Randy Armstrong

Hailed by the Boston Globe as a "sure-fingered guitar virtuoso", Randy Armstrong is the co-founder of Do'a World Music Ensemble with Ken LaRoche and Unu Mondo with Volker Nahrmann. With a collection of over two hundred instruments from around the world, including acoustic, synthesizer and nylon-string guitars, sitar, balofon, djembe, koto, charango, tres, cavaquinho, Lakota courting flute, mbira and a wide variety of percussion and stringed instruments, he has amazed audiences throughout the United States, Canada, Alaska, Croatia, Cuba, West and South Africa, and India.

Randy traveled to Central America and West Africa performing and studying with Garifuna musicians and drummers in Dangriga and Hopkins, Belize and Ewe, Fanti and Ga drummers in Accra and Legon, Ghana. He has performed at Carnegie Recital Hall and festivals at Lincoln Center in New York City.

In 1998, Randy was selected as an artist representative to attend a Cultural Trade Mission to Ireland, Northern Ireland and England sponsored by Governor Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire and in May 2005 attended a Curatorial Research trip on Son Jarocho music in Xalapa and Veracruz, Mexico for the New England Foundation for the Arts. He was appointed by NH Governor Craig Benson as an arts councilor for the NH State Council on the Arts in 2003 and reappointed by Governor John Lynch in 2008.



In the summer of 2007, Randy toured internationally in Croatia, Slovenia, Italy and South Africa and celebrated the digital and compact disc release of the new Armstrong & Aichele: 'World Tales Volume Two', winner of several Parents Choice Awards. He created original scores for the 2009 New Hampshire Theatre Project production of William Shakespeare’s, 'Hamlet' funded by a grant from Meet the Composer, Inc. and the 2010 Phillips Exeter Academy production of 'Macbeth'. In 2012, Randy performed a concert tour in Cuba with Voices From The Heart and in August 2013, he will perform in Hyderabad, South India.

As a composer and performing artist with Do'a World Music Ensemble, his music has been acclaimed as "a marvelous kaleidoscope of shifting melodies, rhythms, and instrumental colors" by Downbeat magazine. CD review stated, "guitarist Randy Armstrong…has composed some of the brightest contemporary instrumentals this side of the hemisphere." Do'a’s fifth album, 'World Dance', released in 1988, reached the top 10 of several national charts including #7 in Bilboard.

Randy Armstrong scored the music for a four-part PBS series, 'Dinner on the Diner' produced by British filmmaker, Jon Guilbert. The series explores four famous train rides through Spain, Scotland, South Africa and Malaysia/Thailand with a double-CD released concurrently with its premiere by Ellipsis Arts nationally distributed by Ryko.

"Evocative...Timeless" -Barnes & Noble.com The programs aired on the PBS network in June 2000. In May 2003 his album, 'No Regrets' was released by DOMO Records and reached the top 10 of several radio airplay charts. In 2005, Randy joined forces with 16 artists from coast to coast on a compilation CD entitled the 'Tsunami Relief Project' released by Atta Girl Records with all profits aiding Tsunami survivors through the CARE Agency. Randy Armstrong has performed, recorded and appeared on over 30 albums and film scores.

Randy holds a degree in composition and world music studies and has conducted workshops at schools, universities and cultural institutions throughout the United States. He is an adjunct faculty instructor of West African drumming and North Indian sitar and tabla at Phillips Exeter Academy, Exeter NH and teaches for the Graduate Studies Integrated Arts Program at Plymouth State University.

He also performs with the award-winning storytelling, music and movement duo, Armstrong & Aichele: 'World Tales' that has been receiving wide critical acclaim. With Do'a World Music Ensemble and as a solo artist, he has been the recipient of numerous grants from the New Hampshire State Council on the Arts, the New England Foundation for the Arts, the state arts councils of Arkansas, Arizona and New York and the National Endowment of the Arts. He has shared the stage with such artists as Dizzy Gillespie, King Sunny Ade, the Paul Winter Consort, Babatunde Olatunji, David Amram, Pierre Bensusan, Michael Hedges, Eddie Palmieri and Richie Havens.

Randy Armstrong's Websites: randyarmstrong.com twitter