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Originally hailing from South Yorkshire, Matthew Holmes is a freelance drummer, composer and educator based in Birmingham. In September of 2020 Matthew graduated from the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire with a first class BMus (Honours) degree in Jazz. During his time at RBC, Matthew won the Tony Levin Drum prize and became an endorsee for Canopus Drums. Throughout his studies Matthew received specialist one to one drum kit tuition from the likes of Jeff Williams, Clark Tracey and Andrew Bain amongst other acclaimed instrumentalists such as John O’Gallagher, Percy Pursglove and Mark Hodgson.

 

During his final year of education, and since graduating, Matthew has performed extensively around the UK at venues including; The Barbican Hall, Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club, The Southbank Centre and Cafe OTO. Additionally, Matthew has performed at a number of festivals and conferences internationally such as; London Jazz Festival (UK), Londonderry Jazz Festival (Northern Ireland), Sienna Jazz Festival (Italy), The Global Music Foundation - Jamboree Jazz Festival (Spain) and The International Jazz Conference of Thailand.

 

Furthermore, Matthew has performed live on air for programs and radio stations such as ITV’s This Morning, Loose Women, Channel 5, BBC Radio 6, BBC Radio Northern Ireland, Jazz FM, Scala Radio and Worldwide FM. Some of the artists Matthew has played with include notable figures such as; Soweto Kinch, Orphy Robinson, Tony Kofi, Norma Winstone, Nikki Iles, Alan Barnes, Tim Whitehead, Percy Pursglove, Ian Shaw, Arnie Somogyi, Dave Newton and Hermeto Pascoal.