Martyn Ford

Martyn Ford studied horn at the Royal Academy of Music with the international soloist Ifor James, gaining the highest grades possible. In his final year at the Academy, Martyn formed his own symphony orchestra made up of talented music students from the four London music colleges. In 1971 the orchestra, then named the New Sinfonia, gave its first concert at the Royal Albert Hall, to much critical acclaim. Eventually the orchestra became known as the Martyn Ford or Mountain Fjord Orchestra, and rapidly became the orchestra of choice for record, film, television, radio and advertising music work. Martyn himself quickly established himself as an oft in demand arranger, conductor and record producer with an international reputation, working with many artists, among others, Paul McCartney, Elton John, Cliff Richard,Bryan Ferry, Lou Reed, The Rolling Stones, Bob Marley, Lynsey de Paul, Kate Bush, Phil Collins,Led Zeppelin and Grateful Dead. Martyn conducted and arranged music for the film Tommy (1975), working with Ken Russell and Pete Townshend. He also worked together with George Martin, Paul McCartney and Marvin Hamlisch on the soundtrack to the James Bond movie Live and Let Die (1973) as well as with George Martin on the Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (1978) soundtrack. He conducted the incidental music for Central Television's acclaimed "Naturewatch" series. He was involved in the original soundtrack of the musical "Jesus Christ Superstar" by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice and the television rock opera series Rock Follies (1976). Ever busy, Martyn has made several appearances on Top of the Pops (1964) with a variety of artists, and as an artist in his own right performing in 1977 his only U.K. hit single to date "Let Your Body Go Downtown". This soul/funk/disco fusion was written for him by Lynsey de Paul and 'Mike Moran', who also wrote a further single for him in the same vein called "Going to a Disco". An album of songs, called "Smovin'", was also released on the Mountain record label. In line with his training in classical music, Martyn has conducted and/or recorded with the Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra, London Philharmonic Orchestra, the Suisse Romande, the Cape Town Symphony Orchestra, the South African Broadcasting Corporation's Symphony Orchestra, and the Durban Symphony Orchestra.