The music of composer Martin Rokeach has been described as “fascinating . . . cleanses the listener’s musical palate . . . positively aglow with contented reflection,” (Fanfare Magazine); “surprising and utterly delicious” (San Antonio Express News); “Rokeach has a rare talent for knowing exactly how long his music should be . . . not one second longer, nor shorter, than necessary” (21st Century Music).

 

Rokeach's works have been performed by the Oakland Symphony, Pacific/Mozart Ensemble, Ensemble Variant (Geneva), San Francisco Concerto Orchestra, Chameleon Arts Ensemble (Boston), the United States Army Orchestra, Dunsmuir Piano Quartet (San Francisco), League of Composers (NY), Ensemble Flageolet (Flagstaff), the Chicago Ensemble, Divisa Ensemble (San Francisco), Musica Nova (Macedonia), Duo Sforzando (Geneva), Atlanta Contemporary Ensemble, Vermont Contemporary Music Ensemble, the St. Petersburg (Russia) Chamber Players, the Sheridan Players (Chicago), the Webster Trio (Houston), Guitarinet (Poland), New Dischord (Chattanooga), Tempo (Los Angeles),   and many other outstanding ensembles and soloists throughout the United States, Europe, and Australia. His works have earned honors in over fifteen national or international composition competitions, most recently those sponsored by the Atlanta Contemporary Ensemble, and New York's Composers Concordance, and he has been commissioned to write music for the Ellsworth Smith International Trumpet Competition, New York’s Cygnus Ensemble, Switzerland’s Dobrzelewski/Marrs Duo, Left Coast Chamber Ensemble, Music Teachers Association of California, New York’s Eight Strings and a Whistle, The Bowers/Fader Duo (NY), San Francisco Symphony Principal Hornist Robert Ward, Detroit Opera Principal Hornist Andrew Pelletier, Austrian guitarist Yvonne Zehner and numerous other soloists.  He has been a featured composer and speaker at the Ecole Haute de Musique in Switzerland, Hartt Conservatory of Music, New York University and Wichita State University, and concerts devoted exclusively to his music have been held at Western Carolina University and Washington State University.

 

Mr. Rokeach earned his Ph.D. in music composition and theory from Michigan State University and Bachelor's and Master's degrees from San Francisco State University. A Professor Emeritus at Saint Mary's College of California, for 33 years he was Artistic Co-director of San Francisco's contemporary music concert series, Composers, Inc.  He has twice been commissioned by the late Music Director Michael Morgan of the Oakland Symphony, in 2016 for his Concerto for Piccolo and Orchestra and again for his oratorio Bodies on the Line: The Great Flint Sit-Down Strike.

 

So much for formalities. More personally, Martin’s mother was a union organizer and therefore he was born in London at the height of the McCarthy Era. He grew up in East Lansing, Michigan, and his mother described him as “very sweet but not the brightest.”  While in elementary school she enrolled him in violin class where the teacher had him stand and demonstrate to parents how students should not hold the bow (he locked his elbow). After seeing a Peter, Paul and Mary concert he asked if he could switch to guitar. His parents agreed and rented a $20 instrument, little realizing the path they were embarking their son on. In high school Martin was a guitar and banjo fingerpicker, played in a jug band, had hair like Bob Dylan, listened non-stop to blues, hitchhiked  from one end of the country to the other, smoked a pack a day, was arrested a couple times (no one got hurt), studied lefty politics, lusted vainly for women and in 12th grade fell hopelessly in love; not with a woman, but Brahms’ Symphony No. 4 and Beethoven’s 9th, from which he never recovered. Nor would he have been accepted as a student by his eventual employer, Saint Mary’s College, because he was too busy for homework. That would come later.  

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