Originally from Valencia, CA, Matthew Roitstein joined the Houston Symphony in 2014 as Associate Principal Flute, the first appointment made by Music Director Andrés Orozco-Estrada. He served as Principal Flute of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra from 2022 to 2024, and has previously held positions with the Honolulu Symphony Orchestra and Sarasota Opera Orchestra.
Roitstein has performed as a concerto soloist with the Houston Symphony and as guest Principal Flute with Dallas, Detroit, Pittsburgh, and San Francisco Symphony Orchestras. He has also performed with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. Music festival appearances include Tanglewood, Music Academy of the West, Arizona Musicfest, Aspen, Sarasota, Britt, and Lakes Area Music Festivals. Roitstein can be heard on recordings with the Houston Symphony and New World Symphony, as well as on Gloria Estefan’s 2013 album, The Standards. In 2018 he recorded Studies in Nature, a trio for flute, viola, and harp by award-winning composer Karim Al-Zand, on an album of Al-Zand’s chamber music. This year, Roitstein is releasing his own debut album, featuring John Harbison’s Duo for Flute and Piano, and the premiere recordings of newly commissioned pieces by Amanda Harberg, Karim Al-Zand, and Matthew’s father, David Roitstein.
A passionate educator, Roitstein has been on the faculty of the Interlochen Arts Camp since 2018, and he has also taught at Boston University’s Tanglewood Institute and at Bard College. His orchestral path was shaped by a fellowship at the New World Symphony in Miami Beach under the direction of Michael Tilson Thomas, and graduate studies at Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music under conductor Larry Rachleff. He received his Bachelor’s Degrees in both architecture and music from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he was the 2007 winner of the MIT Symphony Concerto Competition. His primary flute teachers were Leone Buyse and Seta Der Hohannesian, and other significant influences include Mark Sparks, Elizabeth Rowe, Stephen Kujala, Gary Woodward, Pedro Eustache, and Matthew’s mother, Rosy Sackstein.
Matthew Roitstein is a Powell Artist and plays on a handmade 14K Powell flute.