Marti Epstein is a Boston-based composer whose music has been performed by the San Francisco Symphony, The Radio Symphony Orchestra of Frankfurt, Ensemble Modern, Trinity Wall Street, and the Boston Symphony Chamber Players. She has completed commissions for the Fromm Foundation, The Munich Biennale, the Ludovico Ensemble, Guerilla Opera, the Radius Ensemble, Tanglewood Music Center, Winsor Music, Boston Opera Collaborative, Callithumpian Consort, Hinge, loadbang, and Collage New Music.
Epstein was a two-time fellow at the Tanglewood Music Center (1986 and 1988) and has been Composer-in-Residence at the Charlotte New Music Festival, The Summer Institute for Contemporary Performance Practice (SICPP), Divergent Studio, and the upcoming Alba Music Festival in Alba, Italy. In 2020, Epstein was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship to compose Seven Sisters, Radiant Sistersfor the Hinge Ensemble, Alpenglow for loadbang, and In Praise of Broken Clocks for soundicon. She recently released Nebraska Impromptu, an album of chamber music for clarinet featuring Rane Moore and members of Winsor Music, on New Focus Recordings.
During her 2022 MacDowell residency, Epstein composed two works. The first was Melisande for two sopranos and is a reimagining of the character Melisande from the Debussy opera Peleas and Melisande and the Maeterlinck plays Peleas and Melisande and Ariane and Bluebeard. Marti also composed The Nemophilist, a piece for chamber ensemble for Collage New Music of Boston.
Portrait by Michael D Spencer
