Alan Matheson

Alan Matheson is a Canadian trumpeter, pianist, composer and arranger. He studied with Vincent Cichowicz at Northwestern University (Evanston, Illinois) and graduated with a degree in performance. Alan currently teaches trumpet and jazz piano at the University of British Columbia and teaches in the jazz studies programs at Vancouver Community College and Capilano College in North Vancouver. He is the leader of his own big band, nonet and septet and has played with a wide variety of local groups including the Vancouver Opera Orchestra and the CBC Vancouver Orchestra.

Alan has also directed the CBC Jazz Orchestra in broadcast tributes to Duke Ellington and Paul Whiteman. As musical director of the Festival Vancouver Big Band, Alan has conducted for Clark Terry, Phil Woods and Bud Shank. He has also performed with Mel Torme, Cleo Laine, Louis Bellson and Doc Cheatham. Alan has played at the Vancouver, Montreal and Paris jazz festivals and toured Sweden and Finland with Goran Larsen's "Helsinki City Jazz Orchestra". His compositions and arrangements have been played by Bud Shank, Clark Terry, percussionist Salvador Ferreras and french-hornist Martin Hackleman and, most recently, by the Houston Brass Sextet. Alan's main musical influences are Duke Ellington, Billy Strayhorn, Bix Beiderbecke, Clark Terry and Woody Shaw.