Violinist Matthew Hakkarainen joined the Toronto Symphony Orchestra as Associate Concertmaster in the 2025/26 season.
A native of Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, Matthew completed his musical studies at the Curtis Institute of Music (B.M. ‘22) and the Juilliard School (M.M. ‘24), where he studied with Pamela Frank, Sylvia Rosenberg, and Ronald Copes. He is an alumnus of the Rebanks Fellowship Program (‘25) at the Royal Conservatory of Music’s Glenn Gould School. His additional mentors have included Barry Shiffman, Charles Castleman, Mauricio Fuks, and Borislava Iltcheva, as well as his earliest teachers, Huifang Chen and Maree Sawhney.
Matthew first rose to international attention in 2018, when he became the first American violinist to win first prize at the Premio Rodolfo Lipizer International Violin Competition. He is a laureate of the Stuttgart, Mirecourt, Wajnberg, and Ysaÿe International Competitions, and he also won the Prix Ravel, Adelphi Orchestra Young Artist Competition, Aspen Music Festival Violin
Competition and New World Symphony Concerto Competition.
He has performed as a soloist with numerous orchestras in North America and Europe, including the Stuttgarter Philharmoniker, Orchestra Sinfonica Bulgaria Classic di Plovdiv, Orchestre de l’Opéra national de Lorraine, Karol Szymanowski Academic Symphony Orchestra, Baton Rouge Symphony Orchestra, Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra, Acadiana Symphony Orchestra, Adelphi Orchestra, Aspen Conducting Academy Orchestra, New World Symphony, Juilliard Orchestra, New River Orchestra, Orchestra Delray, Alhambra Orchestra, and others.
Also an active recitalist and chamber musician, Matthew has performed at esteemed venues such as Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, Koerner Hall, and the Kravis Center. In 2019, he toured northern Italy for a concert series with Asolo Matinée. He has appeared as a returning guest artist at Caspian Music and Viridian Strings, and was honoured to be part of the inaugural Rising Artists Program hosted by the Chamber Music Society of Palm Beach under the direction of Arnaud Sussmann and Edward Arron.
Prior to joining the TSO, Matthew served as Concertmaster of the Curtis Symphony Orchestra and Juilliard Orchestra and as Associate Concertmaster of Symphony in C. He also appeared as a frequent substitute violinist with the New York Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, and Orpheus Chamber Orchestra. He is an alumnus of music festivals and programs including the Aspen Music Festival, Music Academy of the West, Sarasota Music Festival, National Youth Orchestra of the United States, Orford Musique, Castleman Quartet Program, Music@Menlo Chamber Music Institute, Ferme de Villefavard Academy, Kuhmo Chamber Music Courses, and Fontainebleau School of Music.
Matthew is very grateful to perform on a 1790 Giuseppe Guadagnini violin and an Étienne Pajeot bow graciously provided by the company CANIMEX INC., from Drummondville (Québec), Canada.