Jos Martens (March 6, 1985 in Hoorn, the Netherlands) is a Dutch composer and church musician.
From an early age he became fascinated by the organ and took organ lessons with Bas Westerhof. In addition, Jos developed a great interest in composing and to develop this further he took composition lessons with Caroline Ansink.
At the age of fourteen, Jos participated in the 2000 New Year’s Concert of the Netherlands Wind Ensemble in Amsterdam with his piece ‘2000 for peace’ for wind ensemble and piano. This piece was released on CD. He also won a shared 2nd prize at the Princess Christina composition competition in 2003 with his piece ‘De profundis’ for ensemble.
From 2005, Jos studied composition at the ArtEZ Conservatory in Zwolle, where Alex Manassen was his main subject teacher. In addition, he took choral conducting lessons in Utrecht with various teachers, including Wilko Brouwers and Fokko Oldenhuis.
In 2006, Jos was one of the winners of the Handel-Inspired composition competition organized by the British musician Paul Ayres. The piece ‘Little Prelude’ for organ was released on CD, performed by Paul Ayres.
During his studies, Jos also developed as a church musician and after having been organist and conductor at various churches and choirs, he was appointed director of music of the Roman Catholic Sint-Odulphuskerk in Assendelft in 2011, where he is still active.
Regarding composing, Jos mainly focuses on creating religious music. He wrote several masses and motets for liturgical use. He also wrote hymns for various occasions. Jos also likes to experiment with electronic music.
Jos usually uses simple basic material which he further elaborates in his compositions. Singability and playability are important to him so that his compositions are easy to perform without being too simple.
In recent years, a beautiful collaboration has emerged between Jos and Reverend Bart Vijfvinkel. Based on their shared love for Bible stories and Biblical characters, they wrote ‘Licht voor de mensen – Klein kerstoratorium’ (Light of all mankind – Small Christmas Oratorio) in 2017, in 2018-2019 ‘Micha. Een zangstuk’ (Micha. A song piece) and in the period 2020-2024 oratorio ‘De Doper’ (The Baptist). Plans are in the making for new Dutch-language oratorios and cantatas.
In 2024, Jos won a shared 3rd prize in the religious music category of the Tapiola Choir International Choral Composition Competition in the Finnish capital Helsinki with his piece ‘A Festive Alleluia’.