the Creative Team
Martina Music is an award-winning composer/lyricist team dedicated to creating new works for live vocal performance. In diverse choral pieces and character-driven song cycles, we explore how stories shape our lives and challenge our thinking.
Marian Partee, lyricist
Marian enjoys exploring characters from history, scripture, and folklore, presenting ancient tales with fresh perspectives. Marian’s plays and musicals include: Miss Vulcan 1939 (Red Mountain Theatre in Birmingham, AL), Past Time (Theatre Building Chicago), The Silence of the Hams (The Great American Melodrama), Rapunzel (City Lights Theater Company of San Jose), Madwomen and Powder Puff Pilots (UC Irvine), East of the Sun, West of the Moon (Northwestern University), McBeth! The Musical (California Institute of the Arts), and Esther (La Cañada Presbyterian Church).
Marian earned her BS from Northwestern University, where she studied Theater and Creative Writing for the Media, and her MFA in Acting from California Institute of the Arts. As a performer, Marian has appeared in over forty plays and musicals. In addition to her artistic work, Marian serves as Assistant Director of Spiritual Formation at La Cañada Presbyterian Church. She lives with her husband, David Lamb, and their two children in La Cañada, CA.
Christina Whitten Thomas, composer
Christina's works have been performed throughout the United States including premieres at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, and Disney Concert Hall. Christina has received commissions from the Los Angeles Master Chorale Chamber Singers, VOX Femina of Los Angeles, the Golden Bridge, the Seraphim Singers of Boston, the Denver Women’s Chorus, the Esoterics of Seattle, Melodia Women’s Choir of NYC, the Middlebury College Choir, the Apollo Men’s Chorus of USC, and the Vermont Choral Union. Her awards include 1st place in the NDSU Edwin Fissinger composition competition, 1st place in the Indianapolis Symphonic Choir competition, 1st place in the Los Robles Master Chorale competition, 1st place in the Park Avenue Christian Church competition, 2nd place in the NATS Art Song Composition Award, the Sorel Conductor’s Choice award, and the Sorel Medallion. Her work Resilient Voices, commissioned by VOX Femina, was supported by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. Her choral cycle Choral de Bêtes can be heard on Musica Sacra’s recording Messages to Myself.
Her music is published by E.C. Schirmer and Hal Leonard, as well as available through MusicSpoke.com. Christina holds a M.M. in composition from the University of Southern California’s Thornton School of Music and resides with her family in Claremont, California. In addition to being an active vocalist and teacher, Christina is the Director of Worship Arts at La Cañada Congregational Church.
Unashamed, she proclaimed,
“This is who I am. Art is my gift. Art is my calling. I belong here.”
— from Resilient Voices