Matthew Manwarren

Originally from El Paso, Texas, pianist Matthew Manwarren has established a notable career as performer and artist teacher over the years. Currently he is Professor of Piano at Winthrop University in Rock Hill, SC, a position he has held since 2006. He has also served as Professor of Piano at Belmont University in Nashville, TN, and at Erskine College, where he held the Harriet Pressly Smith Caldwell Professorship in Music. From 2018-2022, he served as Visiting Professor of Piano at the University of South Carolina School of Music. Since 1998, Manwarren has served on the faculty at the Adamant Music School during the summers, a prestigious program for advanced-level pianists from all over the world. In 2022, he became Artistic/Executive Director at Adamant, where he oversees all matters related to programming, including appointment of artist faculty and selection of artist participants.

Notable performances include recitals at the Steinway Piano Gallery of Charlotte, Weill Recital Hall of Carnegie Hall, the Sundays at the Loft series in New York (Behre Piano Associates), the Ivories on the Border series in El Paso, Belmont Camerata series in Nashville, multiple recitals the Cathedral Arts Series in Burlington, VT, and recitals at Angelo State University (TX), Texas Tech University, Carson-Newman College (TN), Tulane University (LA), Meredith College (NC), and Mars Hill College (NC). A collaborative artist as well, Manwarren performs art song recitals regularly with tenor Jeffrey Price, and chamber music concerts with members of the Charlotte Symphony Orchestra, as well as duo piano concerts with faculty colleague Janice Bradner. In 2023, he collaborated with South African Pianist Franklin Larey in a performance of the complete two-piano and four-hands works of Francis Poulenc at Illinois Wesleyan University. Manwarren's recording, Youthful Passion and Fantasy, was released in 2015 on the Americus Label and features Schumann's Fantasy in C Major, Op. 17 and Brahms' monumental Piano Sonata No. 3 in f minor, Op. 5. A supporter of modern-day composers, he has commissioned and performed the entire piano works of Winthrop colleague, Leonard Mark Lewis, culminating in a recording to be released sometime in late 2023.

In 2006, Matthew Manwarren was awarded a Fulbright Teaching Grant through the Council for the International Exchange of Scholars, where he had the opportunity of serving as Fulbright artist-in-residence at the University of Cape Town, South Africa. He frequently serves as adjudicator at local, state, and national competitions, including the Josef Hofmann Piano Competition, the Daniel Piano Competition, and the Clavierfest Competition. In 2016, he served as an adjudicator at the Sixth Performer's Festival and Chamber Music Competition sponsored by the Singapore Music Teachers Association held at the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music.

Manwarren frequently gives masterclasses and workshops for piano teacher organization. Recent presentations include the Singapore Music Teachers Association, the Charlotte Piano Teachers Forum, the Rock Hill Piano Teachers Forum, the South Carolina Music Teachers Association, the Greenville Music Teachers Association, and the Greenfield Piano Associates in Burlington, Vermont.

Manwarren studied piano with Mary Lou Hindman Wade and Claude Herndon (a pupil of Tobias Matthay) in El Paso. He earned his undergraduate degree (summa cum laude) from Texas Tech University as a student of William Westney. While there he received the prestigious Eva Browning Piano Scholarship and was winner of the university concerto competition, performing Chopin's Concerto in E Minor with the Texas Tech University Symphony. He earned his master's and doctoral degrees from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, studying piano with Frank Weinstock and Elisabeth Pridonoff and organ with David Mulbury. In 1996, Manwarren was awarded a Teacher Enrichment Grant from the Music Teachers National Association for the purpose of studying at the French Piano Institute in Paris, where he had the opportunity to coach with Dominique Merlet, Pascal Devoyon, and Noel Lee. Manwarren has also coached with Virginia Hutchings of Atlanta, Walter Hautzig of New York City, and John O'Conor of the Royal Irish Academy of Music. In recent years, he worked with Sheila Paige, coordinator of the Piano Wellness Seminar, where he has had the opportunity to study pianistic technique, ease, and movement at the piano that prevents injury to the pianist.

Manwarren has served two terms as president of the South Carolina Music Teachers Association and was awarded the 2018 Teacher of the Year.