor of Music from Indiana University.  Prior to his thirty-four years of teaching at Chapman University, Dr. Matthews taught at the College of the Ozarks and at the Christian College Preparatory Department of Music.  He was also a teaching assistant at Indiana University while pursuing the doctorate.

Dr. Matthews remains an active member of the Music Teachers’ National Association (MTNA), the California Association of Professional Music Teachers (CAPMT), the Music Teachers’ Association of California (MTAC), and the National Guild of Piano Teachers.  He recently served as President of the Orange County MTAC, and has also served as District President in the CAPMT.  He is currently the southern California Chair of the MTAC Adult Performance program, and has served as southern California Chair of the MTAC Concerto-Solo program.

Dr. Matthews’ students have received high honors in numerous international, state and local competitions, including the International Young Keyboard Artists Competition, Los Angeles Liszt Competition, MTAC Young Artist Guild, MTAC Panel Honors and Master Class, MTAC Concerto-Solo, Young Musicians’ Foundation,  Southwestern Youth Music Festival Young Pianist, Cypress College Grand Prize winner, Pasadena Symphony Concerto Competition, Pacific Symphony Concerto Competition, Orange County Philharmonic Concerto Competition, Sigma Alpha Iota Scholarship collegiate winners (5), CAPMT Bartok Competition, La Primavera “Stars of the Future”,  Orange County Philharmonic Musical Encounters, MTAC Adult Performance, Southern California Junior Bach Festival, Musical Arts Club of Orange County, Fine Arts Club of Pasadena, and more.

In 1982, he was one of ten West Coast college and university professors selected by Pomona College and the American Council of Learned Societies to receive the Arnold L. and Lois P. Graves Award for outstanding teaching in the humanities, and he also received the Valerie Scudder Distinguished Faculty Award at Chapman University.  He has appeared as piano soloist with Long Beach Community Orchestra, the Chapman and the Saddleback Symphonies, and for the past fifteen years in duo piano recitals with Karen Knecht.  He has also collaborated with many other instrumentalists and singers throughout his many years of performing and teaching.

Since retiring from Chapman University, Dr. Matthews has done guest teaching at California State University, Fullerton, and has taught several students from the Orange County High School of the Arts.  On May 29, 2012, four of his piano students performed in Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall in a program entitled “West Coast Sounds:  The Pianist Program from the Orange County High School of the Arts.”  In 2010, Dr. Matthews received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the California Association of Professional Music Teachers.