Brazilian-born conductor, Lucia Matos has appeared with numerous orchestras in the US and abroad and her first commercially distributed CD, with the Czech Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra and oboist Andrea Gullickson, was released by Cala Records. Also intensively involved with opera, Lucia Matos has conducted several productions at Opera Illinois and was a semi-finalist at the Bela Bartok International Opera Conducting Competition.

Lucia Matos studied conducting with Henrique Gregori at the Universidade Estadual de Campinas and after graduating she was assistant conductor for two professional orchestras in Brazil (Sinfonica Municipal de Campinas and Orquestra da UNICAMP). In 1998 she was awarded a fellowship to continue her studies in the United States. She received the Master of Music and Doctor of Musical Arts from the University of Iowa, as student of William LaRue Jones. From 2003 to 2008, Lucia Matos was the orchestra director at the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh. Since fall 2008, she has been the director of the NIU Philharmonic and music director of the NIU Opera Theater.