Biography

Matthew Rubenstein studied piano at the Manhattan School of Music, the University of Illinois, and the City University of New York with Jerome Lowenthal, Constance Keene, Edward Aldwell, Charles Timbrell, Ian Hobson, and William Heiles (harpsichord). He took masterclasses with Karl-Ulrich Schnabel, Malcolm Bilson, Roberto Szidon, and Igor Kipnis (harpsichord).

He has performed in the USA, Brazil, and Germany in numerous solo and chamber music concerts and has won several prizes at international piano competitions, including the Artists International Auditions in New York City in 1994 and first prize at the International Bartók–Kabalevsky–Prokofiev Piano Competition in Radford, Virginia, in 1999. In 1989–90 Matthew Rubenstein lived in São Paulo, Brazil, studying there with the pianist Daisy de Luca. In 1997 he appeared as soloist and chamber musician in several Brazilian cities and recorded works by Brazilian composers for TV Educativa in Rio de Janeiro.

In 2007 Matthew Rubenstein released the first complete recording of Aribert Reimann’s piano works on cpo, which was unanimously praised by critics. His 2011 Berlin Classics CD “Berlin im Licht: Klaviermusik der Novembergruppe” also met with positive response and was included by the Berliner Tagesspiegel in its list of “best CDs of summer 2011.” In 2015 Toccata Classics (London) released a CD of piano works by the Berlin composer Heinz Tiessen, and in 2020 his latest solo recording, with works by the Romanian-born French composer Marcel Mihalovici.

As a DAAD fellow in 1998 and a Fulbright fellow in 1999, Matthew Rubenstein came to Berlin, where he now lives and works as a freelance chamber musician and soloist. In Germany, the USA, and Brazil he has given world and national premieres of works by Aribert Reimann, Arthur Kampela, Jose de Almeida Prado, Fructuoso Vianna, Reiko Füting, Friedrich Goldmann, András Szöllösy, Nicolai Badinski, and others. Since 2009 he has performed as pianist with the “expaTrio” piano trio, which focuses on mixed programmes of new and classical repertoire. As guest pianist with the new-music ensemble “Saitenblicke” he has also taken part in several world and national premieres of works by Berlin composers. In 2009 he was invited by the German embassy and the Goethe-Institut in Abidjan (Côte d’Ivoire) to give concerts and masterclasses in the Ivorian capital.