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Meet the Freudiggest Music Director of all: Roland E "Ron" Martin
In addition to serving as Music Director of the Freudig Singers of Western New York, Roland E. Martin is a member of the music faculty of The Buffalo Seminary, Daemen College, and the University at Buffalo. He is organist and Director of Music at St. Joseph University Church, Buffalo and the founder and director of Speculum Musicae, an ensemble for early music. He also serves as conductor/music director for Opera Sacra for many of its productions. Mr. Martin is also in great demand as an accompanist, with engagements in Bermuda, Canada, and throughout the Eastern United States, including several Metropolitan National Opera Competitions.An accomplished composer, Mr. Martin has more than 80 works in publication, with a number of commissions from universities, choral societies, and individuals. He is the recipient of two Pennsylvania State Council of the Arts grants, two Meet the Composer grants, and two ALCOA Arts Endowment Awards for commissioned compositions. In 2004, the Buffalo Gay Men's Chorus commissioned and performed Mr. Martin's Adamic Songs, a setting of poetry by Walt Whitman, to rave reviews first in Buffalo, then in Montreal. Adamic Songs was subsequently performed in Town Hall, New York, on February 12, 2005 by the Canticum Novum Singers, with Mr. Martin as pianist. His choral works are performed frequently by the Freudig Singers and Chautauqua Chamber Singers, with his major works A Hymn for St. Cecilia (1994) and Requiem da Camera (1995) featured in the Singers' 2000-01 and 2006-07 seasons. The Freudig Singers have premiered several of Mr. Martin's choral compositions, including the elegant song cycle for women's voices, A Northeast Gardener's Year (2002). His Annunciation (2000) was premiered by the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra in March 2000. His Medieval Triptych (1994) was heard on a national television holiday season special from Washington D.C in 1998 and again in 2001 on PBS. As conductor, Mr. Martin has worked primarily in the field of opera. In 1999 he conducted two American operatic premieres, and in October 2001, he conducted Gian Carlo Menotti's The Death of the Bishop of Brindisi as part of Opera Sacra's "Menotti in Buffalo" festival celebrating the composer's 90th birthday. In March 2002, as part of the University at Buffalo's Opera Workshop program, he conducted an innovative production of Henry Purcell's Dido and Aeneas. In June 2004, he conducted Benjamin Britten's The Prodigal Son for Opera Sacra. As organist, Mr. Martin has given recitals throughout the United States, including the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C., and has performed in Canada, Spain, France, Germany, Austria, Italy and England, as well as annually in Belgium. Recent European tours have included Belgium (2005, 2001, 2000), Germany (2003) and France (2000), including a performance at the American Cathedral, Paris. In 1986, Mr. Martin was honored to perform the New York premiere, and the third American performance, of the complete collection of J.S. Bach's recently discovered Neumeister Chorales. In September 2000, he gave a critically acclaimed performance of Bach's Art of the Fugue at U.B.'s Slee Hall, and in October 2000, he debuted as soloist with the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra in a performance of the Rheinberger Organ Concerto No. 2. Mr. Martin received his Bachelor and Master of Music degrees from State University College at Fredonia where he studied organ with Dr. John Hofmann. Prominent among his composition teachers is Robert Helps (1928-2001). He also had a brief period of study with Aaron Copland. |
