Biography

Canadian violinist Jennifer Martyn enjoys a busy career as performer, teacher, and researcher. She holds degrees in violin performance from the University of Toronto (BMus, DMA), and Mannes College (MMus) in New York City. Dr. Martyn’s performance career has taken her across Canada, as well as to Europe and Asia. She has performed with the National Arts Centre Orchestra, the Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra, the Kingston, Ottawa, and Windsor Symphonies, l’Ensemble Prisme, Duo Felice, and the Talisker Players, including two programs in their acclaimed Journeys in Words and Music chamber music series. Dr. Martyn has been a guest concertmaster with several orchestras, most recently the North York Concert Orchestra and the University of Toronto Symphony Orchestra, and a substitute assistant concertmaster with the Kingston Symphony Orchestra.

In her research at the University of Toronto, Dr. Martyn has focused on the life and career of the nineteenth-century Swedish violinist and composer Amanda Maier and has received numerous awards for her work, including the Ontario Graduate Scholarship and the Palmeson Graduate Fellowship in Violin. She has presented lecture-recitals about her research in Ottawa, Toronto, and Calgary, and in 2017 performed the Canadian premiere of Amanda Maier’s 1891 piano quartet.

Dr. Martyn is a sought-after teacher and enjoys working with students of all ages. Trained in the Suzuki method, she has taught with Etobicoke Suzuki Music in Toronto and was a founding faculty member of Ottawa Suzuki Strings. In 2017 she was the strings adjudicator at the Brantford Kiwanis Music Festival in Brantford, Ontario. Presently, Dr. Martyn teaches with the North York Suzuki School of Music.