Joseph Matthews, D.M., director of keyboard studies and professor of music in piano, studied with Abbey Simon, Sidney Foster and Gyorgy Sebok. As a vocal accompanist, he has played for Eleanor Steber, Gianna D'Angelo, Agnes Davis, and Walter Bricht.

His students have received high honors from Music Teachers Association of California, as well as at numerous international, state and local competitions.

In 1982 he was one of ten West Coast college and university professors selected by Pomona College and the American Council of Learned Societies to receive the Arnold L. and Lois P. Graves Award for outstanding teaching in the humanities. He has recently appeared as piano soloist with the Long Beach Community, the Saddleback and the Chapman Symphonies, and in duo piano recitals with Karen Scoville.