Martha Thatcher Southern Oregon University Academic Scholarship
2014 Regional Occupational Program (ROP) Student of the Year
2013 Malibu Coast Youth Scholar With an Emphasis in Classical Theatre, Comedy, and the Vocal Arts
2013 Coulston Coast Internship Program Scholarship Recipient
Malibu Coast Scholarship String Quartet Violinist
Featured Young Composer 2013-14 Kairos Musical Soirees Malibu Friends of Music
Edgar Allan Poe Award for Excellence in the Written Word
Malibu Music Award 2012 Young Artist of the Year COMING SOON: For information on current selected performances of Martha Thatcher, please click on the sub-menu "Performance Calendar, "which is listed under the heading of "Intern Martha Thatcher" in the Table of Contents. Similarly, click on "2013/14 Works-in-Progress" for a listing of Ms. Thatcher's upcoming body of work.
Biography
Martha Thatcher, MAHMA's 2013 Intern, has been a consistent and dedicated community youth leader since she moved to Malibu at 5 years of age. Ever respected by her teachers and peers from every walk of life, Martha has garnered multiple awards, commendations and recognition in the visual arts, instrumental music performance (violin and percussion), solo vocal music performance, choral music performance (on the international level), the written word, music composition and poetry, classical and modern dance, humanitariansim, stand-up comedy, and her career of choice: Theatre. Her studies, dedication, skills, and accomplishments in these many facets of the arts world, have earned her respect in the local Malibu community, as well as across the United States.
Martha first read, Harry Potter and the Sorceror's Stone, when she was just in Kindergarten, and it was then that her imagination skyrocketed. There was no stopping her once she realized that she could live her life living her dream!
Since then, Martha has earned the lead roles of "Doralee" in 9 to 5; "Melpomene" in Xanadu; "Peaches" in the Red Velvet Cake War; "The Master" & "Ruta Skadi" in His Dark Materials; "Uncle" & "the Cow" in E.B. White's social commentary: Charlotte's Web; as well as multiple lead roles in the ensemble-driven, TheLaramie Project, for Malibu High School's renowned Theatre Arts Department. Martha depicted "Mrs. Lovett" in Sweeney Todd, as well as "The Red Queen" from Alice in Wonderland this past summer at the Westside Performing Arts Center in Omaha, Nebraska. The diversity within these roles point to Martha's capability of portraying highly varied characters as she "becomes" each of the said characters with seeming ease, skill and extraordinary believeability.
In July 2013, Martha sang the title role of, "Cinderella," in the acclaimed World Premiere Performances of composer Maria Newman's new collaborative musical score for the 1914 Mary Pickford Silent Drama, Cinderella, joined by the Omaha Conservatory Cinema Orchestra, under the baton of Scott Hosfeld. September 2013 marked a hallmark vocal and dance performance with the Mystique Orchestra Band, as Martha opened for entertainment legend, Dick Van Dyke, at Legacy Park in Malibu, California. In July 2012, Martha headlined with the Sierra Symphony Pops Orchestra at Convict Lake, singing works by Randy Newman and Jason Robert Brown. In May 2011, Martha again headlined for the Mystique Orchestra World Tour at the Warner Grand Theatre in Los Angeles. Prior to High School, Martha sang "Maria" in The Sound of Music; and "Ado Annie" in Oklahoma; in addition to many character roles.
Instrumentally speaking, Martha has served as concertmistress of the Malibu Middle School Orchestra, Principle Violin of the Malibu Coast Youth Symphony, and was a founding member of the Malibu Coast Scholarship String Quartet. She performs regularly as Principal Percussionist with the Malibu Coast Silent Film Orchestra (MCSFO), and has toured nationally with this ensemble. Again, with the MCSFO, Martha performed at the Annenberg Beach House in December 2011, in a world premiere performance of a new collaborative musical score for the 1927 silent classic, Quality Street, (starring the inimitable Marion Davies). In March 2013, Martha performed inside Historic Hearst Castle in San Simeon, California, as Principle Percussionist of the MCSFO in the world-premiere performance of a new collaborative musical score accompanying rare silent film footage shot in 1924 at Hearst Castle, entitled, Short and Spicy Skits from the Other Side of Hollywood: The Home Movies of William Randolph Hearst (See Maria Newman, imdb). Introduced by W. R. Hearst III, the peformance took place in Hearst's Private Theatre inside the historic monument.
Vocally speaking, Martha has sung with the United States of America National Honor Choir, the California State Honor Choir, the Southern California Honor Choir, and recieved an invitation to perform with the International Honor Choir in London, England. Martha has served as President of the Malibu High School Chamber Singers, High School Chorale, Girl's Select Choir and MHS Middle School Chorale, and was invited to perform with the MHS Chamber Singers at the famed Carnegie Hall in New York City. Martha also served as Choir President and Soloist of the Malibu Coast Youth Choir, and perfroms regularly as cantor in the Sacred Vespers Concerts at the Montgomery Arts House for Music and Archoitecture, Westwood Presbyterian Church, and St. Aidan's Episcopal Church. Her gorgeous recorded performance as, "Cantor," in composer Maria Newman/Louise Moss Montgomery's, A Little Book of Southern Carols, can be heard on the Montgomery Arts House Modern Masterworks label CD: A Holiday Festival of Music and Light. This moving album also features some of our era's most respected concert artists performing alongside Martha, and is available from iTunes, CD Baby, Amazon, and from a number of additional vendors.
As a long standing member of the Malibu Coast Chamber Balle,t under the direction of Adriana Fiori, (who provided original choreography for four 21st century ballets premiered at MAHMA, the Malibu Civic Center and Malibu City Hall), Martha has danced the solo roles of, "El Toro," in Oscar Wilde's, The Birthday of the Infanta; "La Coyota," "The Mexican Dancer," & "The Fish," in Celebraciaones de la Tierra; "The Raindrop" in Colores de Mexico; "Phamphiona," in Mary De Morgan's, Lamorna Variations; and, "The Child," in Robert Browning's, The Pied Piper.
Despite this busy activity, Martha maintians exemplary grades, and has been recognized on multiple occassions by the ROP (Regional Occupational Program). As a First Prize Winner Martha competed at the District and Local Levels for the Rotary and Kiwanis Vocal Music Competitions in Malibu, Santa Monica, and Greater Los Angeles.
Awarded the prestigious 2012 Malibu Music Award for "Most Accomplished Young Musician," Martha has also been recognized and commended with the Edgar Allan Poe Award for outstanding achievement in the area of the written word. She is currently writing and producing an original 4-episode Radio Play Mini-Series, entitled, The Inbetween. The work will premiere as a Webcast in March 2015.
A formidable force in the field of visual arts, Martha has been a multiple SMMUSD top-prize winner of the National PTA-sponsored ReflectionsCompetition, "Visual Arts Prize," in all of her respective age groups, from early elementary school onward, and has received high written praise from the Visual Arts Faculty at Pepperdine University for her efforts. Martha's visual arts pieces are regularly featured on the CD covers of Montgomery Arts House Modern Masterworks label CD releases, and may be viewed on iTunes, Amazon, as well as many additional online vendors.
Martha has served as a member of the Eastern Sierra Symphony Orchestra, the Malibu Coast Youth Symphony, the Omaha Conservatory Festival Orchestra, the Dorian Sinfonia Orchestra at Luther College, and in addition to her studies in voice, violin, and percussion, also studies piano, theory and music composition. As a composer, Martha presented the World Premiere performance of her haunting original vocal work, Balthazar's Song from The Inbetween, at the Kairos Musical Soirees - Montgomery Arts House for Music and Architecture Series October 30th and 31st, 2013. Her original song, Cabin of Umbrellas, was premiered in 2013 past summer at the Westside Performing Arts Center in Omaha, Nebraska.
As a Stand-up Comedian, Martha earned, "Best Overall Act " in Malibu High School's popular "Masque 2013" Series. Similarly, Martha served as "Master of Ceremonies" for the Malibu Coast Music Festival this past August and September at MAHMA in Malibu, California. The following prose is excerpted from the programs of the 2013 Malibu Coast Music Festival:
As the 2013 Couston Coast Intern Scholarship Recipient, Martha Thatcher has been named the 2013 Malibu Coast Music Festival Youth Scholar. Following in the footsteps of predecessors Zena Kesselman (now a Freshman at Princeton University), Jaclyn Coronado Newman (winner of a Golden Reel Award for her Music Editing in the motion picture, Burlesque), and David Dorn (Winner of multiple BMI Film Composition Awards), Ms. Thatcher spent the summer of 2013 participating in the Oregon Shakespeare Festival Seminar as one of only a very few students selected worldwide.
Each MCMF Youth Scholar, in addition to accruing knowledge about the multitudinous responsibilities of running a non-profit arts organization, must create a personal project based around a chosen field. While Mr. Dorn and Ms. Coronado Newman created their MCMF subject curriculum based on music orchestration, notation, arrangement and composition; and Ms. Kesselman around the specialized study of ethnomusicology, Ms. Thatcher is appearing as the MCMF 2013 Master of Ceremonies in conjunction with a concentration in Theatre and Drama.
The Malibu Friends of Music is extremely proud of the progress and success of its former, as well as its current MCMF Scholars, and looks to continue working with young people to further their chosen careers in the arts.
--- Board of Directors, Malibu Friends of Music
It is Martha's desire to engender interest and appreciation for different areas and eras of the arts to her fellows, and she is grateful for the opportunity to begin her professional career under the umbrella of the Montgomery Arts House for Music and Architecture and the Malibu Friends of Music, alongside and under the guidance of its seasoned and venerable artists of great renown.
