Oren Marshall

Biography

Oren Marshall began his musical career as a Tuba player playing with Dixieland bands in South London pubs and has since worked with a diverse array of musicians and ensembles such as rock band Radiohead, Charlie Haden’s Liberation Orchestra, poet Moondog, Brazilian Maestro Hermeto Pascoal, the Pan-African Orchestra from Ghana, Nigerian Juju Master King Sunny Ade and in duo with award winning vocalist, Bobby McFerrin.

He has worked with every major orchestra in London and by the age of 21 had been offered the Principal Tuba position in the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra and the London Symphony Orchestra. He turned down both jobs in order to pursue a more risky but varied career.

He has recorded 3 albums of his own compositions, 2 with the Charming Transport Band and 1 entirely solo with electronics entitled “Introduction to the Story of Spedy Spoda: In a Silent Room”. Oren toured this work extensively in the UK, Holland, Italy and Germany.

As a member of London Brass, whom he joined in 1987 after the passing of his Mentor John Fletcher, he has toured the World and performed privately for the Queen of England, Prince Charles, the Pope, the German Chancellor and the Chinese Premiere.

Oren has also played on many movie soundtracks including Captain Corelli’s Mandolin, the Hobbit, Kung Fu Panda, Spiderman, Men In Black, Hellboy, Dark Knight Rises, Infinity War and Mission Impossible Fallout.

He was Tuba professor at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance for 17 years, 7 years of which he was also Head of Brass. He is now visiting professor at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire and the Royal Academy of Music in London.

Early in 2018 he formed Oren Marshall’s Jazz for Toddlers, introducing families with babies and toddlers to unusual instruments like the Atenteben and Fujara Flutes, Berimbau and the Orenophone (his own re-imagined, reconfigured Tuba). Together, Oren and the families sing songs, old and new and also spontaneously create music together.

Thanks to the various lockdowns in the last year, Oren wrote and recorded many songs to boost morale in his local community and keep young children connected to live music. He now has a network of almost 400 local families who regularly attend his music sessions in a park near his house in South London where he lives with his two children and two dogs.

Biography

Oren Marshall began his career as a Tuba player in 1981 playing with Trad Jazz bands in South London pubs and has since worked with an extraordinarily diverse array of musicians and ensembles such as rock band, Radiohead, experimental composer and poet, Moondog, Brazilian maverick multi-instrumentalist, Hermeto Pascoal, the Pan-African Orchestra from Ghana and in duo with multi-award winning vocalist, Bobby McFerrin.

As an orchestral musician he has worked with every major orchestra in London and was offered jobs with the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra at the age of 20 and the London Symphony Orchestra at the age of 21. He turned down both jobs to pursue a more risky but varied career. As a member of London Brass, whom he joined in 1987 (after the passing of his mentor, John Fletcher) he has toured the World many times, made numerous recordings and performed privately for the Queen of England, Prince Charles, the Pope, the German Chancellor and the Chinese Premiere. He is in very high demand as a teacher and has given brass Masterclasses and music appreciation classes to people of all ages from toddlers to octogenarians in 37 countries on 6 continents. As a session musician he has played on hundreds of movie soundtracks including Captain Corelli’s Mandolin, the Hobbit, Kung Fu Panda, Spiderman, Hellboy, Infinity War and Mission Impossible. He has taught at every major Music Conservatoire in the UK and for 6 years was Head of Brass Studies at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance.

He is the inventor of the Orenophone, which is a re-imagined, re-configured Tuba. He has also composed and arranged an array of solo works for this unusual brass beast. Oren lives in London with his two children and two dogs.