Matthew Taylor was born in London in 1964, won a Music Scholarship to Queens' College, Cambridge, was later awarded the Conducting Scholarship to Guildhall School of Music and then as a post graduate at the Royal Academy of Music was given their highest honour, the Dip RAM.

He studied Composition with Robin Holloway, Conducting with Leonard Bernstein and Vilem Tausky and received special encouragement from Robert Simpson.

The success including several broadcasts of his Symphony No.1 (1985) led to a number of important commissions. But it is in the deployment of large scale processes that his music makes its most significant statement. To date he has written three symphonies, concertos for piano, horn, double bass and clarinet, seven string quartets, a piano trio and other chamber music and songs.

His music has been performed by orchestras including the BBC Symphony Orchestra, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, City of London Sinfonia and Royal Ballet Sinfonia, the Allegri, Dante, Delme and Schidlof Quartets and soloists including Emma Johnson, Richard Watkins, Raphael Wallfisch, Emily Beynon, Martin Roscoe and John McCabe. CDs of his music are available commercially on ASV White Line, Toccata Classics and Dutton Epoch labels.

Matthew has apperaed as a Guest Conductor with many leading British Orchestras, receiving particular critical acclaim for his performances of Haydn, Beethoven and music from the 20th-century British symphonic tradition. He has conducted first performances of major works by Robert Simpson, Vagn Holmboe, David Matthews and James Francis Brown. His premiere recording of Simpson's 11th Symphony with City of London Sinfonia was highglighted as a Gramophone Record of the Year in 2004.

Matthew Taylor has held positions as Associate Composer of Malvern Festival (1993), Featured Composer at the Blackheath Halls (1999) and Composer in Residence of the newly apopointed chamber orchestra , sound.collective (2003 -06). Matthew has been Artistic Director of Malvern Festival (1994 -95), Artistic Director of Tunbridge Wells International Music Festival (2003 - ) and in October 2009 will launch the Padstow Festival.

Future projects include the premiere of his Second Symphony with the BBC Symphony Orchestra in early 2009.

Matthew lives in Batttersea with his wife, the violinist Juliet Warden and their little daughter Emily.