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EVC News
Composer Philip Martin Joins EVC Music
08
Feb
Feb
Philip Martin, a prolific contemporary composer has joined the EVC Music and New York Nights Jazz scherzo for piano for advanced level players (Gr 7-8 ABRSM) is the first release available on our website as a digital download. Tap to preview >.
Philip Martin wrote:
‘New York Nights is a snappy, brilliant scherzo depicting the excitement and colour of the “Big Apple” where I studied, lived and performed in the 1980’s and 90’s. One minute we are in the Latin quarter and the next we are transported to the hustle and bustle of 42nd Street. Art, people and places are often a springboard for much of my musical inspiration.’
Philip Martin’s music has an immediate appeal, often using places, paintings and people as a starting point. These pictorial and dramatic qualities moved a recent reviewer to write about his First symphony: “This work created a distinctive harmonic language through the contrapuntal combination of certain kinds of vigorously rhythmic, colourful ideas.”
Educational piano pieces from Philip Martin are very popular with teachers and students and some might remember his The Rainbow Comes and Goes from the ABRSM’s Piano Syllabus for Grade 8.
Philip Martin combines a busy solo performing career with that of a composer and teacher. It is these three elements of his musical personality that make him such a force in musical life today.
Philip is a member of Aosddna, Ireland’s state-sponsored academy of creative artists. In 1989 Yehudi Menuhin presented him with an honorary Fellowship of the Royal Academy of Music in London.
In 2012, Philip was awarded a Professorship by Birmingham City University for his outstanding contribution to the arts. “Mr. Martin is one of our most valuable musical exports and leaves soon to spend year in the U.S.A. on an award-winning fellowship. This is one of the many honours which reflect as much on the country as on himself” (Pat O’Kelly Evening Press, 1981)
Born in Dublin, he studied with Mabel Swainson before winning an Associated Board scholarship to the Royal Academy of Music in London. Here he continued with the pianist and composer Franz Reizenstein, himself a pupil of Solomon, Hindemith and Vaughan Williams.
Whilst at the Academy, Philip gained his recital diploma and won many prestigious awards, including the coveted MacFarren gold medal. He was later awarded the first Sir Frederick Shinn Fellowship. He continued private studies with Louis Kentner in London and later with Yvonne Lefébure in Paris, receiving impressive reviews from the press:
‘Between the Bartok and Ravel, Mr. Martin gave us Beethoven’s F sharp sonata with warmly supple phrasing and poetic insight- a beautiful performance.’
The Daily Telegraph. (London – South Bank recital)
He made his London debut in the Wigmore Hall and this led to frequent appearances on the South Bank and throughout Britain with all the BBC orchestras, the London Symphony, London Sinfonietta, the Royal Philharmonic, the Hallé, the Bournemouth Symphony, the City of Birmingham and he Royal Liverpool Philharmonic.
He has played his extensive repertoire of over 60 concertos in such diverse countries as France, Italy, the Netherlands, Scandinavia, the USA and Canada, Saudi Arabia, Cairo and Mexico, where he is a regular and very popular visitor.
He has also proudly retained his relationship with Ireland where he returns each season. For his first concerto appearance in Dublin, he played the George Gershwin concerto in F and this set the seal on his passion and interest in American music. He then gave the Irish premiére of Samuel Barber’s piano concerto for which he has a particular affection. Many performances of this work followed. Besides the many RTE National Symphony broadcasts, he has also performed this work with three separate BBC orchestras as well as an EBU broadcast from Ankara in Turkey and the first performance of the work in Paris.
His BBC, RTE and foreign broadcasts are many and he has also been a frequent visitor to the BBC Promenade concerts, where he toured with the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain, playing in the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam and Tivoli Gardens in Denmark before his appearance in the Royal Albert Hall. He followed this two years later with a televised performance of Rachmaninoff’s Paganini Rhapsody which was televised on Omnibus at the Proms.
Philip spent a year in the United States on a UK-US Bi-Centennial arts fellowship which allowed him to play, research, and meet American composers.
By donating his professional services, Philip supports numerous charities and every year raises generous amounts for their benefit.