Math & Cultural

Theodora Martin

Theodora Martin, piano

About Theodora Martin

Theodora Martin will be a junior next fall at UC Berkeley, where she is currently pursuing a double degree in music and English and studying piano with Martha Wasley. In the past, Theodora also studied with Professor Hans Boepple at Santa Clara University and Carmen Enescu in Romania. Most recently, Theodora performed Scharwenka’s underplayed Fourth Concerto with the Saratoga Symphony under the direction of Jason Klein. Her other concerto performances include Grieg’s Concerto with the South Valley Symphony, Chopin's First with the Peninsula Symphony, and Prokofiev's Second with the Palo Alto Philharmonic. Theodora is the recipient of several first place awards in competitions such as the MTAC Concerto finals, the Marilyn Mindell Competition, the Young Artist's Beethoven Competition, the International Russian Music Competition, the Pacific Musical Society Competition, and the AFAF Concerto Competition. As the AFAF first place winner, Theodora performed Brahms's Second Concerto with the Kostroma Symphony in Russia last summer. She also attended the International Piano Festival in Naleczow, Poland, where she played Chopin's E minor Concerto with the Lublin Chamber Orchestra. While in Poland, Theodora took lessons with renowned professor and International Chopin Competition juror Katarzyna Popowa-Zydron and won Third Prize in the festival's international competition. Theodora participated in master classes with Seymour Lipkin, Antonio Pompa-Baldi, Christopher O’Riley, Beethoven scholar Nicholas Mathew, and Tchaikovsky Competition winner Vladimir Ovchinnikov. She is also an active member of the UC Berkeley Symphony Orchestra and frequently performs chamber music. Theodora attended the California Summer Music chamber music festival from 2008 to 2012, studying mainly Brahms and Beethoven works, contemporary music, and collaborating with composers John Corigliano and Judith Shatin. Theodora’s other interests include historical instruments, specifically the fortepiano, and doing research-based writing about music. She is also a concert reviewer for PeninsulaReviews.com. In the future, Theodora hopes to divide her time between cultivating her concert career and continuing her studies towards musicology.