Born in the Netherlands he began his studies at the Utrecht conservatory,and then he continued his operastudies at the university of music in Vienna and at the Amsterdam operastudio. He was a member of the soloistensembles of Opera Zuid (Maastricht) and Theather Aachen where he was heard as Papageno (Die Zauberflӧte-Mozart),Figaro (Le Nozze di Figaro-Mozart), Popolani (Barbe Bleue-Offenbach), Sagrestano (Tosca-Puccini) , Zio Bonzo (Madama Butterfly), Escamillo (Carmen-Bizet), De Bretigny (Manon-Massenet), D’Obigny (La Traviata-Verdi) and Falke (Die Fledermaus-Strauss). He is currently adding more dramatic roles to his repertory like Tonio (I Pagliacci-Leonvavallo), Alfio (Cavalleria Rusticana-Mascagni) and Amonasro (Aida-Verdi).

After winning a first prize at the Nico Dostal singingcompetition(Austria) he made his debut as Papageno during the Vienna Mozart week in the baroque theater Schӧnbrunn and as Dandini in Rossini’s La Cenerentola at the Rheinsberg festival.
Subsequently he sang roles like Don Giovanni (Don Giovanni-Mozart),Guglielmo (Cosi fan tutte-Mozart),Pimpinone (Pimpinone-Telemann),Uberto (La serva padrone- Pergolesi), Action (West Side Story-Bernstein),Maitre Jean (La Colombe-Gounod), Basilowitsch (Der Graf von Luxemburg-Lehar) ,Senator(Die Gezeichneten-Schreker),Demetrius (Midsummernightsdream-Britten),Patrocles (King Priam-Tippett) and Sacha (Moskva Cheryomushki) . Wich he interpreted at the Vienna Chamberopera,Stadttheater Baden, The Nationale Reisopera Enschede, De Nederlandse Opera Amsterdam and various international festivals. He also established himself as a concertsinger and sings at several of the most important concerthalls in Europe and Japan. He is especially a regular guest in the Royal concertgebouw Amsterdam( among others in the famous Saturday matinee concerts) in works like Hӓndel’s Messiah, Dvorak’s Stabat Mater and Requiem, Brahms’Requiem and Mahler’s Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen.
With the Brabant orchestra under Michael Tabachnik he sang Joseph in Berlioz’L’enfance du Christ and with the Netherlands Radio philharmonic orchestra under Edo de Waart he was heard as L’ami in Debussy’s La chute de la maison Usher. With that same orchestra this time under the direction of Alexander Liebreich he performed the Don Quichottesongs by Ravel and Ibert.
He furthermore sang with the Royal Concertgebouw orchestra, Flanders symphonic orchestra, the Netherlands chamber orchestra and worked with conductors like John Nelson, Jun Mӓrkl, Matthias Bahmert, Lawrence Renes, Jaap van Zweden, Frans Brüggen, Ingo Metzmacher, Tan Dun, Peter Dijkstra and Etienne Siebens

He made his debut with the Bavarian Radio in the Munich philharmonic Hall as Vitellius in Massenet’s Herodiade (With Agnes Baltsa and Vladimir Chernov) and returned there later as Johann in Massenet’s Werther, conducted by Marco Armiliato. In the same year he sang in The Belgrade Musicfestival the role of Jovan in a succesfull production of Isidora Zebeljan’s opera Zora D. More recent Operaengagements are Figaro (Tokyo), Junius in Britten’s The Rape of Lucretia (Bankok and Hanoi operahouse) , Escamillo at the Klosterneuburg Operafestival and Figaro with the Orchestra of the Eighteeth Century under the direction of Kenneth Montgomery. In november 2011 Martijn Sanders was given the honour of singing the Baritonesolo in Rachmaninovs’”The Bells” at the “Prince Claus”concert in the presence of Her Majesty queen Beatrix of the Netherlands and in january 2016 he sang succesfully his first Nabucco in a serie of concerts with the New Philharmonic Orchestra in several concerthalls in the Netherlands. Future productions include Claudius ( Hamlet-A.Thomas) for Opera2day , Fra Melitone (La Forza del destino)in Aachen, Die Gezeichneten (F.Schreker) and A Village Romeo and Juliet (F.Delius) in the Amsterdam concertgebouw under Markus Stenz and Sir Mark Elder a series of Orff’s Carmina Burana with the Neue Philharmonie Westfalen under Heiko Fӧrster and The Carnaval Brabant concerts with the Philharmonie Zuid Nederland under Per Otto Johansson. “Martijn Sanders pours out golden tone, sounding like the young Hvorostovsky”- Operanews.