Igor Martinez

Igor Martinez began his musical education in the program "El Sistema" by Jose Antonio Abreu. At the age of 11 he gained his first experience in the children's choir at the propatria school of "el Sistema" before switching to the tuba a few weeks later. As a soloist, he performed the Venezuelan premiere of Frank Bencriscutto's Tuba Concertino (2011), and the South American premiere of the tuba concerto "BANDSTERIX & TUBELIX" for tuba and wind band by the Spanish composer Ferrer Ferran under his direction (2012). This version is the first-ever recorded and released on CD. He also played RV's Concerto for Bass Tuba Williams with Canadian-Venezuelan conductor David Cubek (2018) and his Concerto for Brass Trio and Symphony Orchestra with the Simon Bolivar Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela and the Bolivar Brass Trio conducted by Gonzalo Hidalgo (2018). For six years, Igor Martinez was principal tubist and leader of the Simon Bolivar Youth Symphony Band, taking part in various tours in Venezuela, Colombia, and Europe, and also as principal tubist on SBYSB's debut album "Mambos y Fanfarrias" (2012) conducted by Thomas Clamor can be heard. In 2014 he won the audition for the position of the principal tuba with the Municipal Symphony Orchestra of Caracas conducted by Rodolfo Saglimbeni before moving to the Simon Bolivar Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela a year later and beginning to tour the world under the direction of Gustavo Dudamel. He studied tuba and composition at the Simon Bolivar Music Conservatory. He is currently completing his Master's degree in Performance at the Haute Ecole de Musique in Geneva (Switzerland) with Fabien Wallerand and was recently awarded 2nd prize at the Concours Tuba Paris - Prestige category.