RAY MARTIN

Raymond Stuart Martin was born in Vienna, Austria, and was initially a violinist. He went to the State Academy of Music and Fine Art in Vienna. In 1937, he immigrated to England and was a Carroll Levis discovery. After the start of World War II, in 1940, he joined the British Army. As he was multilingual, he served in the Intelligence Corps for six years. He became an arranger and composer for the Royal Air Force Band. During this time, he also managed to rescue his brother, who was imprisoned in a concentration camp. After the war's end, he worked in radio for the British Forces Network in Hamburg, Germany, and later formed his own orchestra for a programme called Melody from the Sky which had over 500 performances. He became the conductor of the BBC Variety Orchestra and also worked for EMI as a record producer and arranger. In this read more...