Get to know Matthew Goddard, our Principal Timpani and TSO Board member
26 February. Written by Sally Glaetzer.
Matthew Goddard is in his element in the TSO Studio, rehearsing for a string of concerts in March. For Matt, a highlight of the opening season is our brass and percussion concert in Hobart's St David's Cathedral on 21 March.
But first, our first Federation Concert Hall performance of the year is headlined by Grammy award winning Canadian artist James Ehnes performing Brahms’s Violin Concerto, followed by Sibelius’s Symphony No. 1.
The Sibelius symphony opens with rolling timpani accompanied by a clarinet solo. It requires a delicacy and precision that Matt has honed over 25 years with the orchestra.
However, although he's performed it before, Matt is a musician who never plays a piece the same way twice.
‘I don't go back and see what timpani sticks I used last time. I approach it afresh every time, so that it never gets stale,’ he says.
‘When I first started out doing this, Sibelius scared me a bit. He wrote quite challenging parts and I had to find a way to just try to crack the code. But once you get it, it’s immensely enjoyable.’ Matt says.
If you watch closely from the audience, you’ll see Matt using foot pedals as he performs, tightening and loosening the skin of the drum to achieve an almost two-octave range.
‘A lot of people don't realise that timpani are tuned to notes. So, we play notes like everybody else does. We're in the same range as cellos, bassoons, and some of the double bass range,’ he explains.
In his role as Principal Timpani with the TSO since 1999, Matt has helped to shape the rhythm and harmony of the TSO’s sound. Depending on the piece, his masterful technique spans from frenzied and furious ‘thunderstorm’ passages to gentle ‘soft taps’ as described in this five-star review for last year’s Beethoven No. 5 performance.
Where it all began
Matt’s path to the timpani wasn’t a straight one. At school in Hobart, he began as a surreptitious drummer, sneaking onto the kit in the corner of the music room at lunchtime.
‘I got put onto the clarinet at school, but I was not a great clarinet player,’ he admits. ‘I discovered the drum kit and just taught myself for a bit until my teacher realised that was actually what I was good at.’
At the time, drums weren’t considered a ‘serious’ instrument. So Matt endured his clarinet lessons and played the drum kit on the side, eventually meeting musicians in brass bands and youth orchestras who exposed him to the orchestral world.
‘At the end of Year 12, I didn’t necessarily think I could make a career out of music,’ he says. ‘So I went off and did some other stuff—started a science degree, worked in a bank for five years.’
His passion for music eventually won out. At 24, he made a decision. ‘That was when I thought, yep, I want to pursue orchestral music,’ Matt says.
He enrolled at the Victorian College of the Arts, determined now in a way he hadn’t been at 19. ‘When you’re 24, you’ve got less time to muck around,’ he says.
Matthew Goddard playing in one of the TSO's Brass in St David's concerts.
During and after his studies, Matt performed as a freelancer with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra and the percussion ensemble Woof!.
In 1998, an opportunity arose in Japan with Orchestra Ensemble Kanazawa. ‘That was fantastic,’ he says. ‘I got to play in a small orchestra – Mozart, Beethoven, Mendelssohn, plus newly commissioned works. It was a great mix.’
That experience set him up well for what came next – a trial for the TSO’s Principal Timpani position.
‘People think the audition is the tricky part, but actually, it’s the trial that’s the challenge,’ he says.
Learning the orchestra’s repertoire on the fly, adapting to new conductors, finding the right sound in different venues – it was an intense learning curve.
‘You want to come into your first rehearsal sounding like you’ve played the piece before. That takes a certain mindset, a certain attitude,’ Matt recalls of that nerve-wracking time.
Matthew Goddard makes many of the timpani sticks he plays with.
Twenty-five years later, although the nerves are gone, there is no trace of complacency in Matt’s playing or mindset.
‘For me, it never gets old. It never gets boring. Every time I play a symphony, no matter how many times I’ve done it, I’ll discover something I hadn’t heard before. Maybe the conductor has brought a different aspect out, or maybe I just hear it differently. That’s fantastic. That’s the great thing about this job,’ Matt says.
Looking ahead, 2025 is shaping up to be another big year.
‘There are a lot of concerts I’m looking forward to, including several Beethoven concerts,’ he says. ‘We play a lot of Beethoven here – we’re a good size for it. And every time we play a Beethoven symphony, I think, “Oh, that’s my favourite version of that piece I’ve done”. Then we do the next one, and I think the same thing.’
Visit our concerts page to see Matt and the TSO performing in our Season 2025.
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