Biography
Martin Outram first gained recognition through his role as violist with the Maggini Quartet, yet he has also distinguished himself through solo appearances and through decades of influential teaching. His discography encompasses complete chamber cycles by multiple British composers, and he has prepared fresh editions of pieces by Delius along with other composers.
He pursued studies at Cambridge University and the Royal Academy of Music, where his viola instructor was John White. Outram joined the faculty of the Royal Academy of Music in 1984 and has continued in that post without interruption. In 1988 he became one of the founding members of the Maggini Quartet. The ensemble has appeared across Europe, North America, and Asia, although its most widely noted achievements remain its recordings devoted to British repertoire, among them the full set of Peter Maxwell Davies’s ten Naxos Quartets. Outram has additionally appeared and recorded as a concerto soloist and in duo sonatas, again concentrating on British works. He has made the viola music of Arnold Bax—who himself played the instrument—a particular focus, and he has explored less familiar pieces such as Elizabeth Maconchy’s Romanza together with concertos by David Gow and Adam Gorb. As principal violist of the Britten Sinfonia Soloists Ensemble, he received the Royal Philharmonic Society Award for Chamber Music in 2009.
More than forty of his recordings with the Maggini Quartet have appeared, several of them honored with major British recording awards. His disc of English Viola Sonatas, made with pianist Julian Rolton, earned a five-star review in BBC Music. In 2019, again with Rolton and joined by tenor Mark Padmore, he issued a recording of Vaughan Williams’s Viola Fantasia.
At the Royal Academy his work has combined scholarship with instrumental instruction; editions and arrangements he prepared of music by Delius, Britten, Ireland, and others have been issued by Boosey and Hawkes, Stainer and Bell, and Comus. One of his ongoing research areas is nineteenth-century viola pedagogy.
He pursued studies at Cambridge University and the Royal Academy of Music, where his viola instructor was John White. Outram joined the faculty of the Royal Academy of Music in 1984 and has continued in that post without interruption. In 1988 he became one of the founding members of the Maggini Quartet. The ensemble has appeared across Europe, North America, and Asia, although its most widely noted achievements remain its recordings devoted to British repertoire, among them the full set of Peter Maxwell Davies’s ten Naxos Quartets. Outram has additionally appeared and recorded as a concerto soloist and in duo sonatas, again concentrating on British works. He has made the viola music of Arnold Bax—who himself played the instrument—a particular focus, and he has explored less familiar pieces such as Elizabeth Maconchy’s Romanza together with concertos by David Gow and Adam Gorb. As principal violist of the Britten Sinfonia Soloists Ensemble, he received the Royal Philharmonic Society Award for Chamber Music in 2009.
More than forty of his recordings with the Maggini Quartet have appeared, several of them honored with major British recording awards. His disc of English Viola Sonatas, made with pianist Julian Rolton, earned a five-star review in BBC Music. In 2019, again with Rolton and joined by tenor Mark Padmore, he issued a recording of Vaughan Williams’s Viola Fantasia.
At the Royal Academy his work has combined scholarship with instrumental instruction; editions and arrangements he prepared of music by Delius, Britten, Ireland, and others have been issued by Boosey and Hawkes, Stainer and Bell, and Comus. One of his ongoing research areas is nineteenth-century viola pedagogy.
Albums
