Mark Armstrong

Trumpet player, arranger and educator

Born in Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, Mark studied Music at Oxford University and attended the postgraduate course in jazz and studio music at the Guildhall School of Music, gaining an LGSM in Jazz.

As well as leading his own groups he is a member of Clark Tracey’s Quintet, Gillespiana, Echoes of Ellington, the 9.20 Deluxe and the Bebop Repertory Ensemble. He has played with most of the big bands in London and further a field, from the Syd Lawrence Orchestra and the BBC Big Band to the London Jazz Orchestra and was a member of Mike Garrick’s big band for many years. As well as playing swing, bebop and contemporary jazz with the groups above, his musical interests range from early jazz styles, performing with the Cotton Club Orchestra, to Latin American, with groups such as Robin Jones’ Latin Jazz Sextet, King Salsa and Cubana Bop, and classical, as a recitalist with organist John Oxlade, and orchestrally with the RTE Concert Orchestra, London Sinfonietta and Ulster Orchestra.

Mark has won recent critical acclaim in the press with his performances. Reviewing the Gillespiana Big Band, the Times’ Alyn Shipton described his playing as “pirouetting through Gillespie’s breaks quicker than a hummingbird’s wings” and John Fordham of the Guardian described him as “the solo star of the outfit”. Sholto Byrnes writing for the Independent described him as “excellent” in a Queen Elizabeth Hall performance with the Mike Garrick Orchestra. Mark was nominated in the best trumpet category of the 2007 Ronnie Scott Jazz Awards.

As an educator, Mark teaches at a number of schools and colleges. He is also assistant musical director of the National Youth Jazz Orchestra (NYJO). In this capacity, and as a representative of John Packer’s Music Shop, he leads workshops around the UK with students of all ages and abilities. He is a main panel examiner and jazz trainer and examiner for the ABRSM and is currently involved in planning a new jazz grades 6-8 syllabus.

Mark is the winner of the BBC Big Band Competition arranging prize. Many of his big band compositions can be heard on recent NYJO albums, and he writes a wide range of arrangements and compositions from vocal to full orchestra, including arrangements for the RTE Concert Orchestra in Ireland and a recent transcription and arrangement of Wally Fields’ “Partisan” piano concerto. Recent projects include an educational playalong series for Schott.