Matthew Halpin

Matthew Halpin is a tenor saxophonist born in 1991 in Dublin, Ireland. He graduated from Berklee College of Music in 2013 (BA) and is currently based in Ireland and Germany.

Matthew began studying saxophone at the Royal Irish Academy of Music (Dublin) from 2000 - 2007. In 2008 he took part in the Banff Centre's workshop in jazz and creative music directed by Dave Douglas.
Matthew commenced his bachelor degree studies at Berklee College of Music in 2009. In 2010 he was chosen to take part in the Berklee Global Jazz Institute, a highly concentrated 2 year music performance program headed by pianist Danilo Perez. He graduated from Berklee College of Music (Boston) in 2013 as one of two international presidential scholars of that year.

Over the years he has studied with George Garzone, Joe Lovano, Ben Street, John Patitucci, Danilo Perez, Jamie Oehlers, Rudresh Mahanthappa, Terri-Lynn Carrington, Julian Lage and Hal Crook.

Matthew leads and co-leads several small bands, some under his own name, others include 'Last Chance Dance' (with David Helm and Fabian Arends) and 'The Owl Ones' (with Veronika Morscher, Kit Downes, Pablo Held and guests).
He also works with larger ensembles such as the RTE National Concert Orchestra, the Dublin City Jazz Orchestra and the Irish Youth Jazz Ensemble.

For the past number of years, Matthew has been part of the faculty at the Sligo Jazz Project in Ireland.

Has performed at the Blue Note and Dizzy's Jazz Club in New York, the Panama Jazz Festival, the Monterrey Jazz Festival, the Newport Jazz Festival, the Berklee Beantown Jazz Festival, the National Concert Hall of Ireland, the Sligo Jazz Project, the Galway Jazz Festival, Merkin Concert Hall in New York, the Berklee Performance Center and the Kennedy Center.

He performs more frequently in small, dark, smelly, bars, pubs and jazz clubs.