Artistic Director

Matthew Christopher Shepard, Conductor / Artistic Director

E-mail: matthew@te-deum.org

Matthew Christopher Shepard, a Kansas City native, is founder, conductor, and artistic director of Te Deum, a chamber vocal ensemble. Perceiving a need for high caliber sacred choral music in Kansas City, he launched this new ensemble in 2008. At the age of twenty-two he was selected to be the first conducting intern with the Fine Arts Chorale of Kansas City, and a year later took on the role of assistant conductor, a position he held from 2004-2009.

Matthew Christopher Shepard has an equal passion for orchestral music. Following acclaimed performances with the Kansas City Metro Opera, he is the only conductor to be invited to lead a second opera with the company. Recently he has conducted professional orchestras in performances of Handel, Barber, Hindemith, Poulenc, Mozart, and Vaughan Williams. In the summer of 2009 Mr. Shepard was awarded a fellowship to study for five weeks at the Conductors Institute at Bard Conservatory with Maestros Harold Farberman and Leon Botstein.

Mr. Shepard also holds the position as assistant conductor at Village Presbyterian Church in Kansas City, where he conducts the Village Voices youth choir and the Village Youth Orchestra. Village Voices, a group which he founded in 2003 has grown from six members to over forty, has recently released their first professional recording, and participates weekly in worship services. They have recently been heard in concert performances of Mendelssohn’s St Paul and Fauré’s Requiem. The Village Youth Orchestra, which he founded in 2006, includes some of Kansas City’s finest high school players, and participates regularly in worship services at several churches throughout Kansas City. They are commended for their moving performances of great repertoire, including works by Bach, Vivaldi, Corelli, Mozart, Barber, Grieg, Sibelius, and Tchaikovsky.

Matthew Christopher Shepard began music studies in flute and voice, holds an undergraduate degree from William Jewell College and two Master’s Degrees in music from the University of Missouri-Kansas City Conservatory of Music and Dance. His principal conducting professors have been Dr. Arnold Epley, Dr. Ryan Board, and Dr. Robert Olson. Mr. Shepard has participated in conducting master classes with Leon Botstein, Apu Hsu, Lawrence Golan, Raymond Harvey, Jerry McCoy, Peter Bagley, William Dehning, and Andrew Megill.