David Martins

With a dual career as a clarinet performer and conductor, David J. Martins balances orchestral venues with an active teaching and conducting schedule. After 25 years he retired in June of 2023 as a Master Lecturer in the School of Music at Boston University where he was the Music Director of the Wind Ensemble and taught Applied Clarinet, Chamber Music and Graduate Conducting.

 In the Spring of 2019 the Boston University Wind Ensemble released on Summit Records its third recording of four works by Boston University composers for wind ensemble of which three were written for the ensemble.  In 2015 the ensemble released its second recording of Trumpet Concerti with Boston University Professor Terry Everson.  In 2013, the ensemble released its first recording of Ketty Nez’s Piano Concerto entitled Thresholds on Ravello Records and in 2014, premiered the wind ensemble transcription of John Williams’ Tuba Concerto with Mike Roylance, principal tuba of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. The ensemble also performed at the 2014 CBDNA East Conference.

He is Professor Emeritus of the University of Massachusetts Lowell, Department of Music, where he was the Wind Ensemble Director and clarinet faculty for 35 years. He was a Berkshire Music Festival Tanglewood Fellow and holds degrees from the Eastman School of Music and the University of Lowell, College of Music.

Professor Martins is the founding music director of both the Rivers Conservatory Youth Wind Ensemble 2014-2017 and the Rhode Island Philharmonic Youth Wind Ensembles where he was conductor of the senior division from 2002-2012 and conducted the ensemble at Carnegie Hall. During his ten-year tenure as Music Director of the Metropolitan Wind Symphony (of which he is now Director Emeritus), the ensemble performed at the National Conference of the Association of Concert Bands and commissioned numerous new compositions.  Since the summer of 1999, Mr. Martins has served on the faculty of Boston University Tanglewood Institute as Director of Wind Activities for the Young Artist Orchestra and, since the summer of 2005, conducts the Boston University Tanglewood Institute Wind Ensemble. 

Professor Martins is a member of the clarinet section of the Boston Ballet Orchestra, Boston Pops Esplanade Orchestra and Bach, Beethoven and Brahms Society Orchestra.  He performs as a substitute player with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Boston Pops Orchestra and the Springfield Symphony.  He has done tours throughout the United States with the Boston Pops Esplanade Orchestra and toured in Japan in the Fall 2023.  For 25 years, he performed as second clarinet with the Rhode Island Philharmonic Orchestra.   He has also performed with Boston Lyric Opera, Springfield Symphony, Symphony New Hampshire, Landmarks Orchestra, Boston Classical Orchestra, Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra, Boston Modern Orchestra Project, Alea III, Musica Viva, and Monadnock Music Festival. In past years he toured with the Philharmonia Hungarica Orchestra of Germany on their U.S. tours, the Puccini Festival Orchestra throughout Italy, and performed six tours throughout Greece and Russia as soloist and member of the contemporary chamber ensemble Alea III. He can be heard on orchestral and chamber recordings on the Deutsche Grammophon, BSO, CRI, Koch, Titanic, Gasparo and Albany labels.