Zoë Martlew – Composer
Wednesday 23 July 2025
“Music that rises to a plangent emotional peak.” The Wall Street Journal
Composer, cellist, performer, cabaret artist, educator, mentor, curator, media commentator and concert narrator, the increasingly un-categorisable Zoë Martlew travels the world in a variety of all those roles, as solo performer and 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, Royal Ballet, National Theatre, Grossman Ensemble (US), Colin Currie Group.
She’s given countless world premiere performances at notable new music festivals including Aldeburgh, Dark Music Days (Iceland), Faster than Sound, Gaudeamus (Netherlands), Huddersfield, Konfrontationen (Austria), Latitude, Ruhr Triennale (Germany), Sound Scotland, Tanglewood (US), Ultima (Norway).
As composer/performer, Zoë has collaborated with New York City Ballet dancer/choreographer Antonia Franceschi on many projects including Ballet Black/Royal Opera House, 92Y New York city; working with Laurence Olivier award winning director Toby Sedgwick on her celebrated one-woman show Revue Z which has played worldwide including festivals in Banff (Canada), Copenhagen, MORS (Denmark), Plush, FIMLuque Andalucia, Reykjavik, St Magnus Festival (Orkney) and Wigmore Hall.
Chosen to represent the UK at the 2024 ISCM World Music Days festival in the Faroes, Zoë launches her debut solo album as composer “Album Z” on NMC Records later this year, along with her new dramatic song cycle “Hôtel Babylon” (premiered at Wigmore Hall last year), performed by Claire Booth (sop) and Jâms Coleman (pno) on the Orchid label.
Her music has been performed by internationally renowned solo artists and ensembles including Riot Ensemble, London Sinfonietta, Birmingham Contemporary Music Group, Onyx Brass Ensemble, Nicholas Daniel (oboe), Anna Dennis (soprano), Timothy Gill (cello), Alessandro Fisher and Mark Padmore (tenor), Lore Lixenberg and Lucy Schaufer (mezzo), Mark Simpson (clarinet), Heloïse Werner (sop) and ensemble, Lana Bode, Rolf Hind, Richard Uttley and Huw Watkins (piano), choir of Clare College, Cambridge.
Recent/upcoming commissions include pieces for Ben Goldscheider/ Camerata Pacifica festival 2025, California tour, Chamber Domaine/Wigmore; Marian Consort, London Sinfonietta “Sound Out” /Royal Festival Hall; Grossman Ensemble, Chicago.
She is to be featured composer in this year’s Music at Malling and Endellion Festivals, her works are recorded on Albany Records, Cascavelle, Delphian, Meridian, NMC records, Non Classical and published by Schott.
Zoë is much in demand as presenter, panel host, inspirational speaker and for international competition juries, including BBC TV’s Maestro , Young Musician of the Year; BBC Proms, BBC Radio and TV, Newsnight; Young Musician of the Gulf (Bahrain), Royal Philharmonic Society, Ivor Awards, Eurovision Song Contest. She has written for publications including Classical Music Magazine, The Strad, Sinfini and her own Z Blog, and is regular live and online concert presenter for Wigmore Hall, Barbican Centre, Southbank Sinfonia and London Sinfonietta, for whom she also hosted podcast series The Music That Made Me.
A passionate educator, Zoë has taught at conservatoires, universities, schools and music festivals worldwide including Royal Academy, Royal College of Music, Guildhall School of Music, Birmingham Conservatoire, Royal Danish Academy of Music, Cambridge, Oxford, York, Surrey and Princeton Universities. She has coached National Youth Orchestra of GB, Tanglewood Contemporary Music Festival (U.S.), was artistic director of the Saigon Chamber Music Festival in Vietnam, workshop leader Harstad Strings in arctic Norway, Aldeburgh Young Musicians/ Britten Pears new music programmes and creative mentor for emerging and established artists including Héloïse Werner and the Hermes Experiment and string tutor for the Palestinian Youth Orchestra 2024.
Zoë studied at the Royal College and Royal Academy of Music in London, Chopin Academy of Music in Warsaw and Clare College, Cambridge University.
She is naturally blonde, and draws the line at Country and Western.
