Listed as one of Fred Hersch’s “pianists you should know”, and described as “an outstanding pianist, stoked full of creative ideas and limitless technique....totally innovative and luminous” by The Australian (national newspaper), Matthew is a genre-bending Jazz composer, pianist and versatile sideman.
Matthew graduated from the Elder Conservatorium in 2008 having been awarded the prize for top Undergraduate for piano, most outstanding honours student, and having being awarded the Adelaide University Medal for excellence in the humanities. In 2009 he became the first Australian to win a coveted Downbeat Magazine Student Award, and was offered a scholarship to complete a Masters Degree in Music Performance at Boston’s New England Conservatory.
Upon graduating in 2011, Matthew relocated to NYC where has been engaged as composer, bandleader and performer since. In 2014 he was the winner of the APRA/AMCOS Professional Development Award. The same year Matthew was a Freedman Fellowship finalist, performing at the Sydney Opera House.
Sheens has performed/ recorded alongside musical luminaries including John Patitucci, Chris McNulty, Paul Bollenback, Bob Moses, Jerry Bergonzi, Bob Mintzer, Jon Gordon, Eric Harland, Kendrick Scott, Matt Penman, Nir Felder, Donnie McCaslin, Ben Monder and Ben Wendel among many others.
Sheens has performed across Australia, USA, The UK, Japan, The Netherlands, at the Jazz Hoeilaart International Jazz Festival in Belgium, Montreux International Jazz Festival in Switzerland, Europafest in Romania, Wellington Jazz Festival, NZ, Australia's Wangaratta Jazz Festival, Melbourne International Jazz Festival, and at the International Panama Jazz festival in Panama City.
In 2012 Sheens released his debut album, ‘Every Eight Seconds’, to wide acclaim and won the 2013 APRA/AMCOS Professional Development Award. Sheens released his second album ‘Untranslatable’ (ABC Jazz) in 2014, and ‘Cloud Appreciation Day’ (QFTF) September 2016, which won the ‘Jazz Couleurs Hit Award’ in France, and ‘American Counterpoint’ (QFTF) in 2018, which won ‘Australian Jazz Work of the Year’ at the APRA Art Awards.
A versatile composer, Matthew had commissions from the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra (Symphony No. 1 premiered in Adelaide, SA, 2019), has arranged and orchestrated for the Czech National Symphony, Prague, written liturgical music for the Saint Thomas’ Episcopal Church of Mamaroneck, NY, and is constant demand as a composer/ arranger.
Matthew is a member of APRA/ AMOCS , and associate member of the Australian Music Centre.
About
Every Eight Seconds is a highly satisfying debut that simultaneously delivers on a cerebral and emotional level. On this evidence there's surely a lot more to come from the talented Sheens”……Ian Paterson, All About Jazz ★★★★
“Eric Harland’s shuffling drums, a supple bass line and Ben Wendel’s sultry saxophone float atop Matthew Sheens’ muscular piano in a composition that nods toward post-bop before exploding into chaos”…. Downbeat Magazine ★★★★
“While intellect and technical prowess pervade Untranslatable, it is lyricism that prevails”….The Music Trust ★★★★
“an outstanding pianist, stoked full of creative ideas and limitless technique....totally innovative and luminous”…. The Australian ★★★★★
“A brilliant musician from Adelaide, Matthew Sheens, presents here a powerful suite in four movements….It’s a highly passionate work, packed with seriousness of purpose…..Sheens clearly reveals his exceptional talent as a jazz improviser. It’s unusual for a jazz musician to attempt such a project, and hearing it has been an exhilarating experience”…..The Australian
“Sheens is a brilliant modernist…but his command of the piano keyboard is such that he handles pre-bebop styles with ease”…..The Australian Jazz Museum Magazine
“Matthew Sheens virtuosity helps to push the group forward”.…UkVibe
“Sheens has really hit his stride on Untranslatable, a consistently satisfying effort that purveys melody and adventure at the same time. The signposts indicate that Sheens could push off from here in any number of directions, towards contemporary classical music or experimental solo piano; jazz, in the second decade of the twenty first century, seems increasingly able to accommodate it all. Whichever path or paths Sheens chooses to go down it'll be a journey well worth following.”