When Canadian pianist Pauline Martin’s Phillips Collection recital captured the Washington Post headline “Pauline Martin’s Dazzling Debut”, it came as no surprise to those who had witnessed her artistry in her youth. The Winnipeg Free Press wrote, “Her innate musicality is a revelation”, just as the Brandon Sun characterized the artistic maturity of her concerto debut performance as “remarkable, even dazzling . . . with a sensitive grasp of the music backed by rare intelligence.”
Praise earned early on for her ability to “respond to the unpredictable demands of performance” (Detroit News) has been in evidence throughout her career, from her last-minute Schumann Concerto performance with the Windsor Symphony and her Orchestra Hall special memorial Tribute to Glenn Gould performance upon his death in 1982 to current projects. Notable among subsequent performances featured globally on livestreams and broadcasts was a special 2009 Orchestra Hall performance of Mozart’s Concerto K. 365 with the Detroit Symphony Civic Orchestra, recorded live for broadcast to an audience of over a billion viewers by Chinese National Television.
A founding member of the St. Clair Trio for 18 years, Pauline Martin earned a first-round Grammy nomination for the trio’s Koch International Classics CD Hobson’s Choice (works by Sir Malcolm Arnold) and a 2000 Chamber Music America-WQXR/FM award for Old Acquaintances: St. Clair Trio and Friends (works by Franz Waxman – Koch International). Her diversity in standard through contemporary repertoire is represented on the Naxos American Classics’ CD Imaginary Creatures (works by James Hartway) and Postcard from Europe with clarinetist George Stoffan (Kipling House Recordings). Of her world premiere performance of ‘Configurations’ for piano solo, composer Leslie Bassett wrote that she “played [them] as I had always hoped they would be played. In my view… the definitive performance, upon which subsequent performances may be modeled”; similar praise from composers Sir Malcolm Arnold, George Crumb, Susan Botti, Gary Schocker, James Hart way and Lawrence Singer speaks to her respect for every aspect of the individual composer’s intentions.
In 2012, legendary pianist Menahem Pressler, performed a gala concert and fundraising event to support the launch of Chamber Soloists of Detroit:Pauline Martin, Artistic Director. CSD’s 2022 debut concert at the famed Royal Concertgebouw of Amsterdam, recorded for broadcast by Dutch National Radio, capped ten years as a premiere presenter of the area’s finest virtuosi in collaboration with emerging and renowned guest artists in Michigan and beyond, fulfilling CSD’s mission to showcase Detroit as a cultural leader on the world stage. Upon the death of Menahem Pressler shortly thereafter at the age of 99, Pauline Martin opened CSD’s 2023-2024 season with a solo recital in his memory – a fitting tribute to celebrate his extraordinary life as a performer, teacher and mentor to generations of pianists.
During her course of study with Menahem Pressler at Indiana University, Pauline Martin was one of a select few to serve as an assistant instructor at both undergraduate and graduate levels, later to be granted a doctoral teaching assistantship at the University of Michigan as a student of Theodore Lettvin and Artists in Residence Gary Graffman and André Watts. She went on to serve on the performance faculties of Michigan State, Wayne State and Oakland Universities, and has been featured as artist-teacher at a host of regional and international festivals, including the Ann Arbor, Sarasota, Summer Serenades (Rockville, Maryland), Grove (MI), Mackinac Island, Detroit Symphony Tchaikovsky and Meadowbrook Music Festivals, the Aria International Summer Music Academy, Winter Days Festival of Scandinavia and the Icelandic Festival of Manitoba, as well as in several Irving S. Gilmore Foundation Educational programs.
Pauline Martin is a Steinway Artist. She currently balances her performances and the artistic direction of Chamber Soloists of Detroit with private instruction at her West Bloomfield, Michigan home, where she resides with her husband, Haukur Ásgeirsson.