Violinist/violistAnthony Martin grew up in Santa Rosa, where he joined the Santa Rosa Symphony in 1961. He attended Stanford University where he played Renaissance instruments as well as violin. After a couple of years as an untrained and unlicensed music therapist at the Children's Treatment Center School of Camarillo State Hospital, he entered the Peabody Conservatory, where he earned his highest degree, a Master of Music.
Embarrassed by a lack of mastery, he then went for several years to Boston University, completing most requirements for a Doctorate, while studying violin with Joseph Silverstein, chamber music with Eugene Lehner, and various musicological subjects. Increasing gigging prevented completion of that third degree. About this time he got involved with period instruments and became a founding member of many prominent early music ensembles including Frans Brueggen's Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century (Amsterdam), Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra (San Francisco), the Smithsonian Chamber Players (Washington, D.C.), and Aston Magna (New York).
Since returning to the west coast he has taught violin and/or coached chamber music at Stanford, UC Berkeley, and the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. He continues to play with O18 & PBO. His current chamber groups are String Circle (Santa Rosa), the Novello Quartet (Seattle, www.novelloquartet.org) and the New Esterházy Quartet (Berkeley, www.newesterhazy.org). His lives with his wife, a Board Certified Music Therapist, and their three children on the Hayward Fault near Richmond.