Chris Dowding is a trumpeter, composer and workshop leader currently based in Norwich.

He plays with the bands Natural Causes, Rude 2.0 (with the trombonist Annie Whitehead) and The Brass Monkeys, as well as leading the Moonrise Trio.

He has led workshops with Dartington, Spitalfields Music, and more recently with the Norwich-based charity Musical Keys on several different projects, including making graphic scores, improvising with apps, and writing songs about Norfolk.

He performed on flugelhorn for Opera North’s ‘Songs at a Years End’ production (about the end of the miners strike, composed by Hugh Nankivell, with words by poet Ian McMillan) and has performed around the UK, including at The Vortex Jazz Club, Manchester Jazz Festival and elsewhere.

Chris has been commissioned by Durham Brass Festival (a piece for solo brass instrument with looping app on mobile phone) and Norfolk and Norwich Festival (for the ‘Critical Time’ project with the octet holding hands). He recorded for the eclectic and topical brother and sister duo Diego Brown and the Good Fairy, which led to arranging for a four-piece horn section with Annie Whitehead, Steve Pretty (from Hackney Colliery Band) and Ben Higham (leader of The Brass Monkeys).

More recently, he has been part of the ‘Homecoming’ project with Norwich-based visual artist Laure Van Minden and VJ Michelle Brace (including performing at the EFG London Jazz Festival), and has started the micro-label CDMJ Records. He performs solo with the project ‘In My Experience’, which includes trumpet, looping, Ableton Live and circuit-bending.

(photograph by Sean Kelly)