Philip Marten
Philip Marten seves as 1st Assistant Concertmaster of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, appointed by Maestro Louis Langrée in 2018. In that position, he has led the orchestra most notably in collaboration with the Cincinnati Opera on its premier recording of Blind Injustice as well as its recent production of Paul McCartney's Liverpool Oratorio in which Marten was featured as a soloist as well. In the summer of 2022, Marten appeared as soloist with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra for its Brady Block Party community outreach series, performing John Williams' arrangement of Por Una Cabeza. He has also appeared as guest concertmaster with the Kansas City Symphony and the Kentucky Symphony Orchestra.
Before moving to Cincinnati, Marten was a first violin section member with the Kansas City Symphony in 2016 and served as Acting Assistant Concertmaster in the 2017/18 season. Since arriving in Cincinnati, he has been active in the community with organizations such as Concert:Nova, The Response Project, Soli Music Society, and Ascent Festival. In the 24/25 season, he curated and performed in the newly established Red Door Series and established the Red Door Quartet with other members of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra.
No stranger to chamber music, Marten has established several successful ensembles, including Rodin Trio, which participated in La Jolla Music Society’s Summerfest in 2017, as well as Fairway String Quartet, which won fellowships to the Juilliard String Quartet Program, Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, and the McGill International String Quartet Academy, among others festivals. With that ensemble, he also helped to found In the Planes Music Festival, which brought high-quality chamber music performances and music education to rural Kansas from 2013 to 2015. Marten has collaborated with many notable artists, including David Chan, Desmond Hoebig, Benny Kim, Scott Lee, Cho-Liang Lin, Jon Kimura Parker, and Ivo-Jan van der Werff.
A Kansas City native, Marten received an undergraduate degree from Rice University in 2015 under the tutelage of Cho- Liang Lin, and went on to the University of Southern California, where he completed a year of graduate studies with Glenn Dicterow.