Martin James Bartlett won BBC Young Musician of the Year in 2014. Since winning the competition, Bartlett has performed with orchestras including BBC Symphony Orchestra, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra and Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. In 2017 Bartlett was one of the thirty competitors at the finals of the Van Cliburn Competition, held in Fort Worth, Texas.
Bartlett has performed in recital and with orchestras at the Royal Albert Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall, Barbican, Wigmore Hall, Purcell Rooms, Birmingham Symphony Hall and Cheltenham Town Hall. He has also performed internationally in France, Italy, Germany, Serbia, Russia and the USA. He has participated in masterclasses with Sir András Schiff, Lang Lang, Stephen Kovacevich, Kathryn Stott, Peter Donohoe and Ferenc Rados.
In the 2017-2018 season, Bartlett will make his Japanese debut performing Prokofiev's Piano Concerto No. 3 with the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra conducted by Josep Pons. He will also perform with Bernard Haitink and the Royal College of Music Symphony Orchestra playing Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 24 K.491.
At the BBC Young Musician of the Year competition, Bartlett’s performance of Rachmaninov’s Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, with conductor Kirill Karabits and the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, received overwhelming acclaim from Edinburgh’s Usher Hall audience and from those tuning into the live recording broadcast on BBC4 and BBC Radio 3. In the same year, he began his undergraduate studies with Professor Vanessa Latarche at the Royal College of Music, where he is a Foundation Scholar. He also performed Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue with the Ulster Orchestra at the BBC Proms "Last Night" celebrations, which were broadcast live from Belfast on BBC Four and BBC Radio Ulster. He made his BBC Proms debut in 2015 performing Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Eric Whitacre.
Following Bartlett's success in the BBC Young Musician Competition, he received support from the Young Classical Artists Trust (YCAT). He has been the recipient of numerous prizes and awards including the Gordon Turner Competition, the Angela Bull Competition, and several others during his time at the Royal College of Music Junior Department and Purcell School.
