Document text
Curtain Call: High school crush paved way for Don Matthews’ career By Jim Flint Updated: Dec 09, 2022 10:13 AM A A 3 View all photos Don Matthews, as Don Quixote, prepares to tilt at windmills in Randall Theatre Company's 2019 production of "Man of La Mancha." His companions are actors Jeff Mercer and Kelly Jean Hammond. RTC photo Husband and wife Judith Rosen and Don Matthews play Doris and George in a 2015 Randall Theatre production of "Same Time, Next Year." Photo by Bob Pennell Don Matthews shares liner notes with listeners during his morning classical music show at Jefferson Public Radio. Photo by Angela Decker Jefferson Public Radio’s classical music director Don Matthews has a pretty good idea what led to his career as a singer and radio deejay: a high school crush and a perceptive choir director. When Matthews was a high school underclassman, he was cast in a play as the romantic lead, “probably because I was the tallest and looked the part,” he said. “My leading lady asked if I could run the spotlight for the variety show she was in,” he said. “Since I had a crush on her, I said yes.” There he met the choir director who, after hearing him speak, asked Matthews to sing for him. Even back then, his voice must have had a mellifluous quality. “He got my schedule changed so I could be in the choir, and put me in a select group as well,” Matthews said. The following spring, he was cast as the male lead in his first musical, “Hello, Dolly!” and won a scholarship to all-state choir in Interlochen, Michigan. The Interlochen experience at age 15 was a game-changer. “Singing my first classical music, including Bach and Brahms, made me want to perform for the rest of my life,” he said. “When I came home, I started taking voice lessons.” Those lessons included learning to sing in Italian. And while still in high school, he sang his first classical solo, from Handel’s “Messiah.” Today, Matthews hosts a classical music morning show that’s been running on JPR since he took the job in 1998, and performs with numerous choral groups and Rogue Valley theater companies. His interest in music led to two degrees — a BA in Music from Eastern Michigan University and a Master’s in Vocal Performance from USC. A college experience that still resonates with him was when his choral group toured England and Ireland. “We sang at the International Choral Festival in Cork, at the U.S. Embassy in Dublin, and then toured England for nearly five weeks,” he said. “We lived mostly with local families and got a real sense of the culture because of that.” He sang various opera roles at USC and won a scholarship to the Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara, where he met the noted French baritone, Martial Singher. “He became my most important teacher,” he said. Matthews performed as a member of the San Francisco Opera chorus for three seasons before moving to Boston to study and try to launch his solo career. “I had some success, but wasn’t earning enough to make it my primary focus,” he said. “The only other thing that really interested me was radio, so I enrolled in the Northeast Broadcasting School and landed a job at WBUR in Boston before I graduated.” He also worked for WGBH, where he produced for Robert Lurtsema, the celebrated host of a classical music show. The Boston radio stints gave him the experience he needed to land the JPR job. Matthews was born and raised in suburban Detroit. His dad was a film and TV sound man and his uncles and cousins are all stagehands. Matthews did a little stagehand work himself as a young man in Detroit. He was a big fan of the Beatles and heard some of his first classical instruments in the Fab Four’s later works, such as “Eleanor Rigby.” “When the Beatles broke up, I joined the Time/Life Record Club. Every other month, I received four LPs from different classical music periods and got hooked.” Matthews did not give up his singing career when he moved to Ashland to spin at JPR. From the get-go, he was sought by Rogue Valley choral groups and theater companies. Early in his career he was a tenor, but now is a baritone. “My voice has gotten more bass over the years,” he said. Paul French, retired SOU professor and director of Southern Oregon Repertory Singers, attended USC at the same time Matthews did. “He invited me to join Rep Singers a few months after I arrived,” he said. He continues as a core singer for the group. “A couple years later, I played Emile DeBeque in ‘South Pacific’ for the Rogue Music Theatre (in Grants Pass), and that fall I was in ‘One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest’ for Actor’s Theater.” He has been a guest soloist with Rogue Valley Chorale and Siskiyou Singers, and has performed for several Rogue Valley theater companies, including Camelot Theatre, Randall Theatre, Ashland Contemporary Theater and Collaborative Theatre Project. His most memorable roles are Henry in “The Lion in Winter,” Sweeney in “Sweeney Todd” and his favorite, Don Quixote in “Man of La Mancha.” He has a particular fondness for “Same Time, Next Year,” in which he starred with his wife, Judith Rosen, at the Randall Theatre in 2015. The story is about George and Doris, each married to other people, who have an affair at a small California Inn in 1951 and then decide to meet at the inn every year for a romantic retreat. In the decades that follow, they develop a level of love and intimacy exceeding that of their marriages, and face their own struggles. “Performing with Judith was such a joy,” he said. “Being on stage with someone is all about trust, and I could not trust anyone more.” They age during the performance, requiring different looks and several makeup changes. In one memorable scene, Doris shows up pregnant and Matthews, as George, has to give her plenty of time to put on her baby bump back stage while he delivers a monologue on stage. “The audience always loved it when she appeared,” he said. “I was dressed in my robe, thinking we are going to make love, and the audience sees her before I do. Then she goes into labor, and I have to get help without revealing that she is not my wife. “The conflict I faced of caring for this woman but not wanting to admit I knew her was an interesting challenge as an actor,” he said. Matthew is in his element at JPR, a job he finds has evolved over time. When he first started, he mostly played music by the composers he had learned about growing up and in school. “Since then, I have been able to share many lesser-known composers who were, perhaps, overshadowed by the more famous ones,” he said. In the past several years, more works written by women and composers of color have been recorded. “And that has been a joy to share with listeners,” he said. He stresses variety in his mix, in both content and length, playing shorter pieces early in the morning when he believes many listeners are getting ready for their day or on their way to work. As the classical music director, he chooses all his own music. “But I also want other hosts to be able to choose their own music,” he said, encouraging them to add variety to their mix so there’s something for everyone. What’s next for Don Matthews? “I will be singing with the Siskiyou Singers next year in a selection from ‘Sweeney Todd’ with Livia Genise, who was Mrs. Lovett in the production we did together,” he said. “Because of the pandemic, I haven’t auditioned very often, but I hope to in the next year.” With his impressive stage presence and rich, baritone voice, Matthews would be difficult to ignore at any audition. Reach freelance writer Jim Flint at [email protected].