Matthew Barclay is a director and choreographer in opera and music-theatre, who studied music at St Paul's Cathedral, Melbourne, dance at the Victorian College of the Arts and graduated from the Australian Ballet School. He has directed opera for Los Angeles Opera, Pittsburgh Opera, Opéra de Montréal, Meet in Beijing Festival, Macau International Music Festival, Jiangsu Opera House, National Symphony Taiwan, Hanoi Opera House, West Australian Opera, State Opera of South Australia, Opera Queensland. For Opera Australia he directed over forty productions at the Sydney Opera House and The Arts Centre Melbourne as Senior Resident Director, his recent production of Carmen toured regional theatres throughout Australia in 2021.

For the 2022 Sydney Festival digital he adapted Poulenc’s The Human Voice (La voix humaine) on film. And the same year his production of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s School of Rock for Sydney Catholic Schools premiered at Sydney’s Qudos Bank Arena.

Matthew specialises in training and mentoring of emerging opera artists. He has created movement and acting programs as guest lecturer for Sydney Conservatorium of Music and the Young Artist Program of Opera Australia. He is guest lecturer for NIDA’s MFA Directing Program. He is also stage director of iSing International Young Artists Festival held annually in Suzhou, Shanghai and Beijing. He is currently artistic advisor to Sydney Catholic Schools directing the Opera Australia Chorus in a new work to premiere at the Sydney Opera House in 2023.