Torp, Martin

Martin Torp was born in 1957 in Flensburg. He studied church music in Heidelberg. His basically autodidactic study of composition was expanded in private consultations with Eisler's pupil Gerhard Rosenfeld. Since 1985 Torp has lived in Berlin as a freelancer. In addition to composing, he also worked as a concert organist, pianist, music teacher and publicist. He has received a composition scholarship from the Fritz Berg Foundation and numerous commissions from state and church organizations, conductors and instrumentalists. In 2012 his symphonic cantata ‘Psalm 103‘ was an award-winner in the competition ’Göttinger Psalter‘.

In addition to various radio and TV broadcasts Torp's music has appeared on 5 CDs (labels: Deutsche Grammophon, Hastedt, primTON etc.). Torp has seen his work performed not only in Germany, but also in England, France, Italy, Cyprus, Russia, Poland, Rumania - and in famous festivals like the Enescu Festival or Moscow Autumn. Among those who have performed his music were prominent musicians such as Israel Yinon, Ib Hausmann, Anna Sophie Dauenhauer, Liat Himmelheber, Benyamin Nuss, the Arcadia String Quartet and orchestras like the Brandenburgisches Staatsorchester Frankfurt and the Göttinger Symphonie Orchester.

Torp’s oeuvre includes orchestral works (among them 9 symphonies), vocal works (5 full-length oratorios, cantatas, motets and songs) and chamber music works, as well as piano and organ music amongst other compositions. Since the mid-1990s his works are fundamentally marked by his predilection for harmonic sounds, vocal melody, pulsating rhythm and clarity of form.