Organizations/Performing Group:

UP ARCO - The University of the Philippines String Orchestra, Founder, Music Director and Conductor, 1998-present
World Federation of Amateur Orchestra - NPO-(WFAO), Member, 2011-present
UP Orchestra (UPCMu-based Student Orch) - Music Director, Conductor , 2006 – Present
Athenaeum String Quartet - Founding Member/ Violist, 1985-Present
State-Varsity Christian Fellowship (UP Diliman Chapter) - Member 1979 - 1985 / Faculty Adviser 2010 – Present
NPO-WFAO - World Federation of Amateur Orchestras - Member, 2010 – Present
Clarion Chamber Ensemble - Member / Violist, 2002 – 2008
Inter-Varsity Christian Fellowship, - Corporation Member, 1985-Present, Board Of Trustees Member, 2006-2009

Awards and Recognition:

ONE U.P. Professorial Chair Award in Music (Violin-Viola Performance) for Outstanding Teaching and Public Service in UP Diliman January 2022-December 2024.
U.P. ARTIST III, University of the Philippines Artist Productivity System (APS) Award, 2018-2020
Special Award of the Jury : For the Best Musical Interpretation of Andante Festivo by Sibelius , 2nd Music Festa Florence – International festival of Choirs and Orchestras ( Florence, Italy 2016 )
Gold Award String Orchestra Category, (Conductor, U.P Arco) , 2nd Music Festa Florence – International festival of Choirs and Orchestras ( Florence, Italy 2016 )
Silver Band String Orchestra Category, 7th International Youth Music Festival – International Festival of Choirs and Orchestras - String Orchestra Category (Bratislava, Slovakia 2015)
Awarded BEST BOOK IN THE ART CATEGORY of the National Book Awards for “The Life and Works of MARCELO ADAONAY” given by the Manila Readers Circle and the National Book Development Board (Manila Metropolitan Museum, 2010)
Citation : Outstanding Alumni Award for Practice of Profession Quezon City Science High School (Sept. 17, 2006)
First Prize – Chamber Music Category (Athenaeum String Quartet), National Music Competition for Young Artists (NAMCYA, Manila, Philippines, 1985)


Dr. Edna Marcil “Michi” Martinez is a graduate of the U.P. College of Music. She holds a Teacher’s Diploma in Viola, a Bachelor’s Degree in Music Literature, a Master of Music Degree in Musicology from the same college, and a PhD. in Philippine Studies from the Tri-College of the University of the Philippines. She holds the distinction too as the first Viola graduate of the University of the Philippines.

Prof. Martinez first started to learn the piano from her mother at the age of four, then at seven years old learned the violin with Prof. Vicente Sales and Mr Primitivo Marcelo. She later shifted to the Viola, the instrument of her choice at age 12, and was under the tutelage of Prof. Celso Estrella at the UP College of Music. She continued viola lessons with Prof. Rizal Reyes upon Prof. Celso Estrella's retirement, a few years later. Michi was mentored by Prof. Reyes, from junior high school throughout her college years at the UP.

In the summers of 1987 and 1989, she was under the tutelage of the imminent Australian Violist and Chamber Music Artist Winifred Durie. She has also attended master classes under internationally-acclaimed artists such as violist Norbert Blume, violinists Christoph Poppen and Carmencita Lozada. Prof. Michi Martinez is founding member of the all-female group, Athenaeum String Quartet which she established in 1985 with colleagues from the U.P. College of Music and has remained active to this day.

Her experience in orchestra performance began as a violist in the children’s orchestra Pasaknungan Philippines under Prof. Vicente Sales, then with the Philippine Youth Orchestra, the Metro Manila Symphony Orchestra, and the Manila Chamber Orchestra under the batons of Prof. Sergio Esmilla and Prof. Regalado Jose respectively. Michi was likewise collaborative violist with previous seasons and international performances of the Philippine Philharmonic Orchestra as well as the Manila Philharmonic Orchestra in its conceptual years. Aside from the Athenaeum String Quartet, she also did extensive chamber music performances as violist with the Clarion Chamber Ensemble.

As an orchestra conductor, Michi Martinez counts as her first mentor, the late Prof. Reynaldo Paguio, former Dean of the UP College of Music and director of the world-acclaimed UP Concert Chorus. In 2007, she had masterclasses with internationally-acclaimed conductor, the late Maestra Helen Quach. In summer of the same year, Prof. Martinez did her conducting courses with Maestros Harold Farbermann and Eduardo Navega of the Conductors Institute of Bard College in New York, USA.

Dr. Martinez founded the U.P. Arco -The University of the Philippines String Orchestra in 1998 and has been the group's Music Director and Conductor from its founding year to the present.