Photo by Isoa Chapman
Matt Pickart, director and co-founder of Clazz International Music Festival, holds a varied career as a violinist, violist, and pedagogue in multiple styles. He has the distinct honor and privilege of having performed at both Jazz at Lincoln Center and Carnegie Music Hall’s Weill Recital Hall. Other career highlights include performances with The Who, Barry Manilow on tour, the Beatles Love Album Tribute Tour, Premier Swingtett at the B-flat in Berlin, Ritmo Flamenco in Toronto, the Swingadje Ensemble as featured soloist on three German tours, The Vogues as concertmaster, and as principal violist for Bernadette Peters and the Trans-Siberian Orchestra. His recordings have been broadcast on Milwaukee’s WMSE, Pittsburgh’s WQED, Lansing’s WKAR, and National Russian Radio. He is a proud board member of the Artist Presentation Society, and in 2018 he was named an honorary artist of the Global Music Partnership.
As a soloist, he has appeared with orchestras in the USA, Italy, and the Netherlands. During the 2018-2019 season, he opened Beloit Janesville Symphony Orchestra’s 65th Season as guest soloist for the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto; performed Dittersdorf’s Sinfonia Concertante for Double Bass and Viola with Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra’s principal bassist Erik Harris and the Webster University Orchestra; made his conducting debut while performing Telemann Viola Concerto with the Turtle Creek Chamber Orchestra; and performed alongside Grammy-nominated jazz violin wizard Jeremy Cohen, in the premiere of his piece Arcidosso Blues in Arcidosso, Italy. The 2019-2020 season saw concerto appearances in Saint Louis and Toronto before the pandemic.
As a chamber musician, Mr. Pickart studied with members of the Pro Arte Quartet, the Verdehr Trio, and the Fine Arts Quartet. He is the violist of the Clazz Quartet and violinist and violist of the Beloit Duo. He has collaborated with Grammy-nominated Quartet San Francisco, Esterhazy Quartet, Chamber Project Saint Louis, Pittsburgh Classical Revolution, and members of the Saint Louis and Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestras. He has been featured in chamber music performances at Cremona Summer Music Festival, Tennessee Governor School for the Arts, Saint Louis Classical Guitar, Lansing Symphony Chamber Music Series, Arkansas State University, Renova Music Festival, and the Interharmony International Music Festival, among others.
At Webster University, Pickart endeavors to create unique, diverse, and memorable concert experiences. Recent performances include Gems of Music Herstory featuring all-female composers with pianist Dr. Melissa Coppolla; and Jazz Violin of the Twentieth Century in collaboration with pianist Vera Parkin, violinist Erin Schreiber, and guest musicians.
Pickart has performed with many orchestras as a leader, including as concertmaster of Pittsburgh Philharmonic and principal viola of the International Chamber Soloists. As a student, he was concertmaster and or principal violist at all three of his alma maters: University of Wisconsin-Madison, Duquesne University, and Michigan State University. In 2013, he performed as principal violist of the Shirley Givens Alumni Orchestra at Julliard’s Paul Hall. As a section player, he has played with premier ensembles, including the Pittsburgh Opera Orchestra, the Alabama Symphony Orchestra, and the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra.
In addition to classical music, Pickart has performed and recorded in multiple genres including jazz, blues, bluegrass, choro, mariachi, punk, folk, rock, tango, hip hop, klezmer, flamenco, country, indie rock, and celtic. He strongly believes that it’s important for all musicians to be diverse and to know how to improvise and navigate in different styles of music. As one of his favorite composers, Duke Ellington said, “there are simply two kinds of music, good music, and the other kind.” Outside of his classical playing, he has worked extensively in jazz. He was the violinist and vocalist of the Hot Club of Pittsburgh and a founding member of the Pittsburgh classical/jazz project, the Groove Aesthetic and genre-bending group, the Matt Murchison Mutiny. He has also been critically acclaimed for his performances throughout Germany with the Swingadje Ensemble and the Premier Swingtett. In 2013, Mr. Pickart was a featured artist at Jazzstadt Stuttgart. He has performed alongside Grammy-nominated pianist Robert Rodriguez, Grammy award-winning saxophonist Eric Marienthal, and “the greatest living exponent of the electric violin” Tracy Silverman (BBC Radio.) Pickart currently plays as lead violinist of Mariachi Saint Louis and has also recently performed with classical-jazz fusion group Bach to the Future, St. Louis’s klezmer band, Klezundheit, and will be premiering a new tango band in 2022.
In 2016, Mr. Pickart created the Clazz International Music Festival in Arcidosso, Italy, as an opportunity for classically trained musicians to learn how to improvise through the context of jazz. Since that time, Clazz has evolved into a fifteen-day summer educational program, integrating classical and jazz music, becoming a melting pot of many styles of music, and incorporating both internationally recognized jazz and classical faculty including Grammy award-winners, top crossover artists, soloists, and leading orchestral players. In July 2021, Pickart began the first Clazz String Intensive in St. Louis. 2022 will see an online special guest masterclass and performance series by world-renowned artists: Noah Bendix-Balgley, Regina Carter, Florin Niculescu, Xavier Foley, and Jean Luc Ponty. More information can be accessed at: www.clazzmusicfestival.com.
Also active in new music, Mr. Pickart has worked closely with leading composers David Stock, Ivette Herryman-Rodriguez, Daniel Perttu, David Werfelmann, Kim Portnoy, and Zhou Tian. In the spring of 2017, he performed as viola soloist for Steven Mackey’s 2007 concerto Groundswell with Michigan State University’s new music ensemble, Musique 21.
Mr. Pickart is lucky to count some of the great luminaries of the music world, among his teachers, such as Sidney Harth (legendary American concertmaster); Yuri Gandelsman (former principal violist of Israel Philharmonic); and Rodney Whitaker (former bassist of Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra.) Other former teachers include Walter Verdehr, Charles Stegeman, Tyrone Greive, Eugene Purdue, Alison Jewer, and Tom Moore on violin; and Marylène Gingras-Roy on viola. He has taken additional lessons with Noah Bendix-Balgley, Evan Price, Choong-Jin Chang, Charles Pikler, and Jacques Israelievitch among others; and has played in masterclasses for a wide variety of artists including Midori, Joan Tower, and Christian Howes.
Mr. Pickart is Assistant Professor of Music at Webster University in Saint Louis, where he serves as Director of Chamber Music and teaches violin, viola, improvisation, and music entrepreneurship. He also serves on the faculty of the Community Music School of Webster University and the Missouri Chamber Music Festival Adult Chamber Music Intensive. Before that, he also served on the faculties of Beloit College, Pittsburgh’s City Music Center, the Michigan State University Community Music School, and the University of Wisconsin-Madison Summer Music Clinic, among numerous other programs. January 2021 he was the only American jury member for the first International Virtual String Competition through Chulalongkorn University of Thailand, and this last November he was a judge of the state-wide Missouri MMTA and MTNA Competitions. Prof. Pickart is in demand as a clinician, adjudicator, hosting talks on music entrepreneurship; and as a special guest for string masterclasses, in the classical canon, improvisation, jazz, and other styles. His students have gone on to attend prestigious institutions on scholarship such as Belmont University, Berklee College of Music, and the New England Conservatory. As a testament to his pedagogy, several of his former students, have entered the profession in multiple styles, teaching and playing.