Matthew McDowell, viola
© Ettore Causa
American violist Matthew McDowell is a distinguished chamber musician, rising pedagogue, and violist of the internationally acclaimed Schumann Quartett. He has performed internationally alongside renowned artists such as Martha Argerich, Gary Hoffman, Yura Lee, Miguel da Silva, Stella Chen, and members of the Berlin Philharmonic, appearing in leading venues including Carnegie Hall, the Herkulessaal in Munich, the Philharmonie de Paris, Muziekgebouw aan ’t IJ, the Kölner Philharmonie, Konzerthaus Dortmund, Victoria Hall, the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, TivoliVredenburg, The Phillips Collection, Hagen-Haus (Musikakademie Liechtenstein), the Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel and the Curtis Institute of Music.
Matthew’s engagements have taken him to major festivals across Europe and North America, including the Verbier Festival Soloists Academy, the Gstaad Menuhin Festival (2022, 2024, GFO 2025), the Zermatt Festival (2024, 2025), the Yellow Barn Festival, the Schiermonnikoog Festival, Prussia Cove IMS, Tippet Rise Art Center, NUME Festival, Heidelberger Frühling, the Festival Pablo Casals, the Moritzburg Festival, the Zwischentöne Kammermusik Festival, the Great Lakes Chamber Music Festival, the Festival Santa Pietra, the Geneva International String Academy (2023, 2024), ChamberLab, the Oropa Festival, Centrum, and the Festival de Bellerive. He has performed chamber music with artists such as Enrico Pace, Claudio Bohórquez, Paul Watkins, Ivan Monighetti, Tai Murray, Sergey Ostrovsky, Xenia Jankovic, Gábor Takács-Nagy, Renaud Capuçon, Oleg Kaskiv and Nathalia Milstein.
A laureate of numerous national and international competitions, he has appeared as a soloist with the Georgia Philharmonic and the Ocala Symphony, performing major viola repertoire. He is a founding member of the Amnis Piano Quartet, which won the bronze medal at the 50th Annual Fischoff Chamber Music Competition, the Grand Prize and Audience Prize at the Yellow Springs Chamber Competition, third prize at the Premio Renzo Giubergia Competition, the Oneppo Chamber Competition, a fellowship at the Great Lakes Chamber Music Festival, and the Yale Society of Chamber Music Competition. The ensemble was also a semi-finalist in the 2024 Concert Artists Guild Competition, a finalist at the Coltman Competition, and a finalist for the 2025 Schoenfeld International Competition. Matthew was also a finalist in the Barbash J.S. Bach Competition, a quarter-finalist in the 2024 Primrose International Viola Competition, competed in the 2025 Tertis International Viola Competition, and was a semi-finalist in the 2025 YCAT Competition.
Matthew graduated summa cum laude as a double major from Columbus State University’s Schwob School of Music. He studied at the International Menuhin Music Academy and completed MA and MMA degrees at Yale University (2024, 2025), where he received the Yale Alumni Association Prize. His teachers include Ettore Causa, Ivan Vukčević, Miguel da Silva, Boris Abramov and Gérard Caussé.
Matthew McDowell has been an Artist in residence at the Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel in Belgium since September 2024, under the direction of Miguel da Silva.
Last updated: 31 March 2026