about the composer

Martin Boykan (b. 1931) was born in New York City and studied composition at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, and the Berkshire Music Center (now Tanglewood) in Lenox, Massachusetts. His principal teachers were Walter Piston, Aaron Copland, and Paul Hindemith; he also studied piano with Eduard Steuermann. Boykan spent the years 1953-1955 in Vienna on a Fulbright Fellowship; after his return to the US he joined the faculty of Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts, where he continues to teach today. He also founded and performed in the Brandeis Chamber Ensemble, served as pianist for the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and appeared regularly with soloists such as violinist Joseph Silverstein and soprano Jan DeGaetani.

Boykan's work is widely performed and has been presented by new music ensembles including Boston Musica Viva, Boston Symphony Chamber Players, Collage New Music, Earplay, League-ISCM Chamber Players, New York New Music Ensemble, and Speculum Musicae. His Symphony for orchestra and baritone solo was premiered by the Utah Symphony in 1993. Boykan's many honors include grants and commissions from the Fromm, Guggenheim, Koussevitzky, and Rockefeller Foundations, League-ISCM, and American Academy and National Institute of Arts and Letters. In 1994 he was awarded a Senior Fulbright Fellowship to Israel. In addition to his long tenure at Brandeis University, Boykan has been a visiting professor at Columbia University, New York University, and Bar-Ilan University in Israel.

Boykan's music has been recorded on the CRI label, the most recent release being a performance of his Sonata for Solo Violin (1998) by Curtis Macomber.