Faber Music Ltd is delighted to announce the signing of a new exclusive publishing agreement with UK composer, Martin Ward.
Martin is a composer of music for opera, dance and theatre, as well as for screen and the concert stage. His narrative works explore an eclectic range of styles and genres which reflect the adventurous scope of the stories he has tackled, and many involve the merging of diverse musical elements, both acoustic and electronic. He is the composer of Will Tuckett's Olivier Award winning dance-theatre production of The Wind in the Willows (revived last Christmas in London's West End), as well as a number of other critically-acclaimed narrative ballets, including Pinocchio and Faeries for the Royal Opera House, and The Canterville Ghost for English National Ballet; and four operas including Skitterbang Island and the Edinburgh Fringe First nominated Dr Quimpugh's Compendium of Peculiar Afflictions. His new chamber opera, Clocks (the steampunk opera), is currently in development.
Martin's page at the Faber Music site.
Composer's own site.
REVIEWS
The Wind in the Willows
'I sat in utter awe of Martin Ward's music which is a dream. The detail within the score is phenomenal... I would happily listen to the music for the rest of time.'
West End Frame, December 2013
'Martin Ward has taken the lyrical music of English composer George Butterworth as the starting point for his dreamy riverbank sequences, and zipped it up for the fierce Wild Wood scenes. Played live by Chroma Ensemble, the music is beautifully judged and paints just as vivid a picture of the countryside's many moods as the Quay Brothers' multi-tasking set.'
Whatsonstage.com, 9 December 2014
'Witty, tender, utterly captivating.'
Financial Times, 8 December 2014
Dr Quimpugh's Compendium of Peculiar Afflictions
'... a soaring collection of songs, composed by the supremely talented Martin Ward...'
***** review, The Scotsman, August 2012
'... with superb music by Martin Ward and a sparkling libretto by Phil Porter it is a delightfully quirky, humorous and touching piece of musical theatre...'
Sunday Herald, August 2012
Skitterbang Island
'If you thought that opera was only for grown-ups, think again. This 45-minute, sung-through opera by librettist Phil Porter and composer Martin Ward combines music, singing and puppetry with an engaging, junkshop aesthetic to terrific effect... the piece has genuine emotional muscle, underlined by a score that is musically playful, and which slyly slips in every operatic convention, from arias to trios.'
The Guardian, July 2010
The Guardian, July 2010
The Whale Savers
'Martin Ward's astonishingly complex score (... we are talking Sondheim levels of sophistication) is a really attractive piece of work...veering from sea shanty to neo-Bernstein to eerie modernist string quartet... modulating, veering around time-signatures, breezy and not at all superficial.'
Opera Now 2010