Zoë Martlew
Zoë Martlew composes music that moves between worlds: crystalline and raw, comic and sacred, intimate and vast. Her works weave ancient echoes with futuristic soundscapes, drawing on myth, language and archetype to create music that feels both timeless and vividly alive. Album Z is her debut solo release as composer, the first collection devoted entirely to her own music, gathering pieces that chart her lifelong journey through performance, ritual and fearless artistic experiment.
Celebrated in the press as “dazzling, gleefully tawdry, nuanced, beautifully constructed, deeply funny, expertly rendered, and electrifying,” Martlew’s works have been commissioned and performed at major festivals and venues worldwide, including Aldeburgh, Tanglewood Contemporary Music Festival, Dark Music Days, Royal Festival Hall, Scherr Forum, Wigmore Hall and ISCM World Music Days Festival 2024, where she was selected to represent Britain.
Her music has been championed by ensembles including London Sinfonietta, Birmingham Contemporary Music Group, Camerata Pacifica (US), Grossman Ensemble (Chicago), Riot Ensemble, Marian Consort, Onyx Brass, as well as solo artists including Claire Booth, Nicholas Daniel, Ben Goldscheider, Alessandro Fisher, James Gilchrist, Mark Padmore, Lucy Schaufer, Mark Simpson and Huw Watkins. Featured composer at Music@Malling and Endellion Festivals 2025, her works are recorded on Albany Records, Cascavelle, Delphian, Meridian, Orchid Classics, Non Classical and published by Schott.
Martlew’s path to composition has been many-layered. She travelled the world as cellist, cabaret artist, educator and presenter, working with some of the world’s most renowned contemporary music ensembles, improvisation, film, electronica, pop, rock, dance and theatre companies alongside her own one woman show Revue Z, plus regular appearances on BBC TV and radio.
As teacher and mentor she has guided young and emerging musicians across continents, from the National Youth Orchestra GB and Palestinian Youth Orchestra to Tanglewood, Saigon, Arctic Norway and beyond.
She studied at the Royal College of Music, Clare College Cambridge, the Royal Academy of Music and the Chopin Academy in Warsaw.
Zoë Martlew composes music that moves between worlds: crystalline and raw, comic and sacred, intimate and vast. Her works weave ancient echoes with futuristic soundscapes, drawing on myth, language and archetype to create music that feels both timeless and vividly alive. Album Z is her debut solo release as composer, the first collection devoted entirely to her own music, gathering pieces that chart her lifelong journey through performance, ritual and fearless artistic experiment.
Celebrated in the press as “dazzling, gleefully tawdry, nuanced, beautifully constructed, deeply funny, expertly rendered, and electrifying,” Martlew’s works have been commissioned and performed at major festivals and venues worldwide, including Aldeburgh, Tanglewood Contemporary Music Festival, Dark Music Days, Royal Festival Hall, Scherr Forum, Wigmore Hall and ISCM World Music Days Festival 2024, where she was selected to represent Britain.
Her music has been championed by ensembles including London Sinfonietta, Birmingham Contemporary Music Group, Camerata Pacifica (US), Grossman Ensemble (Chicago), Riot Ensemble, Marian Consort, Onyx Brass, as well as solo artists including Claire Booth, Nicholas Daniel, Ben Goldscheider, Alessandro Fisher, James Gilchrist, Mark Padmore, Lucy Schaufer, Mark Simpson and Huw Watkins. Featured composer at Music@Malling and Endellion Festivals 2025, her works are recorded on Albany Records, Cascavelle, Delphian, Meridian, Orchid Classics, Non Classical and published by Schott.
Martlew’s path to composition has been many-layered. She travelled the world as cellist, cabaret artist, educator and presenter, working with some of the world’s most renowned contemporary music ensembles, improvisation, film, electronica, pop, rock, dance and theatre companies alongside her own one woman show Revue Z, plus regular appearances on BBC TV and radio.
As teacher and mentor she has guided young and emerging musicians across continents, from the National Youth Orchestra GB and Palestinian Youth Orchestra to Tanglewood, Saigon, Arctic Norway and beyond.
She studied at the Royal College of Music, Clare College Cambridge, the Royal Academy of Music and the Chopin Academy in Warsaw.
Compilations with this composer
Compilations
