Theodor Martens

Martens, Theodor(e)

Theodor(e) (Heinrich August) Martens. Pianist, teacher, b Hamburg 28 Sep 1845, d after 1914. The son of a musician, he studied in Hamburg and later, 1864-7, at the Leipzig Cons with Moscheles and Reinecke. In 1868 he went to New York and toured the USA with Ole Bull. A year later he became music director at Mount Allison Wesleyan Academy, Sackville, NB, and in the early 1870s was appointed organist at Holy Trinity Church in Saint John, NB. After a visit to Germany he settled in Toronto ca 1879. He edited the University of Toronto Song Book (Suckling 1887) and Canadian National and Patriotic Songs (Suckling 1890) and was music master (1889-91) at Upper Canada College. Harry Marshall Field was among his pupils. He is known to have been in California in 1894.

His brother Carl (Johann Christian) Martens, a pianist, composer, and teacher (b Hamburg, 10 Apr 1853, d ?), also studied in Hamburg and with Reinecke in Leipzig 1877-9. He settled about 1880 in Toronto, where he became a partner in the Crossin & Martens Piano Manufacturing Co and a teacher at the Toronto College of Music. He composed the Blue Ontario Rockaway, Electric Light Schottische, Toronto's Jubilee 1834-1884, and other trifles. He participated in chamber music concerts with the Toronto String Quartette and as accompanist for the soprano Emma Juch in 1885.