Joachim Carlos Martini was born in Valdivia, in Chile, to German parents, and in 1968, with the youth pastor of the Evangelical Church in Hess and Nassau, Fritz Eitel, set up the Junge Kantorei, to the direction of which he has for some years chiefly devoted himself. At the same time he conducts the Frankfurt Baroque Orchestra, established together with friends, an ensemble that specialises in historical performance practice, bringing together for this purpose musicians from all over Europe. Both organizations have concentrated attention on the oratorios of Handel, with comprehensive performances of this repertoire. Joachim Martini has also, through the establishment of a Frankfurt Archive on musical life under National Socialism, conducted research into Jewish musicians in the Third Reich with publications that include Music in Auschwitz and Music as a Form of Spiritual Resistance, Jewish Musicians from 1933 to 1945.
