MARTIN BUSSEY

Martin Bussey combines the roles of composer and conductor.

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He currently directs the Chester Bach Singers, Cantiones Choir in Oswestry, and is a vocal tutor at Manchester University.

He is Chairman of the Finzi Friends and a director of Ludlow English Song.

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Scores of his music are available from www.composersedition.com.

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Martin’s newest work, Shropshire Lass premiered in 2022 in Shrewsbury, Malpas and Nantwich as part of the Marches Songbook Project. This 40-minute semi-staged work, for rising soprano/guitar duo Holly Teague and Michael Matthews, sets the poetry of Mary Webb. It explores themes of Love, Loss and Memory.

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2021 saw the premiere of a commission for the Pinner Festival, A Brother Abroad, which explored the spiritual and political tensions in the life of Peter of Corbavia, the bishop who consecrated Pinner Parish Church in 1321.

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Mary’s Hand, a one-woman show created with Di Sherlock and mezzo-soprano Clare McCaldin, premiered at Tete-a-tete in the summer of 2018 to great critical acclaim, followed in 2021 by Timeless Figure, an audio-visual work written for baritone Peter Edge.

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The BBC broadcasts Martin's songs regularly from the Ludlow English Song Weekend and they are performed widely at significant venues, including Wigmore Hall.

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Martin is currently working on a stage work for tenor and dancer, The Kite based around Dickens' character Mr Dick from David Copperfield.

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Future recording plans include a recording of two piano works, Floreat Coll. Reg., by Matthew Schellhorn in December 2022 and a further song CD with Resonus Classics following the success of Through a glass darkly.

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Martin was a Choral Scholar at King’s College, Cambridge after which he studied singing at the Royal Northern College of Music. He ran the aural, academic music and choral programmes at Chetham’s School of Music, where he taught from 1988 to 2013.

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