Composers

Martin Romberg (born in Oslo, Norway in 1978) is one of the most active orchestral composers of his generation in Scandinavia. His music, which draws inspiration from images and literary works from Pagan and Celtic-Christian culture as well as fantasy literature by authors like J.R.R. Tolkien, H.P. Lovecraft, and Robert E. Howard, has been described as post-Wagnerian, neo-romantic, drawing inspiration from mythopoeia, legends, folklore, and mysticism.   

Romberg’s works has been performed by numerous orchestras like the Astana Symphony Orchestra, The Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra, The Deutsche Filmorchester Babelsberg, Orchestre national de Montpellier, Akademische Orchestervereinigung Göttingen, Shanghai Youth Symphony Orchestra, Mittelsächsische Philharmonie, the Orchestre de Basse-Normandie, the Orchestre régional d'Avignon, the Orchestre de Pau Pays-de-Béarn, Telemark Chamber Orchestra, Nizhni Novgorod Philharmonic Orchestra, Arkhangelsk State Chamber Orchestra, the Orchestre national de Lille, the Orchestre Philharmonique de Nice, Severnaya Sinfonia, Russian Camerata, The Mariinsky Orchestra, Scarborough Symphony Orchestra, Nizhni Novgorod Soloist, Misbourne Symphony Orchestra, Moldovan National Youth Orchestra, Kostroma Philharmonic Orchestra and Grimethorpe Colliery Band under conductors such as Alan Buribayev, Kirill Karabits, Damain Iorio, Samuel Jean, Jean Deroyer, Ariane Matiakh, Fabio Mastrangelo, György Ráth and Elim Chan.

In 2008 and 2016, Romberg was awarded the Norwegian state's work grant for composers. In April 2007 he won the composer competition at De Unges Konsert in Bergen, and in November of the same year the prize from Paul Woitschach's foundation in Berlin. His violin concerto won the award as work of the year by NOPA in 2016.

Highlights of his productions are the performance of his double-violin concerto at the World Exhibition in Shanghai 2010, the orchestral oratorio Homériade that closed the 69th Festival d'Avignon, his saxophone concerto performed by the Mariinsky Orchestra in 2019, and the commission of the orchestral work Fëanor by l'Orchestre Philharmonique de Nice for their 75th anniversary. He has released three solo CDs, respectively on LAWO Classics and KLARTHE Paris. He conducted two recordings of his symphonic production music with the London Session Orchestra at Abbey Roads Studios in London in 2016 and 2018.

Martin Romberg studied contemporary classical composition at the University of Music in Vienna with Michael Jarrell, film music with Klaus Peter Sattler and orchestration with Ertuğrul Sevsay. He has been a composer in residence at the Classix festival in Romania, the Temnitzer Orgeltage in Germany, and the RoCultura Programme in Romania, all in 2023.

Romberg is quadrilingual and spend time outside music writing literary works and philosophical essays.