On classical clarinet, Ed Matthew has served as guest-principal clarinetist with Tafelmusik, Philharmonia Baroque, The American Classical Orchestra, Washington National Cathedral, Pacific MusicWorks, Clarion Music Society, ARTEK, Grand Harmonie, and Musica Angelica. He has performed with Staunton Music Festival, Portland Baroque, Apollo’s Fire, Handel & Haydn Society, Opera Lafayette, REBEL, Washington Bach Consort, Boston Baroque, and other ensembles. He performed in the Bach Choir of Bethlehem’s premiere recording of Felix Mendelssohn’s reconstruction of J.S. Bach’s Saint Matthew Passion in the new Bärenreiter edition. 

On modern clarinet and woodwinds, he was in the orchestra of Broadway’s The Phantom of the Opera for two decades, followed by the 2023 Tony Award-winning revival of Parade. He was a member of the Broadway orchestras for the 2000 revival of Meredith Willson's The Music Man and for the Lincoln Center premiere of Jason Robert Brown’s Parade in 1998, as well as the off-Broadway Fermat's Last Tango by Joshua Rosenblum. The New York Times praised his “seductive saxophone work” with the Pit Stop Players. He premiered Joan Tower’s Island Prelude with the award-winning Quintessence. For the 150Music label, he recorded Passages, Gary William Friedman’s clarinet concerto and has recorded for RCA, Naxos, and other labels. He creates original scores and soundscapes for Chatillion Stage Company and its Project Mercury podcast.

When performing with period ensembles, he plays on reproductions of 18th-century clarinets, basset horns, and chalumeaux. These are from the 20th-and 21st-century workshops of Joel Robinson, Philip Levin, Soren Green, Peter van der Poel, Rudolf Tutz, Schwenk & Seggelke, and Steve Silverstein.

He also creates original scores and soundscapes for Chatillion Stage Company and its Project Mercury podcast.

By day he is a member of the Promotion Department at one of America's most venerable music publishing houses, G. Schirmer and Associated Music Publishers, part of Wise Music Group.