Martha Hill Duncan

Martha Hill Duncan’s passion for music started early, inspired by her mother, who sang and played the piano by ear. Martha was a member of the first graduating class of the Houston High School for Performing and Visual Arts and earned a Bachelor of Music degree in Composition from the University of Texas at Austin.

Her piano works have been inspired, at least in part, by her long-time career as a piano teacher and some of these pieces, as well as her art songs, appear in educational publications and syllabi. Piano collection titles include The Sunken Garden, Isla Vista Suite, Precipitations, Angular Measures, Limestone Etchings, Rainy Days and Cottage Days. Since moving from the United States to Canada, many of her compositions have been inspired by Canadian landscapes and texts. In January 2014, her youth opera, Searching the Painted Sky, with poet/librettist Janet Windeler Ryan, was premiered at the National Opera Association Convention in New York City. She was named a finalist for the 2020 Louis Applebaum Award.

A former piano examiner for the Royal Conservatory of Music, she is also a founding member of Red Leaf Pianoworks, a self-publishing composers’ collective. Originally from Houston, Texas, Martha and her husband Martin have lived in Kingston, Ontario since 1988. She also conducts the women’s choir She Sings! and has two grown children and two granddaughters.

To explore more of her music, please visit www.marthahillduncan.com