Steve Martland studied composition in Holland with Louis Andriessen.  He rejects academic dogma in favour of a plurality of musical influences, both ancient and modern, ‘serious’ and vernacular.  He works almost exclusively with artists outside classical institutions
Dutch and American groups, freelance musicians and especially his own Steve Martland Band which tours his music internationally.  He has also worked with the King’s Singers and Evelyn Glennie for whom he wrote Street Songs and in August 1998 he collaborated with the band Spiritualized on a project for the Flux Festival in Edinburgh.

Perhaps Martland is best known for his eminestily powerful orchestral Babi Yar (1983) Premiered almost simultaneously in the USA by the St. Louis Sympony under Leonard Slatkin and in the UK by the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and Nicolas Cleobury under the auspices of spnm (Society for the Promotion of New Music), Babi Yar was subsequently recorded for the ledgendary Factory label. Marland has now re-edited the score and the first performance of this new version was given recently in Glosgow by the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra under Jurjen Hempel as part of a complete Martland evening, supported by the BBC /RPS Encore project.

Often amplified, muscular and powerfully rhythmic, his music has been extensively choreographed: Drill for the Sydney Opera House, Crossing the Border for the National Ballet, Amsterdam.  Danceworks commissioned and premièred by London Contemporary Dance Theatre has received many new productions around the world, notably by Les Grands Ballets Canadiens and Ballet Tech in New York.  Remix was awarded the SACD Prize for Video Dance Choreography Music after choreographed for BBCTV by Aletta Collins.  In 2005, Martland was commissioned by the Henri Oguike Dance Company to write Tiger Dancing which has been toured extensively throughout 2006/07.

Principia was adopted as the theme music for the BBC radio programme The Music Machine and is also the subject of Music Works, a BBC composition pack for schools.  Danceworks is also used as the title music for the Dutch TV programme Buitenhof.  Scores for TV include the multi-media Albion, commissioned by the BBC and Granada TV’s Children’s drama Wilderness Edge.  He also wrote and directed A Temporary Arrangement with the Sea, a film about Louis Andriessen commissioned by the BBC in co-production with NOS, Holland.

Steve Martland’s preoccupation with the function of the composer in society is reflected in his commitment to music education.  He has directed many composition projects in schools both at home and abroad and he ran Strike Out, his own annual composition course for school children.
He has been composer in residence of the ETNA Music Festival in Sicily for two years.

 Chris Caldwell Management Steve Martland’s agent