Martin Teshome

Martin is a cellist who, although classically trained, is experienced in many fields of music, such as klezmer, jazz and Carnatic music. He was born in Olomouc in the heart of Moravia, and grew up in Ethiopia, Germany and the Czech Republic. He studied cello at the České Budějovice Conservatoire (Czech Republic) with Rudolf Weiss and subsequently at the Ostrava University (Czech Republic) with Prof. Jan Haliska.In, 2007, whilst a student at the Ostrava University, he spent one semestre at the Conservatorio Steffani in Castelfranco Veneto, Italy, a short but decisive period of his musical life. There he took cello lessons with Antonio Mostacci and deepened his chamber music skills by attending lessons with Filippo Faes. It was also in Italy where he developed his passion for improvisational music, that he had had since his teenage years when he played the bass guitar in various bands. Upon his return to the Czech Republic, he started taking jazz improvisation lessons with saxophonist Michal Žáček and joined Ostrava based klezmer band Mamalör, with which he performed at the London Klezfest 2009, where he had the honour of taking part in workshops with some of Europe's finest klezmer musicians and even took a master class with Frank London.During his studies, he attended cello and chamber music performance master classes with Victoria Yagling, Stefan Fuchs, Marie Hallynck, Yvan Chiffoleau and the Trio di Parma. He played baroque music throughout his studies and participated in many baroque music workshops (Prachatice, Czech Republic, with Jennifer Morsches; Michaelstein, Germany, with Stefan Fuchs etc.).He has been performing with Minimal Klezmer - a klezmer project based partly in London and partly in Venice, South Indian-Western classical blend project Nada Notes led by Indian multiinstrumentalist and composer Vijay Venkat, the London Chamber Players and various quartets and bands.He speaks Czech, English, German, Italian, Portuguese, French, Spanish and Japanese. Since 2010, he has been based in London. He currently teaches cello and piano at the Newham College of Further Education and The Music House for Children in Shepherd's Bush. For details about his private teaching, you can view his profile at The Tutor Pages.