Martin Butler studied at the University of Manchester, the Royal Northern College of Music, and Princeton University in the United States. From September 1998 to July 1999, Butler was composer-in-residence at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, United States. Butler's works are frequently performed and broadcast, both in the United Kingdom and abroad. He has received commissions from the BBC, the London Sinfonietta, the Schubert Ensemble, and festivals in Brighton, Cheltenham, Canterbury, Norfolk & Norwich, and Presteigne, among others. Butler was the Brighton Philharmonic Orchestra's first ever ‘Composer in Focus’. During this period, the orchestra performed several large-scale works, and his time as composer culminated in two performances of an important new composition for the orchestra, From the Fairground of Dreams, in January and March 2008 at the Brighton Dome Concert Hall, conducted by Barry Wordsworth. In October 2008, Butler's work for solo horn, Hunding, was the first music to be heard during the opening weekend of the new Kings Place concert hall in London. In 2009, his Concerto for Soprano Saxophone and Strings premiered, performed by Amy Dickson at the Presteigne Festival of Music and the Arts.