Sally Matthews was the winner of the 1999 Kathleen Ferrier Award. She studied with Cynthia Jolly and Johanna Peters and completed the Opera Course at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in 2000.  She was a member of The Royal Opera Vilar Young Artist programme from 2001 to 2003 and currently studies with Paul Farringdon.

Current and future opera plans include Donna Anna Don Giovanni at the Vienna Staatsoper; Delius A Village Romeo and Juliet and Cavalli La Calisto for the Royal Opera House; Fiordiligi Così fan Tutte also for The Royal Opera, the Glyndebourne Festival and the Bayerische Staatsoper; Sophie Der Rosenkavalier and Handel Deidamia for Netherlands Opera; Countess  Le Nozze di Figaro for the Glyndebourne Festival; Anne Truelove The Rake’s Progress for La Monnaie, Brussels; Governess Turn of the Screw at the Theater an der Wien and Poulenc Dialogues des Carmélites in Munich. On the concert platform Schumann Paradies und die Peri with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra and Daniel Harding in Lucerne and also with Simon Rattle and the Bayerische Rundfunk Orchester; Haydn Creation with the OAE and Mark Elder on a European tour; Brahms Requiem with Bernard Haitink and the Chamber Orchestra of Europe and Strauss Vier Letzte Lieder with Robin Ticciati and Bamberg Symphony Orchestra.

In January 2001 she made her Royal Opera House debut as Nannetta Falstaff under Bernard Haitink followed by Susanna in Act II of Le Nozze di Figaro in Bernard Haitink’s Farewell Gala concerts; Pamina Die Zauberflöte with Philippe Jordan and Iris Semele with Sir Charles Mackerras.  She has since returned to the Royal Opera to sing Sifare Mitridate and Anne Truelove Rake’s Progress.

She made her debut at the Staatsoper Unter den Linden as Pamina Die Zauberflöte; at the Bayerische Staatsoper, Munich singing the title role in La Calisto in a new production by David Alden; with Netherlands Opera singing Fiordiligi in a new production of Così fan Tutte and in Australia singing the title role Rusalka for Opera Australia. She recently returned to Munich to sing the title role Alice in Wonderland, a new commission composed by Unsuk Chin for the Bayerische Staatsoper and made her debut in Vienna singing Blanche Dialogues des Carmélites at the Theater an der Wien.

Recent concert appearances have included her debut with the Berlin Philharmonic and Sir Simon Rattle singing Carmina Burana, returning to sing Mahler Symphony No 4 and Schumann Paradies und die Peri; Elijah at the Saito Kinen Festival, Japan with Seiji Osawa; Mahler Symphonies No 2 and 4 with the London Symphony Orchestra and Michael Tilson Thomas; Berg Seven Early Songs with BBC Philharmonic Orchestra and Gianandrea Noseda; Messiaen Poèmes pour Mi with the LSO and Daniel Harding; Haydn Creation with the LSO and Sir Colin Davis in London and New York and The Seasons at the BBC Proms with Roger Norrington and with DSO Berlin and Andrew Manze.

Sally has appeared frequently in recital and was part of the BBC New Generation Artists scheme. She has performed a new piece written for her by Mark-Anthony Turnage at the Wigmore Hall with the Nash Ensemble, which was also recorded. In 2008 she made her recital debut at the Concertgebouw, Amsterdam with Simon Lepper and future recitals include a recital at La Monnaie, Brussels, as well as return invitations to the Concertgebouw and the Wigmore Hall.