ZOË MARTLEW
cello
Zoë Martlew photo by Claire Shovelton
Cellist, composer, cabaret artist, educator, media commentator and concert narrator, the increasingly un-categorisable Zoë Martlew travels the world as solo performer and has worked with some of the world’s most renowned contemporary music ensembles, chamber groups, improvisation, film, electronica, multi-media, pop, rock, dance and theatre companies including Ensemble Modern, London Sinfonietta, Birmingham Contemporary Music Group, Ballet Boyz, Royal Ballet, Mira Calix, Plaid, Radiohead, Sir Paul McCartney, National Theatre. She has premiered hundreds of chamber and solo works and performed at many renowned festivals and venues worldwide including Aldeburgh, Bergen, Black Diamond Copenhagen, Carnegie Hall, Festival d'Automne à Paris, Elbphilharmonie, Gaudeamus (Amsterdam), Huddersfield, Meltdown (London), Lucerne, Ultima (Oslo), Rencontres Musique Improviseé (Paris), Wien Modern, MITTOSettembreMusica (Milan), Warsaw Autumn and and Wigmore Hall.
Recent activities include concerts in Tokyo with Colin Currie Ensemble and Steve Reich, with Ensemble Modern at Konzerthaus Berline, as cellist/actor in Richard Siegal’s Three Stages RuhrTriennale, recording cello/electronics score at IRCAM in Paris; an analysis presentation of Thomas Adés In Seven Days at Royal Festival Hall with actor Sam West, London; solo recitals at festivals: - St Magnus, Orkney; El Festival de Verano, Oviedo; Sound Scotland; Plush; Kithira, Greece, Dark Music Days in Iceland.
She has just become a member of CHROMA and the new Knussen Chamber Orchestra.
Zoë first began work on her celebrated one woman cabaret show Revue Z with Laurence Olivier award winning director Toby Sedgwick, winning the 2011 Katherine McGillervray Award to develop the show further. Since then it has played at over 50 venues across the UK and abroad, including festivals in Reykjavik, MORS festival Denmark, Copenhagen, Banff, Canada, Aldeburgh, Plush, FIMLuque Andalucia and Wigmore Hall.
She began composing as performer/composer, collaborating with New York City Ballet dancer/choreographer Antonia Franceschi on Up From the Waste Soho Theatre, POP8 and Ballet Black at Royal Opera House. Her cello/soundtrack piece Shift Trip has just been released on NonClassical label and made its US debut this spring as part of a Franceschi ballet in New York. Recent/upcoming commissions include ensemble pieces for Birmingham Contemporary Music Group, CoMA (her piece Slap On already has had multiple performances UK/Europe), a music theatre ensemble piece for Occupy the Pianos festival London, song cycle Musae for Lucy Schaefer and Huw Watkins Cheltenham Festival 2019, clarinet/electronics piece for Mark Simpson and ensemble piece for the Britten Oboe Quartet 2020. Her music is published by Schott.
She performs her string trio Völuspá at Tanglewood Contemporary Music Festival this summer, where she will also be taking part in composer panel discussions.
Zoë was a judge on BBC TV’s Maestro and Young Musician of the Year; regular guest commentator/presenter for BBC Proms and Radio 3, recently interviewed rock journalist Paul Morley for Royal Academy of Music composer seminar series, and was on the UK panel for the 2009 Eurovision Song Contest. She has written for publications including Classical Music Magazine, The Strad, Guardian, Sound and Music, Sinfini and her own Z Blog.
She is much in demand for educational activities, including : - strings tutor for National Youth Orchestra of GB, artistic director of Saigon Chamber Music Festival in Vietnam, Harstad Strings in Arctic Norway and regular jury member for international competitions including the Royal Philharmonic Society and Young Musician of the Gulf, Bahrain.
She studied at the Royal College and Academy of Music in London, Chopin Academy of Music in Warsaw and Clare College, Cambridge University.