Martha Colby

Cellist, pianist, writer, singer, arranger, and teacher, Martha Colby, “scrapes, glides and plucks her way like a flame” (Performing Songwriter magazine). Having spent her summers since 2007 with the Lake Quartet at Yellowstone Park, Martha left her freelance career in NYC to be out in the mountains with the bears, mountain goats, wolves and spaciousness of the west. She currently works as a pianist and cellist at the historic Old Faithful Inn, Old Faithful Snow Lodge, and continues to perform with the quartet at Lake Village.  She has performed in such ensembles as the band October Project (Bury My Lovely), singer-songwriters Anna Dagmar, Sloan Wainwright, Gregory Douglass, Latin trio Rosewood and Rhythm, in jazz bands The Llama Dollies and Lyric Fury, and was principle cellist of the Hudson Opera Theater and the Spirit of America Pops. She is featured on over 70 recordings by a variety of musicians and is recipient of the Joe Venuti Jazz Masters Award and several Meet the Composer grants. Martha has worked with world-renowned musicians such as Matt Glaser, Matt Darriau,  Julie Lyonn Lieberman, Billy Hart, and Kurt Rosenwinkel. Martha Colby music is what you get from a kid who wanted to be a lead singer and a bass player and wound up playing the cello. She grew up listening to classical music, progressive rock, thrash, 60's folk rock, dixie and swing, and avante garde jazz. She is a graduate of Berklee College of Music and started off in Guilford, CT.