Mark Inouye

Mark Inouye's Biography

Mark J. Inouye is one of a very select group of trumpeters equally at home in the worlds of jazz and classical music. Currently, he is the Principal Trumpet of the San Francisco Symphony and occupant of the William G. Irwin Charity Foundation Chair.

After attending the University of California at Davis for two years as a civil engineering major, Inouye transferred to the Juilliard School. He played with the New York Philharmonic and the Israel Philharmonic as a student. Later, he toured the United States with Toccatas and Flourishes, the nationally acclaimed organ and trumpet duo. He was a member of the New World Symphony and Principal Trumpet with the Charleston Symphony before joining the San Francisco Symphony in 1999. He also served as Principal Trumpet with the Houston Symphony from 2004-2006.

Inouye has twice been a soloist with the New World Symphony, appearing in the Haydn Trumpet Concerto and the Tomasi Trumpet Concerto. He performed the Tartini Violin Concerto, arranged for trumpet, with the Houston Symphony. He also appeared as a soloist in Wynton Marsalis’s video production Marsalis on Music under the direction of Seiji Ozawa. He has appeared as a soloist on the Disney Channel in a concert featuring the WHO at Carnegie Hall, and was a guest performer at the Hollywood Bowl in the Playboy Jazz Festival. Inouye has been a soloist with the San Francisco Symphony on numerous occasions performing Copland's Quiet City and Bach's Cantata No. 51.

Inouye is also an active composer. His work Tribute to Beaky, for trumpet, bass, guitar, and percussion, was performed on the SFS Chamber Music Series in April 2009. In May 2001, he joined an ensemble of orchestra colleagues in his Find the Cheese for jazz quartet; the concert was the first time that jazz had been performed on the SFS Chamber Music Series. In May of 2004, he performed The Bull Behind the Horns - A Jazz Suite, which is available on his debut jazz CD.

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Mark Inouye