Music
Dan Martin
Composer, Producer, Arranger
Dan Martin is an award-winning composer and producer whose music includes scores for theatre, modern dance and film, club-charting dance tracks, music for meditation and healing, and independent songwriter CDs.
Martin produced and orchestrated the Original Off-Broadway Cast Recording of Marry Harry in 2017 as well as the soundstage 2020 musical film version of Marry Harry on Amazon Prime. His ground breaking albums as an openly gay singer songwriter include Homo Love Song (1990) and Human Being (1992). Additional productions include several club-charting dance recordings from the 1980’s including X-posed, nominated for a 1986 Cable Car Award for Outstanding Club Recording, and Eye on You with disco diva Karen Young. Martin’s work producing and mentoring performing-songwriters has resulted in acclaimed recordings by a variety of artists including Grant King’s Bodies of Water and Amy Fix’s Spoon.
Martin’s modern dance scores have been commissioned by Cornell, Rutgers, Temple, and Rowan Universities and his collaborations with choreographers include Edrie Ferdun, Matthew Neenan, Jim Self, Melanie Stewart, and Julia Ritter. Film work includes music for A Circle of Diamonds, Clones in Love,The Dance, and First Comes Love, the animated films Divomenco Pop and Papa’s Prince, and the PBS documentary The Last Run. Meditation music includes many recordings for Hazelden’s Sound Recovery Series, Debi Dunn’s Tranquil Journeys, and Sticks & Stones.
As the Founder of OUTmusic, the international network of LGBT musicians (1990-2007), Martin created and administered numerous programs that taught craft and career development to musicians through workshops, seminars, and the annual OUTmusic Awards program. In 1998 Martin created a songwriting workshop – Song Lab – which he taught in New York and Philadelphia.
Martin studied music at Dickinson College and at the Philadelphia College of Performing Arts (now University of the Arts) where he majored in Composition. He studied songwriting with Tony Award winning composer Maury Yeston as a longtime member of the BMI/Lehman Engel Advanced Musical Theater Workshop in New York. Martin was a participant in the acclaimed New Dramatists Composer/Librettist Studio and he was Composer in Residence at THETA (The Hampton Ensemble for Theater Arts) a summer theater writing and performance program for teens.
Quotes
“Dan Martin’s music is hauntingly beautiful”~ Hollywood Drama-Logue
“Behind Martin’s music is a driving emotional force that compels attention.”~ Philadelphia Inquirer
“Dan Martin’s floating music transposes one to the peaceful realm of contentment and bliss.”~ New Visions Magazine
Human Being
Our 1992 pop album featuring Dan singing lead on 10 Biello Martin tunes.
A clip from Strange Now – Dan produced and sang this techno-pop love song on Human Being.
Lay Your Burden Down – Another clip from Human Being. This one features Dan singing lead with backups by the amazing Lavender Light Gospel Choir.
A Circle of Diamonds
Music video of Dan & Michael’s song A Circle of Diamonds – Inspired by and featuring marriage activist Edie Windsor. Also starring Broadway actors Jillian Louis and Nicole Van Giesen. A memory piece inspired by Thea Spyer’s proposal to Edie in the 1960’s (when Edie worked at IBM and it still wasn’t safe to come out of the closet). Celebrating the enduring power of love.
Dan in Concert
Music video of Dan rehearsing I Stand Before You for his February Love Songs concert at Biello Martin Studio in 2015. With percussionist Robin Burdulis and cellist Anthony Pirollo. Filmed by Aubrey Hays. Dan’s shirt designed by Raymond Ercoli.
First Comes Love
Music video for Barbara Proud’s wonderful photo/film project celebrating longterm LGBTQ couples.
Divomenco Pop
A clip of Dan’s music from the 2012 short animated film – DIVOMENCO POP – by Liz Goldberg and Raymond Ercoli. It’s a synth/trance meditation on the passion and energy of dancers in the altered state of flamenco bliss!
Disco Dan
An excerpt from Clones in Love on the EP Xposed – Michael and Dan’s disco satire of the mid 1980’s gay dating scene.
Karen Young
A clip from Dan’s production of Biello & Martin’s Eye on You – featuring the late great disco diva Karen “Hot Shot” Young.
Sticks and Stones
Excerpt from a suite of piano music Dan wrote and recorded in 2005 to accompany an outdoor sculpture show – Sticks and Stones: the making of a sculpture garden. Curated by Eileen Tognini at Lis and Mike Kalogris’ fabulous End of the Beginning Garden.
Grant King
A clip from Bodies of Water – the title cut from Grant King’s 2000 album produced and arranged by Dan.
A clip from Sassafras Lake – one of Grant’s hauntingly beautiful memory songs about the intensity of growing up gay.
Amy Fix
A clip of the sweet title song from Amy Fix’s 2001 album Spoon, produced by Dan. A powerful debut giving voice to Amy’s journey from childhood abuse to self-love. Sam Fenster is the guitarist.
A clip from Amy’s song Wings.
I Never Saw Another Butterfly
In 2012 Dan produced vocal arrangements for an intense and beautiful project – Betsy Alexander’s children’s musical I NEVER SAW ANOTHER BUTTERFLY with lyrics by Joe Robinette. Based on the true story of kids at the Nazi concentration camp Terezin – whose poems and drawing survived to tell their stories.
The cast includes Jonathan Brody, Philip Deyesso, Kate Lippstreu, Howie Michael Smith, Jordi Wallen and April Woodall. Jeff Caldwell is the pianist and musical director.
This is a clip from Wedding Psalm.