Martín F. Ackerman, composer and guitarist, is an emerging talent in both classical and popular music. Martin was born in Buenos Aires in 1977 and began playing guitar at the age of seven. At the Conservatoire Juan José Castro, Martin studied with Victor Villadangos, Profesor Superior de Guitarra. Martin's performance demonstrates the Villadangos legacy: spontaneity, endless love of the music, in-depth knowledge of musical technique and analysis. While studying with Villadangos, Martin also attended master classes with important musicians such as Eduardo Fernández, Eduardo Egues, and Roland Dyens, among others.
Martin made his debut at the age of sixteen at Círculo Guitarrístico Argentino and received excellent reviews. His debut piece, Elegía por la muerte de un Tanguero a homage to Astor Piazzolla by Máximo Diego Pujol, awakened Martin's love for Argentinian popular music and opened a new chapter in his life. While doing his guitar studies, Martin began to study composition with Pujol. A few years later Martin continued his composition studies with Grammy Award winner Gabriel Senanes, a favorite composer of several international musicians. At the same time Martin studied conducting with Antonio Russo, composer, conductor, and pedagogue.
Senanes encouraged Martin to compose chamber works. In 1998 Martin created Il Gruppetto, a chamber quintet. With Martin as director, composer and performer, the ensemble played in Argentina's most important venues. This celebrated quintet performed concerts at Radio Nacional, and Argentina Televisor Color, Canal 7. The ensemble also had the honor of playing in the Salón Dorado a UADE session at Teatro Colón, in 2000.
Martin moved to Paris in 2001. In the Ecole Normal de Musique he studied composition with Michel Merlet and guitar with François Laurent and Alberto Ponce. By unanimous vote Martin won Premier Prix de Guitare Classique. Later he advanced to the Higher Level in composition under Jose Luis Campana's direction at the Ecole Nationale de musique et de Danse (E.N.M.D.) in Aulnay sous Bois, where he was granted the Premier Prix de Orchestration as well as the Prix d'Excellence during the Perfection Level in Musical Analysis.
During this period, he lived alternately in Paris and Monaco in order to pursue classical guitar studies with Luc Vander Borght in the Foundation Prince Rainier III of the Principality of Monaco . There he received the Médaille d'or à l'unanimité and the Diplôme de spécialisation en Guitare Classique.
Martín F. Ackerman has simultaneously developed his career both as a composer and performer. In 2006 he was a guest composer and performer at the festival Ile des Découvertes of Ile de France National Orchestra (ONDIF), an event sponsored by Pierre Boulez. Ensemble InterContemporain et ARCEMA debuted Martin's work, Toma5Tango, which had been written for the event. In 2005 he was a soloist at Auditorio Nacional de Madrid with the UAM Orchestra. In 2004 he was selected as a soloist for the Orchestre Philarmonique de Monte-Carlo at the Gala concert of the Foundation Prince Rainier III.
Since 2008 Martin has taught guitar at Conservatoire Darius Milhaud at Paris.
Martin's works, published by Editions Henry Lemoine of Paris, have been recorded by prestigious musicians such as the Take Four Guitar Quartet and Víctor Villadangos. They have also been included in college and university curricula as well as competitions in Germany, Argentina, France, Italy, Uruguay, Belgium, Spain, Chile and Canada.
In 2009 Martin F. Ackerman's composition, "El Salto de Tristan" was chosen as compulsory piece for the final round of the French "Robert J. Vidal" Concours International de Guitare Classique.
