Composer, arranger and orchestrator, Pascal Martines’ career has been an unusual one, taking in classical, modern and film music.
His first instrument was the guitar, on which he perfected his technique at the Guitar Institute of Technology (GIT) in Los Angeles, before moving onto the piano, which he studied under Leonid Gavrilov and Jean-Claude Fèvre, amongst others.
He always loved composing music, and in this respect his meeting with Jean Doué proved to be a seminal moment. This composer, who had studied under Darius Milhaud and Charles Köechlin, encouraged him to explore this career, whilst teaching him counterpoint.
He attended the Conservatoire de Marseille’s music composition course (harmony and counterpoint), before finishing off his studies at the Conservatoire International de Musique de Paris (CIMP) where was taught fugue by Françoise Levéchin, orchestration by Marie-Jeanne Séréro and composition by Dominique Preschez. He graduated with the equivalent of first-class honours in all of his courses.
Being fascinated by the art of writing film, video and TV scores, he also specialized in film music composition at the Ecole Normale de Musique de Paris.
Finally, he developed an interest in jazz piano, which he studied under Wajdi Cherif and Marc Benham. This added a whole new dimension to his work as a composer, imbuing him with a much greater degree of creative freedom.