Matthew Ridley
In 1993 Matthew joined Pastance and toured extensively with the group (1993-97) throughout Queensland, NSW, Victoria, Tasmania, SA and New Zealand.
Matthew Ridley plays early and modern recorders and Baroque and Renaissance flute. He is a graduate of the University of Sydney and completed his Diploma in Performance Studies on Recorder at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music. He began studying with Owen Watkins and Howard Oberg, and later with Hans-Dieter Michatz. Matthew has performed in the Sydney Bach Festival, with the Sydney Dance Consort, Salut! Baroque, the Sydney Consort, the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra, Opera Australia, The Musicke, Trio Bassano and Venetian Brass. In 2002 he participated in a recording of Bach arias for the ABC with The Orchestra of the Antipodes and recorded a soundtrack for an Italian film.
In addition to his interests in early music, Matthew devotes much of his time to contemporary performance. He has played with Riley Lee and Michael Atherton, percussion and electronic music ensembles, and has collaborated in the recording of a CD ROM of modern Australian recorder works with the quartet Fortune. He works regularly with the marimbist John Dewhurst, with whom he has performed several premieres of Australian compositions.
Matthew also enjoys teaching. He has a long association with Wollongong Conservatorium and Newington College and, in addition, co-ordinates ensembles in the Sydney Conservatorium Youth Access and Conservatorium High School chamber music programmes.
Performing as Pastance
Pastance came together in 1993 to perform mediaeval and Renaissance music. Based in Sydney, the ensemble has reached the early-music fraternity and a wide public, from folk festivals and formal concerts to schools, corporate feasts and open-air markets.
Sit Down Beside Me
In its inimitable style, Pastance again brings together music from the folk traditions and the early music world.
A Valley Fair
Pastance's then most recent offering is a delightful collection of traditional, original and early music for Celtic harp, recorders and voices.
Joy
Joy names the intent behind much of this music: carols of piety, the longing of Landini and Machaut, and Hildegard von Bingen’s soaring beauty. The collection shows how song shaped everyday life in the Middle Ages.