in New Rochelle, NY was raised in a very
musical family. Relatives on his mother’s
side have a long history in theater
performance dating back to Vaudeville.
Martirano, son of Jean and John Martirano
(both musicians), and nephew of the late
Salvatore Martirano (renown 20th electronic
music pioneer and gifted composer) http:
//ems.music.uiuc.edu/~martiran/, has been
involved with synthesis since 1970. Mr.
Martirano began studying piano at age 5
under Baruch Arnon (Julliard professor,
private instructor) and decided to pursue a
musical career and went on to complete a
Bachelor of the Arts in Music (BA), and Master
of the Arts in Teaching (MAT) at
Manhattanville College in Purchase, NY
studying under the late William Harms
(classical piano), Neil Waltzer (jazz piano),
and Edgar Hilliar (pipe-organ). Mr. Martirano’
s thesis included the designing of a multi-
purpose lab for use in teaching music,
synthesis, mathematics, and language
utilizing a common workstation (before multi-
media was a common ‘buzz’ word).
Mr. Martirano has performed and recorded
with various groups including Voices (on
Atlantic - ATCO Records), The Solution (Last
Kingdom Records - distributed by Vision
Records), and has worked as session
synthesizer programmer for numerous
artists on diverse projects ranging from film
to the creation of CD ROMs. Martirano had
the great fortune to perform with his
esteemed Uncle Salvatore Martirano and his
brother Lex at the Wilfred Laurier University in
Canada utilizing Moog synthesizers,
Mellotrons, tape machines and 2 Grand
Pianos. Martirano’s band Emily toured the
US in the 70’s performing for the Special
Olympics culminating in their writing the
international theme song for the Special
Olympics ‘Year of the Child ‘ (1979) entitled
The Child. It was performed by the group with
a 50 voice choir at the Kennedy Center in
Washington D.C. at the presidential premier
of the move Superman attended by President
Jimmy Carter and dignitaries from over 50
countries. Mr. Martirano composed a trailer
for John Allen, chapter president of the AES
which earned him the admiration of many
theater goers that heard his original
composed tracks .
manufacturer Kurzweil Music Systems at
major trade shows all over the world such as
NAMM, AES, Franfurt Musik Messe and Seoul
CES. Martirano regularly performed at these
shows with such notorieties as Jon
Andersen of famed group Yes, Rod
Morgenstein (famed drummer for Dixie
Dreggs, Winger and others),Jordan Rudess
(famed keyboardist for Dixie Dreggs, Dream
Theater), and many others. He is well
connected with many recording legends
such as Stevie Wonder and Greg Mathisen
and film score composers such as Fred
Mullin, and Michael Kaman as well. Other
noted performances include the Bach at the
Beacon concert series where he led a group
of 6 synthesist including the world renowned
Wendy Carlos (Switched on Bach, Disney’s
Tron soundtrack, A Clockwork Orange
soundtrack, and many more) in performing
Carlos’s Switched On Back 2000. Martirano
was the chief programmer and a performer
as well on the project
http://www.wendycarlos.com/
newsold.html#BatB%201 , http://usuarios.
lycos.es/
audionautas/Paranoias/amigos4.htm.
In 2002 Martirano was asked to work with
Hall and Oates (noted legendary song writing
duo) on their CD Do It For Love where he
received credits and functioned as chief
keyboard tech.
