MATTHEW SVEC (clarinet) is an American clarinetist and 2022 EMF alumnus currently based in Budapest, Hungary. In the 2023-2024 academic year, he is completing a U.S. Fulbright grant at the Franz Liszt Academy of Music studying Hungarian classical and folk music. Svec has given solo and chamber recitals featuring American and Hungarian repertoire in the numerous music venues of Budapest. He has performed with the Franz Liszt Chamber Orchestra (Hungary), the Young French-German-Hungarian Philharmonic (Germany), Taneycomo Festival Orchestra (United States), with members of Symphony Nova Scotia (Canada) and the contemporary-focused Veni Academy (Slovakia).
As a soloist, Svec has taken first prize in the concerto competitions of the Alexandria Symphony Orchestra, the North Carolina Symphony, the University of North Carolina Wind Ensemble and the Roanoke Youth Symphony. He has played in the masterclasses of Ricardo Morales, Paolo Beltramini, David Campbell and Diana Haskell, among others. His primary teachers include Csaba Pálfi, Donald Oehler and Cassandra Hibbard.
Svec has completed exchanges to Germany, Ecuador and Hungary. He speaks proficient Hungarian, German and Spanish and has spent significant time studying Ecuadorian Kichwa and French. In his free time, Svec enjoys yoga, capoeira and doting on his family’s two dachshunds.