Philip Martin (pianist)
Philip Martin (born 1947) is an Irish pianist and composer, and Professor of Music.
Philip Martin was born in Dublin and won an Associated Board scholarship to the Royal Academy of Music in London where he studied with Franz Reizenstein. Reizenstein was a pupil of Solomon, Hindemith and Vaughan Williams. While there, Martin won many prestigious awards and prizes. He later studied under Lennox Berkeley, Richard Rodney Bennett and Louis Kentner. He went on to a dual career as both a pianist and composer.
Among his compositions are four piano concertos, Through Streets Broad and Narrow for piano and chamber orchestra, a concerto for harp dedicated to the Irish harpist Andreja Maliř, a symphony, much chamber music including seven piano trios and over 250 songs. Major choral works include "Thalassa" and a Chamber of commerce commission to celebrate the millennium "In Dublin's Fair City".
His music appeared on eight CD's within the last year (2011) and he recorded regularly for Hyperion records including the complete piano music of the colourful 19th century pianist and composer, Louis Moreau Gottschalk. One major interest is his passion for American music and he has given many first performances in the UK of works by William Schuman, Lukas Foss, Leonard Bernstein, and the first performance in Ireland of Samuel Barber's piano concerto.
Philip Martin's next CD will be on SOMM Records and is due for release in late 2012, it features the piano music of the English composer Billy Mayrl, who died in 1959.
Martin's interest in art led to him gaining an Open university degree in art history in 2009. He is also a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Music in London and a member of Aosdana, Ireland's academy of creative artists and Professor of music at Birmingham Conservatoire, England.
Among his best known piano works are 'The Rainbow Comes And Goes' and "In a Thousand Valley's Far and wide", both commissions from the GPA (now AXA) International piano competition in Dublin.
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