SIR GEORGE MARTIN
Music Director

As Music Director of LOVE, Sir George Martin brings over 56 years of unparalleled success and universal artistic regard to the Cirque du Soleil stage. Best known for his monumental work with The Beatles, Sir George -- working in collaboration with his son, Giles Martin -- has bestowed upon LOVE what is undeniably a most significant creative contribution: The music.

"The first thing we did for LOVEwas to transfer absolutely every sound we'd ever had of The Beatles onto hard disks and manipulate the sound digitally," says Sir George. "That's how we've been able to do things that would have been quite impossible years ago. One of the challenges of the job was getting the balance of the songs right. We wanted to make sure there are enough good, solid hit songs in the show, but we don't want it to be a catalog of ‘best of's.’ We also wanted to put in some interesting and not well-known Beatles music and use fragments of songs."

An Academy Award-nominated composer and founder of AIR Studios, Sir George Martin has produced a record-breaking 30 Number One singles and 16 Number One albums in the UK , and an equally astonishing 22 Number One singles and 19 Number One albums in North America . Among the multitude of awards and commendations he earned throughout his illustrious career, Sir George counts two Ivor Novello Awards and five Grammys. In 1988, he was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) for his services to the music industry and in 1996 he was made a Knight Bachelor. The crowning jewel of rock accolades arrived in 1999, when Sir George was inducted into the American Rock & Roll Hall of Fame following completion of his last studio recording for the album In My Life.

In addition to his work in music, Sir George has achieved an award-winning canon of work across film, television and theatre marked by both critical and commercial success. A composer in his own right, he has scored and produced such films as A Hard Days Night (for which he received an Academy Award nomination), Live and Let Die (for which he received a Grammy), Yellow Sub mari ne , The Family Way, Honky Tonk Freeway, Pulp and Optimist of Nine Elms. He extended his talent into the television arena in 1992, producing a television documentary on the making of The Beatles' Sgt. Pepper album, which earned recognition as the official British entry selection for the Italia Prize and won a Palme d'Or at The Cannes Film Festival. He has produced albums for several theatre productions including, with his son Giles, the Tony Award-winning Broadway production of The Who's Tommy, for which they earned a further Grammy. Sir George also conceived, composed, arranged and produced the musical version of Under Milk Wood, which was presented as a gala concert for The Prince's Trust before Prince Charles.

Though Sir George has been involved in a wide-ranging variety of media and projects, he is best known for his distinguished career as a record producer. He entered the music industry in 1950 as the assistant to the head of a small label within Britain 's EMI Music Group. Demonstrating a rare and coveted combination of A&R executive and record producer skills, Sir George became the head of that label, Parlophone, a mere five years later. In 1962, he signed The Beatles to EMI and went on to produce all of their records until the iconic group disbanded in 1970.

Sir George Martin was born in 1926 in London .