Zoë Martlew is a composer whose genre-blurring music fuses raw emotional intensity with razor-sharp craft and a theatrical flair rooted in her life as a performer. From wild electronica to operatic song cycles, her works are known for their luminous textures, biting wit, and bold sonic imagination. Her debut album, Album Z (NMC Recordings), charts a lifelong journey through performance, ritual, and fearless creative exploration.
Celebrated in the press as “dazzling, gleefully tawdry, nuanced, beautifully constructed, deeply funny, expertly rendered, and electrifying,” Martlew’s music has been commissioned and performed at major festivals worldwide by leading ensembles and soloists.

Her path to composition has been richly eclectic: as cellist, cabaret artist, educator and presenter she has worked internationally across contemporary classical, theatre, film, pop, and improvisation — including her own one-woman show Revue Z and regular BBC radio and TV appearances.

Martlew creates music that speaks directly to audiences: visceral, poetic, unflinching — and defiantly uncategorisable.