Matthew Barclay is a stage director, choreographer and teaching artist. He studied music as a chorister at St Paul’s Cathedral, Melbourne, dance at the Victorian College of the Arts and graduated from the Australian Ballet School. For Opera Australia he has staged over forty productions at the Sydney Opera House and The Arts Centre, Melbourne, most recently directing and choreographing Carmen that toured regional theatres around Australia.
He has directed productions for Los Angeles Opera, Pittsburgh Opera, Opéra de Montréal, Meet in Beijing Festival, Macau International Music Festival, Jiangsu Opera House, National Symphony Taiwan, Hanoi Opera House, West Australian Opera, State Opera of South Australia, Opera Queensland, VCA Opera and Sydney Conservatorium. He will direct his third production, Madama Butterfly for Kaohsiung Spring Arts Festival, Taiwan in 2022.
Matthew specialises in training and mentoring of emerging artists. He has created movement and acting programs as guest lecturer for Sydney Conservatorium of Music and the Young Artist Program of Opera Australia. He is guest lecturer for NIDA’s MFA Directing Program. He is also stage director of iSing International Young Artists Festival held annually in Suzhou, Shanghai and Beijing.
