Thomas Martin (musician)

Thomas Martin (Cincinnati, United States, July 22, 1940) is an American-born musician and luthier, known for playing the double bass. He was twice awarded prizes for his recordings of Giovanni Bottesini’s work, and he has been principal in many orchestras of importance, including the English Chamber Orchestra and the London Symphony Orchestra. Martin has been professor both at the Royal School of Music and at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music in Glasgow.

Martin studied in the United States under Harold Roberts, Oscar Zimmerman and Roger Scott. Both Zimmerman and Scott were main students of the Catalan virtuoso Antoni Torelli: Principal Bass of Barcelona’s Teatro Liceo orchestra and later the Philadelphia Orchestra. Torello is well known for having introduced the French bowing technique in the United States. He was pupil Pedro Valls, who was in turn a pupil of José Roveda and Giovanni Bottesini. Martin has developed a great technique using the same kind of bow. As a conductor, he has studied with Sian Edwards in London and with Stephen Darlington in Oxford, and has also accomplished the first recording of Giovanni Bottesini’s Messa da Requiem with the London Philharmonic Orchestra and its chorus. Martin has played with Israel Philharmonic Orchestra and the Buffalo Philharmonic. As principal bass, he has played with the Orchestre Symphonique de Montreal, the Academy of St Martin-in-the-Fields, the English Chamber Orchestra, the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, and latterly the London Symphony Orchestra. He has been principal bass with the Oxford Philomusica since its first season.