Matthew Shubin graduated from the Indiana University School of Music, where he studied bassoon with Leonard Sharrow and attended the chamber music master classes of Janos Starker, Josef Gingold, and Gyorgy Sebok. He played Principal Bassoon in the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra from 1970-1975, and then joined the Cleveland Orchestra as Associate Principal, where he remained through 1978.
Over the years, he has appeared at the summer music festivals of Tanglewood, Aspen, Blossom, and Apple Hill, and taught on the music faculties of Macalestar College and Baldwin Wallace College. He has collaborated with musicians all over the world: at the Quito Music Festival in Ecuador, at the Szechuan Conservatory in Chengdu, China, in many of the major cities in Eastern Europe, and with Ensemble Resonance in Paris, with whom he is heard on two noted recordings. In 2007 he appeared in the new concert series “Legacies” funded by a grant from the NYS Music fund with the musicians of the Rochester Folk Art Guild, culminating in two new releases – Reflections, and Latin Landscapes.
Most recently he gave master classes and was featured as a soloist and chamber music artist during the Quito Music Festival. He participated in the world premiere of Dan Sedgewick’s Aria for Two Bassoons and String Orchestra.
Mr. Shubin is currently presenting a series of recitals with piano focusing on the sonatas of Bach and Brahms as well selections from their music for voice - which he has adapted for bassoon.
He has a deep interest in living folk music traditions, which has led to concerts pairing the music of the great Armenian composer and ethnologist, Vardapet Komitas, with music from the unique collaboration of George Gurdjieff and Thomas de Hartmann.