‘Deliciously sparse and exquisitely controlled… it’s also something that I can imagine being played on my dream radio show alongside The Field, Xenakis, Thee Silver Mt Zion, Jon Hopkins, Morton Feldman, Murcof and Matmos. It’s contemporary music that can be of interest as much to Sigur Ros and Can fans as to lovers of Birtwistle and Cage.’
Nick Martin is a composer, arranger & teacher based in Copenhagen. He has made his home in Denmark, living there since 2009, aside from living in Helsinki between 2014 – 2017. He has also spent periods working in Reykjavík in Iceland, most recently during a residency at Hafnar.haus for two months at the start of 2024.
Martin’s music has been performed by leading ensembles & orchestras, including Copenhagen Phil, Concerto Copenhagen, Danish Radio Vocal Ensemble, Esbjerg Ensemble, Copenhagen Girls Choir, The Nordic String Quartet, as well as renowned soloists such as Bjarke Mogensen, Clare O’Connell & Tamsin Waley-Cohen. Recent works include a violin concerto, Maternal, for Tamsin Waley-Cohen & Manchester Camerata, which was premiered in September 2025.
His work has been featured in prominent concert halls across Europe and North America, including Carnegie Hall (New York), The Barbican, Wigmore Hall & Kings Place (London), Koerner Hall (Toronto), DR Koncerthuset (Copenhagen), Harpa (Reykjavik), Temppeliaukio Church (Helsinki) and Christ Church Cathedral (Vancouver), and have been broadcast on BBC Radio 3, Danish Radio P2, Deutschlandradio Kultur, and ABC Classic.
In addition to his compositional output, Martin performs his own music through Blue Luminaire, an ensemble project under which he released the album ‘Terroir’ on Bella Union in 2022. He works also as an arranger, with some of his work including arrangements for Sandrayati, Rakel, Broken Twin and Nikolaj Nørlund.
Martin is the recipient of 2023’s Pelle Prize, in honour of the late Pelle Gudmundsen-Holmgreen. He is deeply grateful for financial support over the years, in the form of working grants (and travel grants) from the Danish Arts Council, KODA / Dansk Komponist Forening, Art Music Denmark, Culture Moves Europe & Francis Routh Trust. All of this has helped make his work possible.