Martín elevates this exquisite score [Nielsen] to the culmination with a wise combination of great technique and musicality. The singing clarinet explores the extreme registers of the instrument, the impossible dynamics capable of cutting off our breath and the flying passages like ‘capricious laments’
El País
Spanish clarinetist Maximiliano Martín is one of the most international and charismatic musicians of his generation. He combines his position as Principal Clarinet of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra with an active career as a soloist, chamber musician, and teacher, performing and giving masterclasses around the world.
Martín has appeared as soloist and chamber musician in many of the world’s most prestigious venues, including the BBC Proms at Cadogan Hall and Wigmore Hall in London, the Library of Congress in Washington, Mozart Hall in Seoul, the Laeiszhalle in Hamburg, the Slovenian Radio Hall in Ljubljana, the Durban City Hall in South Africa, the Palau de la Música in Barcelona, Teatro Monumental in Madrid, Auditorio de Zaragoza, Auditorio Príncipe Felipe in Oviedo, Auditorio de Tenerife, and Auditorio Alfredo Kraus in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria.
In recent years, he has performed as soloist with orchestras such as the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, the European Union Chamber Orchestra, the Real Filarmonía de Galicia, the Gran Canaria Philharmonic Orchestra, the Tenerife Symphony Orchestra, the Orquesta del Principado de Asturias, and the Macedonian Philharmonic Orchestra, under conductors including Brüggen, Ticciati, Manze, Antonini, Swensen, Zacharias, Schuldt, and González. He regularly collaborates with ensembles and artists of the stature of the London Conchord Ensemble, Cuarteto Casals, Doric String Quartet, François Leleux, Pekka Kuusisto, Alexander Janiczek, Llyr Williams, Kris Bezuidenhout, and Julian Milford. Martín is also a frequent guest at major international festivals such as the Edinburgh International Festival, East Neuk Festival, Oxford May Music, Festival d’Aix-en-Provence (France), Stift Chamber Music Festival (Amsterdam), Festival de Música de Canarias, and Stifts Konzerte (Austria).
His extensive discography includes the Clarinet Concertos by Mozart and Weber with the SCO (LINN), Strauss’s Duet Concertino with Ticciati/Whelan (LINN), two recital albums with piano — Fantasia and Vibraciones del Alma (LINN) — as well as Mozart’s Divertimentos and Beethoven’s chamber music with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra Wind Soloists (LINN).
He has also recorded Messiaen’s Quartet for the End of Time with the Hebrides Ensemble (LINN), the Brahms Sonatas with Julian Milford (CHR), the Mozart and Brahms Quintets with the Badke Quartet (CHR), two albums with the London Conchord Ensemble — Desde Vienna (CHR) and San Petersburgo (Orchid Classics) — a chamber music album by Stephen Dodgson with the Karolos Ensemble (NAXOS), and a recording of music by Nigel Osborne with the Hebrides Ensemble (DELPHIAN). His forthcoming release, Caprichos y Lamentos, will feature the concertos by Copland, Nielsen, and MacMillan with Lucas Macías Navarro and the Tenerife Symphony Orchestra.
In May 2017, Martín premiered a new Clarinet Concerto, Llanto, written especially for him by New Zealand composer Lyell Creswell, to great critical acclaim. In February 2020, he gave the world premiere of another new clarinet concerto, Travesía, by Spanish composer Gustavo Trujillo.
He appears as guest principal clarinet with orchestras including the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, Orquesta de Cadaqués, Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra, and City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. He has worked under such conductors as Abbado, Haitink, Colin Davis, Mackerras, Marriner, Krivine, and Litton. Martín was a member of both the Spanish National Youth Orchestra (JONDE) and the Gustav Mahler Jugendorchester (MJO).
Martín is also deeply committed to education, giving masterclasses at institutions such as the Royal College of Music, the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester, the Conservatorio Superior de Música de Canarias, the University of California, Davis (USA), and the Malmö Academy of Music in Sweden. He is Visiting Professor of Clarinet at Kangnam University in Seoul, South Korea.
