Viola Master Class with Spencer Martin

Spencer Martin serves as Professor of Music at Luther College, where he teaches violin, viola, conducts the Luther College Philharmonia, and teaches conducting.

Spencer has performed and taught throughout the U.S., Canada, Israel, Central America, and Europe. An active chamber and orchestral musician, he performs frequently in the Luther College Piano Quartet and plays Baroque violin and viola with the Lyra Baroque Orchestra. He has appeared as guest violist with the Harrington and Pro Arte String Quartets as well as the Amelia Piano Trio. His solo performances include numerous recitals, Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 6 with the Lyra Baroque Orchestra, and Berlioz’s Harold in Italy with the Luther College Symphony Orchestra in venues in Austria, including Vienna’s Konzerthaus. Spencer has served as Principal Violist in the Tuscaloosa Symphony, and also frequently performed in the viola sections of the Minnesota Orchestra, the Alabama Symphony Orchestra, the Wichita Symphony Orchestra, and the Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra. Spencer’s solo, chamber, and orchestral performances have been featured in numerous radio broadcasts including National Public Radio, CBC, Minnesota Public Radio, and Kansas Public Radio.

Spencer’s CD, Gems Rediscovered, was released to critical praise on the Delos label, and features lesser-known works for viola and piano by Ernest Walker, Paul Juon, Robert Fuchs, and Benjamin Dale. Spencer can also be heard on the Innova label on the disc Waves of Stone, Music by Brooke Joyce.

A former member of the music faculty at the University of Alabama, Spencer holds degrees from Butler University, Wichita State University, and the University of Minnesota. His teachers include Korey Konkol, Catherine Consiglio, and Barbara Westphal. Also an avid proponent of Baroque music, Spencer performs frequently on Baroque violin and has studied with Baroque violinist Bernhard Fork in Berlin.

Spencer served as the orchestra director at Valparaiso University during the 2019-20 academic year. He has performed at International Viola Congresses, and has given master classes and a recital at the European Viola Forum at the Ignacy Jan Paderewski Academy in Poznan, Poland. His most recent engagements include serving as the festival conductor of the Orquesta Sinfónica Juvenil Intercultural and the Querido Arte Orchestra in Guatemala, as well as teaching master classes for both organizations in Guatemala City and in Quetzaltenango/Xela.

Spencer plays on a viola made in 1913 by Ferruccio Varagnolo in Milan and a Baroque violin made in 2007 by Mark Womack.