Martin KochNationality: British
Biography Martin Koch was the musical director of the last Eurovision Song Contest to date with live orchestral accompaniment; this was in 1998, when the festival was held in Birmingham. Koch arranged the music to the opening and closing sequences and the interval entertainment ‘Jupiter – the bringer of jollity’, featuring Lesley Garrett and Vanessa Mae. Because the live music rule was no longer in force, several countries’ delegations chose to not use the accompaniment of the BBC Concert Orchestra at all. Koch himself conducted the French entry Marie-Line’s ‘Où aller’; the decision to have the backing track to this song enriched with live string accompaniment was only taken in the course of the rehearsals leading up to the live broadcast. In due course, a more extensive biography of Martin Koch will be published on this website Website(s):
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Musical director
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