Mike Park

Mike Park plays a trumpet solo. Mike played a chorus of "Satin Doll" at the 2001 Jazz Festival.
Mike Park plays a trumpet solo. Mike played a chorus of "All of Me" at the 2002 Jazz Festival.

Mike played trumpet solos on "Satin Doll" and "All of Me" with the Roseville Big Band at the Roosevelt Middle School Jazz Festivals, March 23, 2001, and March 22, 2002. He also conducted the stage band from Jackson Middle School, where he has taught since 1993.

Mike has also directed some Roseville Big Band rehearsals and played in one of the 1999 recording sessions at Roseville Area High School.

After graduating from Hamline University in 1986, Mike taught fifth through eighth grade band students at St. Charles Borromeo in St. Anthony before joining the music faculty at Jackson.

At Jackson, besides rehearsing the jazz band once a week, Mike directs two eighth grade bands and teaches six sections of instrumental classes for sixth graders who are beginning to play band instruments. In addition to performing in the Anoka-Hennepin District 11 Jazz Festival, Mike takes the Jackson Middle School Jazz Band to the Hamline University Jazz Festival.

He also gives private lessons.

Mike leads the brass ensembles that perform for the Hamline University matriculation in the fall and commencement in the spring, a continuing musical involvement that began in 1982 when he first played for a Hamline graduation.

He also plays trumpet in Hi-Fly, a seven-piece group that performs for wedding receptions and other occasions. Visitors to the Hamline graduation have heard Mike playing after the ceremony with a jazz combo that includes other Hi-Fly members, including Roseville Big Band guitarist Bill Mask.

From 1986 through 1991, Mike played in Continuous, a brass quartet.

After graduation Mike continued his involvement with jazz at Hamline, playing in Paul Pizner's Just Friends big band for several years. In addition, during Paul's leave of absence from Hamline in 1988-1989, Mike directed the Hamline Jazz Ensemble.

Mike was also a charter member of the Twin Cities Jazz Orchestra (TCJO), formed in November, 1994. Those who heard the TCJO at O'Gara's and other venues from 1994 through 1998 will remember Mike's tasteful trumpet improvisations ranging from lyrical blues choruses to his scintillating trumpet duet with Kurt Christensen on "Fox Hunt". You can hear him on three of the tracks (recorded in January, 1997) of the TCJO's CD, "Temporary Insanity".

This page was last updated
Friday, February 07, 2020.


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