Colin Martin is a composer from Albuquerque, New Mexico, currently pursuing his Doctor of Musical Arts at the Frost School of Music at the University of Miami under the tutelage of Dr. Dorothy Hindman with initial instruction from Dr. Charles N. Mason and Dr. Lansing McLoskey. His music has been described as “clever and effective”, and “complete, well-written… with its own artistic life” with “really great vocal writing” (The American Prize), and has been performed at the University of New Mexico's Popejoy Hall, the American Romanian Festival, San Francisco's Center for New Music, The University of Miami, the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, the Conductor's Institute at Bard College, and Middlebury College's Mahaney Center for the Arts.
Colin has three major orchestral works that have all premiered with the New Mexico Philharmonic: a ballet on F. Scott Fitzgerald's "The Great Gatsby" commissioned by the New Mexico Ballet Company that premiered with the NMP in April 2025; "Songs from "By Heart"", which premiered with soprano Hannah Stephens and the NMP in 2022 and was awarded Second Place in the American Prize for Orchestral Composition, Professional Division in 2023; and a symphony celebrating Leonard Bernstein's centennial that premiered in 2019. His upcoming doctoral dissertation will be a Cello Concerto composed in collaboration with Romanian cellist Andrei Ioniță, a Gold Medalist at the International Tchaikovsky Competition. Colin has also collaborated with such esteemed performers as Chicago Symphony Orchestra principal trombone Tim Higgins; pianists Olga Kern, Vladislav Kern, and Anna Dmytrenko; members of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra at the American Romanian Festival; sopranos Winnie Nieh and Hannah Stephens; timpanist Douglas Cardwell; and conductors Roberto Minczuk and Grant Cooper, among others.
Colin has premiered his piano works as the soloist at the Southwest Piano Festival (www.swpianofestival.org) in Albuquerque, where he serves as Vice President and Composer-in-Residence. The most recent festival saw him give a lecture-recital on his Piano Sonata #4, "The Art of Love".
Colin graduated with his MM in Composition at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music in 2018, studying with David Garner. He earned his Bachelor's of Arts in Music with Honors from Middlebury College in 2015, with minors in Spanish and Chinese. He has also studied composition with Su Lian Tan, piano with Diana Fanning and Maribeth Gunning, and percussion with Douglas Cardwell. A dedicated educator, Colin teaches piano, music theory, and composition, and has a passion for sharing his love and knowledge of music with the next generation of talented musicians.
Colin has three major orchestral works that have all premiered with the New Mexico Philharmonic: a ballet on F. Scott Fitzgerald's "The Great Gatsby" commissioned by the New Mexico Ballet Company that premiered with the NMP in April 2025; "Songs from "By Heart"", which premiered with soprano Hannah Stephens and the NMP in 2022 and was awarded Second Place in the American Prize for Orchestral Composition, Professional Division in 2023; and a symphony celebrating Leonard Bernstein's centennial that premiered in 2019. His upcoming doctoral dissertation will be a Cello Concerto composed in collaboration with Romanian cellist Andrei Ioniță, a Gold Medalist at the International Tchaikovsky Competition. Colin has also collaborated with such esteemed performers as Chicago Symphony Orchestra principal trombone Tim Higgins; pianists Olga Kern, Vladislav Kern, and Anna Dmytrenko; members of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra at the American Romanian Festival; sopranos Winnie Nieh and Hannah Stephens; timpanist Douglas Cardwell; and conductors Roberto Minczuk and Grant Cooper, among others.
Colin has premiered his piano works as the soloist at the Southwest Piano Festival (www.swpianofestival.org) in Albuquerque, where he serves as Vice President and Composer-in-Residence. The most recent festival saw him give a lecture-recital on his Piano Sonata #4, "The Art of Love".
Colin graduated with his MM in Composition at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music in 2018, studying with David Garner. He earned his Bachelor's of Arts in Music with Honors from Middlebury College in 2015, with minors in Spanish and Chinese. He has also studied composition with Su Lian Tan, piano with Diana Fanning and Maribeth Gunning, and percussion with Douglas Cardwell. A dedicated educator, Colin teaches piano, music theory, and composition, and has a passion for sharing his love and knowledge of music with the next generation of talented musicians.