After completing a Master of Music degree at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, Matheu Kieswetter was invited as a Visiting Conducting Fellow at the Juilliard School of Music in New York in 2013. He has since participated in numerous masterclasses across Europe, the United Kingdom, and the USA. Kieswetter’s early successes include Third Place at the International Conducting Competition with the Kammerphilharmonie Graz in Austria (2011), Second Prize at the International Conducting Competition with the Orpheus Sinfonia of London, and Winner at the Complete Beethoven Symphonies Competition with the London Classical Soloists (2015).
In recognition of his achievements, Kieswetter was honoured as one of the Mail & Guardian’s “200 Young South Africans” (2011) and was acknowledged in Professor Jonathan Jansen’s book “Great South African Teachers” (2012). He has been awarded several prestigious scholarships, including from the Juilliard School of Music, the Oppenheimer Memorial Trust, and the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland Postgraduate Award. In 2012, he was nominated to the World Economic Forum’s Young Global Shapers Committee, and in 2023, he was appointed to the board of trustees of the Quartet for Peace.
In 2014, Kieswetter conducted the Commonwealth Youth Orchestra and Choir on several occasions, notably for the opening of the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow’s Royal Concert Hall, as well as performances at St James’s Palace and Marlborough House in London. He has served as Director of Choirs and conducted the symphony orchestra at Strathclyde University in glasgow and was the director of the bachelor of education training choir at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, where he also lectured in choral conducting. Upon returning to South Africa, he was appointed conductor of the South African National Youth Orchestra, conducting mentor and coach during the KZN Philharmonic’s Young Conductor Masterclasses in 2016 to 2018, and Music Director of the University of Pretoria Symphony Orchestra and Symphonic Wind Orchestra. He also lectured in orchestral conducting at the University of Pretoria as Director of Orchestral Studies. International guest conducting roles during this tenure included the Junge Deutsche Philharmonie Ulm (Germany), Chicago Concordia University Symphonic Winds (USA), and, since 2018, as Principal Guest Conductor of the Fukushima Sinfonietta (Japan).
In 2022, Kieswetter was appointed as a conductor of the South African National Philharmonic Orchestra, touring internationally and co-conducting alongside Maestra Marin Alsop during her residency with the orchestra in South Africa. Since 2021 he has also been a visiting lecturer in Music and Peacebuilding at Soka University (Tokyo) and a visiting researcher at MOMRI Music Research Institute (Tokyo). In 2022, he conducted at the International Cultural Festival of Symphonic Music in Algiers, Algeria and Since 2023, he has conducted youth and university orchestras across China, combining this work with guest lectures at numerous universities.
In July 2025, Kieswetter led his youth orchestra to a Silver Medal at the World Orchestra Festival and Competition in Vienna, Where Matheu also won an ‘excellent conductor’ award. This achievement led to his appointment to the Artistic Committee of the World orchestra Festival for the next 5 years.
A committed advocate for new music, Kieswetter founded the Afropolitan Soloists, a professional chamber orchestra based in South Africa. The Afropolitan Soloists draws on outstanding musicians from across the African continent, performing the core orchestral repertoire while also championing contemporary African composers through the premieres of new compositions. His work in this sphere has included numerous operatic, ballet, and dance premieres, as well as collaborations on film scores. He has frequently led the Said Ensemble in Glasgow, participated in major new music festivals such as the Plug Festival (Glasgow) and the Sound Festival (Aberdeen), and collaborated with BAFTA-nominated composer Jessica Jones. Kieswetter has also worked with leading performance artists, including Gregory Maqoma (Full Moon), Kieron Jina (Lozenge), and Anthea Moys (The Conductors with Richard Cock and Mokale Kaopeng; Misconduct with Moving into Dance Mophatong and the Johannesburg Festival Orchestra at the final concert of South Africa's International Mozart Festival 2015).
Throughout his career, Kieswetter has conducted many leading orchestras worldwide, including the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Bulgarian State Philharmonic, the Juilliard Orchestra (USA), Commonwealth Youth Orchestra and Choir, Kammerphilharmonie Graz (Austria), Orpheus Sinfonia and London Classical Soloists (UK), Junge Deutsche Philharmonie Ulm and Oiko Musica (Germany), Fukushima Sinfonietta (Japan), Johannesburg Festival Orchestra, Johannesburg Philharmonic Orchestra, Gauteng Philharmonic Orchestra, and the South African National Philharmonic Orchestra.
In addition to his work as a conductor, Kieswetter is an avid hobbyist music producer. In 2022, he was awarded a Gold Medal in Music Production at the Global International Music Competition.