Location

London, Hackney (base)
traveling UK wide/ online

Specialisms

One day workshops, 3-4 part harmony, quirky, soulful, fun, a capella, original, accordion

Additional information

Martina is a musician, composer, songwriter, performer and choir leader. Apart from being involved in professional theatre & Dance productions, she has been leading community choirs and singing groups for over 12 years and ran Hackney Song Works community choir in North London for 9 years on a weekly basis until summer 2022. Martina now runs occasional community singing workshops and continues to lead singing and music workshops in various settings, including health settings. She has been collaborating with Greencandle Dance company for over 20 years, creating shows as well as leading ongoing workshops for young people, the elderly and people living with dementia. The sessions take place in schools, care homes and online. Singing and creative songwriting plays an important part during these sessions.  Her own vocal arrangements and compositions can often be heard in these various settings. Martina has also written and published songbooks & CDs for children in collaboration with the Goethe Institute London. She is touring her language learning songs world wide. Her new album, “There is no planet B”, is a cycle of climate change protest songs and has just been released on Bandcamp. There are also versions in German & French! All of them are suitable for community choirs.

Martina holds a degree in educational studies (University of Cologne) and a music teaching Diploma (Trinity college London). She has been dedicated to music from a very young age. She sang in school choirs, the Rhineland Chamber choir, in the London Georgian choir “Maspindzeli”. She taught herself the accordion at the age of 12. She plays and sings in several ensembles.

Her musical creations are influenced by classical, traditional and folk music from around the world with a leaning to Eastern Europe. Her compositions have mainly been heard in productions she has been involved in as a musician and performer, amongst others: the Arcola Theatre, Sadlers Wells, Laban Theatre, RADA, Lilian Baylis Theatre, the Place, the South Bank Centre, the Grant Museum (UCL), Spitalfield Festival, Thorington Theatre and various Goethe-Institutes worldwide.
Other collaborations with companies and artists include: Green Candle Dance Company, Protein Dance, London Bubble Theatre, Théâtre sans Frontières, Shared Experience, Kölner Stunksitzung, Stanley Hall Opera, Lina Lapelyte, Wonderful Beast Theatre company, One Moment in Time (puppeteering & storytelling), the Well Walk Theatre and Jocelyn Pook. Just before lockdown she set some of the 3 witches’ text of Shakespeare’s Macbeth to music and created a vocal score for the RADA production (2020). She has released songbooks/ CDs & downloadable songs.

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