Brief Bio:

Award-winning trombonist, composer, and educator Brian Martin is based both in the music scene of his home state of Iowa as well as the Greater Boston area where he currently resides. As a performer, Martin has performed alongside international and national touring artists in addition to leading his own groups. His most ambitious project is his Brian Martin Big Band, an 18-person ensemble dedicated to performing his original music, which is composed of musicians from New England and the Midwest.

As a writer, his compositions and arrangements have received accolades from the Jazz Educators Network and DownBeat Magazine. He has been commissioned to write new music for groups ranging in experience and ensemble from elementary concert bands, to collegiate jazz ensembles, to high school show choirs. As an educator, Martin has worked with students ranging from elementary to the university level. His students have received various awards and honors, ranging from acceptance into auditioned ensembles at the All-State and District levels to receiving DownBeat Magazine awards of their own.

Full Bio:

Trombonist, composer, and music educator Brian Martin is a graduate of the University of Northern Iowa and the University of Massachusetts Amherst, holding a bachelor's degree in Music Education - Jazz Studies and a master's degree in Jazz Composition and Arranging. He remains active in both Iowa and New England as a performer, writer, and teacher. He is currently on the music staff of Derby Academy, both as a classroom teacher and as a private lesson instructor.

Martin takes great pride in his versatility as a trombonist. He is equally at home in the symphony hall as he is on stage at the local dive. While at UMASS, Martin was the lead/principal trombonist in Jazz Ensemble I, the Symphony Orchestra, and the Wind Ensemble. His own groups regularly perform around both New England and Iowa. He is a freelance musician in the Boston area, having performed with local acts such as the Makanda Project, the BT/ALC Big Band, Kurbside, as well as with national touring artists such as Gunhild Carling. Additionally, he has appeared in many pit orchestras in the region for both schools and community theater groups.

In addition to performing, Martin is a prolific composer of music in the classical and jazz realms.  His current primary focus is writing for his Brian Martin Big Band, an elite ensemble comprised of many of the top jazz musicians from Iowa and New England that is dedicated to performing his original compositions and arrangements.  The US Army Jazz Ambassadors performed his original composition “Lookin’ Forward” during the Young Composers Showcase at the 2019 Jazz Education Network Conference in Reno, NV. His orchestral rendition of George Gershwin’s “I Got Rhythm” was the recipient of an Outstanding Arrangement Student Music Award from DownBeat Magazine in 2020. Eight of his compositions and arrangements have been recorded on five of UNI Jazz Band One's annual CDs.  He has been commissioned to write music for ensembles ranging in ability and style from elementary concert band to collegiate jazz ensemble to high school show choir.

Martin is available as a tutor for trombonists and composers in the Massachusetts South Shore area.   His students have been members of ensembles at the All-State and All-District levels. From 2022-2024, his students were the recipients of thirteen DownBeat Magazine Student Music Awards in soloist and ensemble categories. Outside of private instruction, he has presented masterclasses on trombone performance, improvisation, and jazz pedagogy to middle school, high school, and collegiate students. In 2014, Martin organized the Transcription Education Project, recording several of the Des Moines area's top jazz musicians improvising material that is accessible to young students.  During his tenure as a public school Band Director, his students received many awards and honors, most notably representing his district's Band program in the Iowa All-State Music Festival in 2016, the first time a Band student in that district had been accepted to the Festival since 1990.