Martin James Bartlett
Pianist Martin James Bartlett was winning major prizes and appearing with orchestras across Britain by his early 20s. He benefited from several high-profile appearances, including a win at the 2014 BBC Young Musician of the Year contest.
Bartlett was born on July 20, 1996, in Hornchurch in suburban London and took up the piano at six. He later studied the bassoon and the recorder as well. In 2010, he entered the Purcell School for Young Musicians in Bushey and soon made rapid progress. In 2012, he made the finals in the BBC Young Musician of the Year competition, winning the contest in 2014. That fall, Bartlett was heard on the charity single God Only knows, recorded for the BBC Children in Need program, along with such luminaries as violinist Nicola Benedetti and pop stars Stevie Wonder and Elton John. That recording put Bartlett's playing before some 11 million viewers online. He made his debut at the BBC Proms in 2015, becoming one of the youngest musicians ever to appear there, and he followed up the BBC honor with other prizes, including second place at the Kissinger Klavierolymp ("Kissingen Piano Olympics") in Germany in 2016. That year, he also performed at Queen Elizabeth II's 90th birthday thanksgiving service, and in 2019, he received the Queen Mother Rosebowl from Britain's Prince Charles.
The year 2019 also saw Bartlett signed to the Warner Classics label, even though he was still a master's degree student at the Royal College of Music (his primary teacher there has been Vanessa Latarche). He released the album Love and Death that year on Warner Classics. Bartlett's celebrity continued to rise as he was invited to attend the London Evening Standard's Progress 1000 party showcasing the city's influential young A-listers. Bartlett has appeared as a soloist with several major orchestras across Britain and has begun to extend his tendrils beyond, performing several times with the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra and gave a recital in Paris under the auspices of the Fondation Louis Vuitton. Bartlett returned on Warner Classics with the 2022 album Rhapsody: Rachmaninoff, Gershwin, and he was also heard that year on composer Philip Glass's Orange Mountain Music label, performing the Tirol Concerto for piano and strings with the LGT Young Soloists.
© James Manheim /TiVo
Discography
9 album(s) • Sorted by Bestseller
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La Danse
Classical - Released by Warner Classics on Jan 26, 2024
24-Bit 192.0 kHz - Stereo -
Love and Death
Classical - Released by Warner Classics on May 3, 2019
24-Bit 192.0 kHz - Stereo -
Rhapsody
Classical - Released by Warner Classics on Mar 4, 2022
24-Bit 192.0 kHz - Stereo -
Rhapsody - Wild: 7 Virtuoso Etudes After Gershwin: No. 4, Embraceable You
Classical - Released by Warner Classics on Jan 14, 2022
24-Bit 192.0 kHz - Stereo -
Le ruban dénoué: No. 2, Les soirs d'Albi
Martin James Bartlett, Alexandre Tharaud
Classical - Released by Warner Classics on Jan 12, 2024
24-Bit 192.0 kHz - Stereo -
La Danse - Ravel: Pavane pour une infante défunte
Classical - Released by Warner Classics on Dec 1, 2023
24-Bit 192.0 kHz - Stereo -
La Danse - Debussy: 2 Arabesques, CD 74, L. 66: No. 1,
Classical - Released by Warner Classics on Dec 15, 2023
24-Bit 192.0 kHz - Stereo -
Rhapsody - Rachmaninoff: Polka de W. R.
Classical - Released by Warner Classics on Feb 18, 2022
24-Bit 192.0 kHz - Stereo -
Rhapsody - Gershwin Songbook: No. 5, I Got Rhythm
Classical - Released by Warner Classics on Feb 4, 2022
24-Bit 192.0 kHz - Stereo