Matthew Tomkins has been a member of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra since 2000 and in 2010 was appointed to the position of Principal Second Violin. Matthew was born in Canberra but grew up in Creswick, just outside of Ballarat and began learning the violin at the age of five. His teachers included Marco van Pagee, Spiros Rantos and Mark Mogilevski and he also holds a Bachelor of Engineering and a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Melbourne.
With the MSO he has toured throughout Europe and China and performed with artists as diverse as Nigel Kennedy, Charles Dutoit, KISS, and Tim Minchin. He has also been a regular performer in the MSOChamber Players series. Matthew is well known to Australian audiences as a member of the Flinders Quartet and is also a core player with the Melbourne Chamber Orchestra. He has tutored regularly for the Australian Youth Orchestra, and teaches chamber music and violin at the University of Melbourne.
