Born in Jacksonville, Florida, Matthew Wardell's love of music began with percussion and piano lessons. As a young musician he was a member of numerous state and national honor orchestras, attended summer music festivals like the Sewanee Summer Music Festival in Tennessee and the Eastern Music Festival in Greensboro, NC, and was awarded the Red Cross Crescent Award for the Performing Arts.

      Mr. Wardell received his Bachelor of Music cum laude at the University of North Florida where he studied and worked closely with renowned percussionist Charlotte Mabrey. While at UNF he founded a contemporary music and percussion chamber ensemble, appeared as a soloist throughout Jacksonville and was awarded the 20th Century Music and the Lazzara Family Scholarships. Mr. Wardell has continued his education with his mentor Raymond Chobaz at the University of Florida where he still serves as Associate Conductor of the University of Florida Symphony Orchestra and earned a Master's degree in Orchestral conducting. While Maestro Chobaz was on sabbatical during the 08-09 school year, Mr. Wardell's responsibilities with the orchestra increased and his extremely successful performances of difficult works such as Rachmaninov’s Paganini Variations and Bartok’s pantomime The Miraculous Mandarin (fully staged with 8 dancers) were called “spirited” and “miraculous” and applauded by University of Florida faculty, administration, and members of the central Florida community. In April of 2009, he conducted 2 performances of Puccini’s Tosca at very short notice. The performances were hailed as “first-rate” and “inspiring” while Maestro Wardell’s ability to step in at the last moment was described as a “magnificent feat … when the stakes were high, Mr. Wardell came through brilliantly and proved his mettle.”

      Mr. Wardell has twice been selected and attended the prestigious Pierre Monteux School for Conductors and Orchestra Musicians in Hancock, ME where he studied conducting with music director Michael Jinbo and as since been asked to serve as an orchestra assistant. At the Monteux School Matthew made his public conducting debut with a successful performance of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 3 and built on this success with several performances including Dvorak’s Symphony No. 6, Hindemith’s Mathis der Mahler Symphony, and incredibly popular pops performances. In addition to his studies in Maine and at the University of Florida, Mr. Wardell has studied with Keith Lockhart of the Boston Pops and Utah Symphony, Thomas Cockrell of the University of Arizona, and most recently studied for an extended time with conductor and composer Peter WesenAuer in Salzburg, Austria. In 2010, he was selected for the second time to attend the College Orchestra Directors Association (CODA) biennial national conference's conducting masterclass that allows promising young conductors to work on and expand their conducting repertoire.

      Also active as a composer, Wardell’s compositions have been performed in the United States, Canada, France, and Germany. Most notably, his orchestral work An Unexpected Path, A Symphonic Journey was premiered in 2004 by the University of Florida Symphony Orchestra.

      Mr. Wardell is a member of the American Symphony Orchestra League and the College Orchestra Directors Association.

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