In the last couple of years, Joel collaborated in concert with operatic divas Jessye Norman and Kathleen Battle, appearing with Battle at Kennedy Center in December 2008, among other places.

As a music educator and clinician, Martin has lectured and performed in countless public school systems, colleges and universities across the country and abroad. His innovative, one-of-a-kind Jazzical programs specifically geared toward the host school's needs, have taken long-term residencies at Enloe High School (2008 - Raleigh NC); YMCA-Center for the Creative Arts (2007 - Rome, NY) and El Paso TX schools (2006-2007). Over the years he has done major stints at Harrison High School, Briarcliff High School, Fox Lane High School (all in Westchester County NY), Westfield and Springfield MA, Hartford CT, Maryland, Oklahoma City Public Schools, and many others as part of a larger effort to bring Jazzical to the youth as well as the masses.

Joel's Jazzical Arts in Education programs were recently showcased on a WCNY - PBS high definition television special (Syracuse NY) with the YMCA-YCCA music program and the Boys & Girls's Choir of Harlem Alumni Ensemble (January 2008), as well as at Carnegie Hall in a Family Interactive Concert partnership with the Brooklyn Youth Chorus.

Currently Joel is creating a high definition PBS arts-in-education series called "Joel Martin's Jazzical World." A new and innovative Jazzical Arts curriculum is being designed for young people as well as adults. This project is being produced through Joel's new not for profit company Jazzical Arts, Inc.

Back in his formative, classical years, Martin was the youngest competitor in the 1985 Van Cliburn International Piano Competition. The next year, he was guest soloist with the New York Philharmonic under Conductor Zubin Mehta. He was also profiled and performed on the McGraw Hill Artist Showcase on WQXR-FM in New York. Martin received numerous prestigious grants, including awards from the ASTRAL Foundation of Philadelphia, the Eubie Blake Scholarship Fund of New York, the Lois J. Wright Memorial Foundation of Baltimore, the Musician's Emergency Fund of New York and Time magazine. In 1988 he was the recipient of the National Arts Club of New York's Lebow Award. Martin was also highlighted in Musical America's "People to Watch For in '89." In 1990 he was a SONY Innovators Awards finalist for music and in 1992 received the Concert Artist Guild two-year Career Development Fellowship.

Martin has played numerous Jazzical concerts worldwide. Among his jazz credentials, Joel A. Martin has played with legendary drummer Chico Hamilton, pianist Muhal Richard Abrams, pianist/composer Hale Smith, bassist Brian Torff, and for 9 years was the music director of the Cab Calloway Orchestra. He was also Assistant Music Director/pianist for the Boys Choir of Harlem for 8 years, and has appeared on Broadway in "The Ride Down Mount Morgan" with Patrick Stewart (of Star Trek fame) and in The Wild Party with Eartha Kitt. He has also been featured on BET (Black Entertainment Television) in "BET on Jazz," NBC-TV and performed his original Jazzical compositions at the Savannah Music Festival, Guggenheim Museum, Lincoln Center, Fez and the New Village Gate 52 in New York, at Snug Harbor, and at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival with jazz clarinet legend Alvin Batiste.

As a chamber musician, he toured throughout the world with renowned clarinetist Esther Lamneck, appeared as special guest with the Emerson String Quartet, and performed over 400 chamber concerts throughout New England and the mid-Atlantic states. As soloist, he performed for French President Francois Mitterand at l'Opera Comique in 1993, at Kaukametsa Hall in Finland, and in Japan before government officials.

Martin studied under acclaimed pianists and educators Natalie Hinderas, Susan Starr, Raymond Hanson, Ursula Oppens, Jorg Demus, Paul Badura-Skoda and Anthony Newman. He has attended Tanglewood Institute, the Munich Conservatory, Hartt School of Music and Purchase College (NY).