Matt Pickart is a violinist, violist, famiolist, and pedagogue in multiple styles. As a third-generation musician and music teacher, he began Suzuki violin lessons at the age of three. In 2016, he created the Clazz International Music Festival in Arcidosso, Italy, celebrating multi-genre musicianship and pedagogy. He has the distinct honor and privilege of having performed at both Jazz at Lincoln Center and Carnegie Music Hall’s Weill Recital Hall. His recordings have been broadcast on Milwaukee’s WMSE, Pittsburgh’s WQED, Lansing’s WKAR, St. Louis’s KWMU, and National Russian Radio. In 2018 he was named an honorary artist of the Global Music Partnership. This summer he will debut in China, performing in a recital at the Gulangyu Recital Hall on Gulangyu Island.

As a soloist, he has appeared with orchestras in the USA, Canada, Italy, and the Netherlands. As a chamber musician, Dr. 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. He has collaborated with Grammy-nominated Quartet San Francisco, Esterhazy Quartet, Project String 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 the Cremona Summer Music Festival, Ariel Concert Series, Tennessee Governor School for the Arts, Saint Louis Chamber Soloists, Lansing Symphony Chamber Music Series, Arkansas State University, Renova Music Festival, and the Interharmony International Music Festival, and more. As Director of Chamber Music at Webster University, Pickart created unique and memorable concert experiences in St. Louis. 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 Webster jazz students.

Pickart has performed in orchestras for The Who, Barry Manilow on tour; The Vogues, and Josh Groban as concertmaster; and as principal violist for Bernadette Peters, and the Trans-Siberian Orchestra. He has toured with The Rock Orchestra. As a frequent orchestral leader, he has performed as concertmaster of the Pittsburgh Philharmonic, Madison Savoyards, and the symphony orchestras of Edwardsville and McKeesport, and as principal violist of the International Chamber Soloists and the symphony orchestras of Altoona and Johnstown. As a student, he was concertmaster and or principal violist at all three of his alma maters: the 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 substitute player, he has played with premier ensembles, including the Pittsburgh Opera Orchestra, Missouri Symphony Orchestra, Arkansas Symphony Orchestra, Alabama Symphony Orchestra, and the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra.

In addition to classical music, Pickart has performed and recorded in multiple genres including bluegrass, blues, choro, country, flamenco, folk, hip hop, indie rock, jazz, klezmer, mariachi, punk, rock, and tango. He strongly believes that it’s important for all musicians to be well-rounded and to know how to improvise and navigate 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.” For over twenty years, he has maintained a bluegrass duo with Madison local legend David Sewell. In St. Louis, he was the lead violinist of Mariachi Saint Louis and klezmer big band, Klezundheit. Recently featured on Matt Holborn’s Jazz Violin Podcast, outside of his classical playing, Pickart has worked most extensively in jazz. As violinist and vocalist of the Hot Club of Pittsburgh, he was 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 with the Swingadje Ensemble as featured soloist on three German tours, and with the Premier Swingtett at the B-flat in Berlin. 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, Modern Drummer Hall of Famer Dave Weckl, and “the greatest living exponent of the electric violin” Tracy Silverman (BBC Radio.) Recently he played with Rhythm City featuring Ptah Williams at Music at the Intersection 2024. In 2022, Pickart formed a fusion group, Violision, with Hindustani violinist Rupam Ghosh. Featured on St. Louis on the Air, Violision will release its first recording under Autumn Hill Records in 2025. Other upcoming releases include recordings with Kim Portnoy, Pavlov’s Dog, and Forget Brennan.

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. Clazz has featured Jean Luc Ponty, Joshua Roman, and Quartet San Francisco as special guests in Arcidosso, as well as online masterclasses with violinists Noah Bendix-Balgley and Evan Price. More information can be accessed at: www.clazzmusicfestival.com.

Also active in new music, Mr. Pickart has worked closely with leading composers Jonathan Bartz, David Biedenbender, Daron Hagen, Ivette Herryman-Rodriguez, Matt Murchison, Daniel Perttu, Kim Portnoy, David Stock, Zhou Tian, and David Werfelmann. In 2017, he performed as viola soloist for Steven Mackey’s 2007 concerto Groundswell with Michigan State University’s new music ensemble, Musique 21. In 2023 he was a featured performer at the College Music Society International Conference with composer and musician David Werfelmann, performing his piece: of earth and ash for viola and electronics (written for him) at the Estonian Academy of Music in Tallinn.

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 the Israel Philharmonic); and Rodney Whitaker (former bassist of the 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 violinists Noah Bendix-Balgley, Evan Price, and Jacques Israelievitch and violists Choong-Jin Chang and Charles Pikler, among others; and has played in masterclasses for a wide variety of artists including Midori, Joan Tower, and Christian Howes.

As a pedagogue, Prof. Pickart has been teaching for over two decades. He is in demand as a clinician, and adjudicator, and has led masterclasses, in the classical canon, improvisation, jazz, and other styles.  In 2021 he was the only American jury member for the first International Virtual String Competition through Chulalongkorn University of Thailand. He recently served as a judge of the state-wide Missouri MMTA and MTNA Competitions and the Missouri All-State Orchestra viola sectional coach. 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. He served as Assistant Professor of Music, Director of Chamber Music, and taught violin, viola, improvisation, and music entrepreneurship at Webster University in Saint Louis. He has also served on the faculties of Beloit College, University of Missouri-Saint Louis, Jazz St. Louis, Chamber Music Pittsburgh, Missouri Chamber Music Festival Adult Chamber Music Intensive, Webster University Jazz Camp, Okemos Suzuki, the City Music Center of Duquesne University, and the Community Music Schools of Michigan State University and Webster University.  In the summers he is a faculty member of the University of Wisconsin-Madison Summer Music Clinic, Renova Music Festival, and Clazz, where he teaches violin and viola and conducts the Clazz Chamber Orchestra.