Artistic Director
violin and viola
Clazz Chamber Orchestra conductor
Matt Pickart is a violinist, violist, famiolist, and pedagogue in multiple styles. As a third-generation musician and music teacher, he began Suzuki violin lessons at the age of three. In 2016, he created the Clazz International Music Festival in Arcidosso, Italy, celebrating multi-genre musicianship and pedagogy. He has the distinct honor and privilege of having performed at both Jazz at Lincoln Center and Carnegie Music Hall’s Weill Recital Hall. His recordings have been broadcast on Milwaukee’s WMSE, Pittsburgh’s WQED, Lansing’s WKAR, St. Louis’s KWMU, and National Russian Radio. In 2018 he was named an honorary artist of the Global Music Partnership. This summer he will debut in China, performing in a recital at the Gulangyu Recital Hall on Gulangyu Island.
As a soloist, he has appeared with orchestras in the USA, Canada, Italy, and the Netherlands.
As a chamber musician, Dr. Pickart studied with members of the Pro Arte Quartet, the Verdehr Trio, and the Fine Arts Quartet. He is the violist of the Clazz Quartet. He has collaborated with Grammy-nominated Quartet San Francisco, Esterhazy Quartet, Project String Quartet, Chamber Project Saint Louis, Pittsburgh Classical Revolution, and members of the Saint Louis and Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestras.
Pickart has performed in orchestras for The Who, Barry Manilow on tour; The Vogues, and Josh Groban as concertmaster; and as principal violist for Bernadette Peters, and the Trans-Siberian Orchestra. He has toured with The Rock Orchestra. As a substitute player, he has played with premier ensembles, including the Pittsburgh Opera Orchestra, Missouri Symphony Orchestra, Arkansas Symphony Orchestra, Alabama Symphony Orchestra, and the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra.
In addition to classical music, Pickart has performed and recorded in multiple genres including bluegrass, blues, choro, country, flamenco, folk, hip hop, indie rock, jazz, klezmer, mariachi, punk, rock, and tango. He strongly believes that it’s important for all musicians to be well-rounded and to know how to improvise and navigate different styles of music. As one of his favorite composers, Duke Ellington said, “There are simply two kinds of music, good music, and the other kind.” For over twenty years, he has maintained a bluegrass duo with Madison local legend David Sewell. In St. Louis, he was the lead violinist of Mariachi Saint Louis and klezmer big band, Klezundheit. Recently featured on Matt Holborn’s Jazz Violin Podcast, outside of his classical playing, Pickart has worked most extensively in jazz. As violinist and vocalist of the Hot Club of Pittsburgh, he was a featured artist at Jazzstadt Stuttgart, and has performed alongside Bach to the Future, Rhythm City featuring Ptah Williams, Premier Swingtett, Robert Rodriguez, Eric Marienthal, Dave Weckl, and Tracy Silverman. In 2022, Pickart formed a fusion group, Violision, with Hindustani violinist Rupam Ghosh. Featured on St. Louis on the Air, Violision will release its first recording under Autumn Hill Records in 2025. Other upcoming releases include recordings with Kim Portnoy, Pavlov’s Dog, and Forget Brennan.
Also active in new music, Mr. Pickart has worked closely with leading composers Jonathan Bartz, David Biedenbender, Daron Hagen, Ivette Herryman-Rodriguez, Matt Murchison, Daniel Perttu, Kim Portnoy, David Stock, Zhou Tian, and David Werfelmann. In 2017, he performed as viola soloist for Steven Mackey’s 2007 concerto Groundswell with Michigan State University’s new music ensemble, Musique 21. In 2023 he was a featured performer at the College Music Society International Conference with composer and musician David Werfelmann, performing his piece: of earth and ash for viola and electronics (written for him) at the Estonian Academy of Music in Tallinn.
Mr. Pickart is lucky to count some of the great luminaries of the music world, among his teachers, such as Sidney Harth (legendary American concertmaster); Yuri Gandelsman (former principal violist of the Israel Philharmonic); and Rodney Whitaker (former bassist of the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra.) Other former teachers include Walter Verdehr, Charles Stegeman, Tyrone Greive, Eugene Purdue, Alison Jewer, and Tom Moore on violin; and Marylène Gingras-Roy on viola. He has taken additional lessons with violinists Noah Bendix-Balgley, Evan Price, and Jacques Israelievitch and violists Choong-Jin Chang and Charles Pikler, among others; and has played in masterclasses for a wide variety of artists including Midori, Joan Tower, and Christian Howes.
As a pedagogue, Prof. Pickart has been teaching for over two decades. He is in demand as a clinician, and adjudicator, and has led masterclasses, in the classical canon, improvisation, jazz, and other styles. His students have gone on to attend prestigious institutions on scholarship such as Belmont University, Berklee College of Music, and the New England Conservatory. As a testament to his pedagogy, several of his former students, have entered the profession in multiple styles, teaching and playing. He served as Assistant Professor of Music, Director of Chamber Music, and taught violin, viola, improvisation, and music entrepreneurship at Webster University in Saint Louis. He has also served on the faculties of Beloit College, University of Missouri-Saint Louis, Jazz St. Louis, Chamber Music Pittsburgh, Missouri Chamber Music Festival Adult Chamber Music Intensive, Webster University Jazz Camp, Okemos Suzuki, the City Music Center of Duquesne University, and the Community Music Schools of Michigan State University and Webster University. In the summers he is a faculty member of the University of Wisconsin-Madison Summer Music Clinic, Renova Music Festival, and Clazz, where he teaches violin and viola and conducts the Clazz Chamber Orchestra.
For further information, please visit www.mattpickart.com