Matthew Hadgraft

Matthew Hadgraft learnt piano from age 7. His teacher suggested he audition for St John’s Cathedral Choir Brisbane whose Organist, at the time, was Robert Boughen OBE with Michael Fulcher as Sub Organist. During his schooling at Anglican Church Grammar School, he received invaluable mentoring from the school’s Director of Music Dr Ralph Morton, who ultimately persuaded Hadgraft to study Piano as his instrument for Music Extension (rather than voice) with Graeme Morton.

Hadgraft studied a Bachelor of Music at the Queensland Conservatorium, graduating with a major in Musicology and a minor in Theory. He completed his AMusA in Piano and his AMusTCL with Alan Moffat before returning to university to study education. At ACU, he sang again with Ralph Morton on a choral scholarship.

Hadgraft sang with the choir of St Stephen’s Cathedral but later returned to St John’s, later joining Brisbane Chamber Choir. Parallel to his classical endeavours, he played as Benny in an ABBA tribute band, touring extensively and disrupting his commitments to other choirs.

In 2012 Hadgraft moved to Melbourne where he was the Organ Scholar at St George’s Malvern under Christopher Cook, whom he later followed to St John’s Toorak, where he still sings. Striking a deal with St Mark’s Fitzroy, he also sings there, previously with Dr Geoffrey Cox, now with Linda Kent.

Hadgraft is perhaps more well-known in Melbourne variously as a cabaret, vaudeville, tribute band and Musical Theatre performer, although his liturgical singing “strikes a nice balance.” His compositions usually run to songs for his original cabarets (Shoulda Coulda Woulda, 2013; HAM, 2019; Middle Aged Matt in Lycra, 2023). In stark contrast, he loves to compose liturgical music, always with a pencil and paper, even if he doesn’t always rule his bar lines as Boughen would have insisted.