Randy Armstrong Bio

Guitarist, Multi-Instrumentalist & World Fusion Music Pioneer

Hailed by the Boston Globe as a “sure-fingered guitarist virtuoso,” Randy Armstrong is the co-founder of Do’a World Music Ensemble, Unu Mondo & the Beyond Borders Octet. With a collection of over three hundred instruments from around the world, including acoustic guitars, electric guitars, synthesizer and nylon-string guitars, sitar, balafon, djembe, koto, charango, South African marimbas, mbira, and a wide variety of percussion and stringed instruments, he has amazed audiences throughout the United States, Canada, Alaska, India, West and South Africa, Croatia, Belize, Cuba, and Puerto Rico.

Randy traveled to Central America and West Africa in 2004, performing and studying with Garifuna musicians and drummers in Dangriga and Hopkins, Belize, and Ewe, Fanti, and Ga drummers in Accra and Legon, Ghana.

Recognized as one of the best guitarists, Randy has performed at Carnegie Recital Hall and festivals at Lincoln Center in New York City. In 1998, he 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. In May 2005, he attended a Curatorial Research trip on New Age Music and Son Jarocho music in Xalapa and Veracruz, Mexico, for the New England Foundation for the Arts. He was appointed as an Arts Councilor for the NH State Council on the Arts by NH Governor Craig Benson from 2003-2008 and reappointed by Governor John Lynch from 2008-2012.

In the summer of 2007, Randy toured internationally in Croatia, Slovenia, Italy, and South Africa and celebrated the digital and compact disc release of Armstrong & Aichele: World Tales Volume Two, a new music album.

Scoring & Touring

In 2009, guitarist Randy Armstrong composed, performed, and recorded original new music for the NH Theatre Project presentation of Hamlet by William Shakespeare. The music score was funded in part by a grant from Meet the Composer, Inc. and The New England Foundation for the Arts. In 2010, he composed an original score on recycled percussion for the Phillips Exeter Academy production of Macbeth and in 2014-2015, composed and performed the original scores for The Mahabharata and The Caucasian Chalk Circle.

He also toured Cuba in the summer of 2012 with the all-women’s choral group, Voices From The Heart, as an accompanist and soloist. In 2015, he toured with the chorus Con Tutti in Puerto Rico. In 2018, Armstrong performed a concert tour in South Africa with Voices From The Heart, where he commissioned a set of handmade South African marimbas shipped from Cape Town to the Port of New York. He subsequently formed the band Randy Armstrong & WorldBeat Marimba.

Do’a World Music Ensemble / Do’ah / Do’a – Randy Armstrong & Ken LaRoche

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 World Music Ensemble’s fifth music album, World Dance, released in 1988, reached the top 10 of several national charts, including #7 on Billboard.

Do’a World Music Ensemble toured extensively from 1974-1991 throughout the USA, Canada, and India, performing at prestigious venues such as The Great American Music Hall in San Francisco, The Bottomline in NYC, The Bear Mountain Festival of World Music and Dance, and Indira Gandhi Stadium in Delhi, India, for the 1986 United Nations International Year of Peace. Their five highly acclaimed music albums appeared on the Philo/Rounder and Global Pacific/CBS Associated record labels.

Solo Work

Randy Armstrong, recognized as one of the best guitarists, scored the music for a four-part PBS Primetime 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. The recording was called “Evocative and Timeless” by BarnesandNoble.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.

Contributions to Compilations

In 2005, Randy Armstrong 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. He has performed, recorded, and appeared on over 45 music albums and film scores.

Teaching Artist

Holding a degree in composition and world music studies, he has conducted workshops at hundreds of schools, universities, and cultural institutions throughout the United States.
From 1991-2020, he was on the music faculty as director of the African Drumming & World Percussion Ensemble and instructor of North Indian sitar and tabla at Phillips Exeter Academy. He also teaches for the Graduate Studies Integrated Arts Program at Plymouth State University. His educational performances and artist residency programs have enriched the lives of tens of thousands of students, educators, and adults.

Recent Releases

Randy proudly celebrates the release of the world album, Beyond Borders, co-produced with Volker Nahrmann. Five years in the making and featuring 35 musicians from around the world, it is a Global Voyage in Music. Beyond Borders was nominated for the 2015 ZMR Music Awards – Best World Album.

His original score and soundtrack for the theater and dance production The Conference of The Birds had its premiere performance in San Jose, CA, in September 2016, featuring 11 international dance traditions with 50 actors aged 4 to 84. In 2017, he composed and recorded the score for Soundwaves – The Passion of Noor Inayat Khan for the San Francisco Bay theater performance produced by EnActe Arts, Inc. In 2020, during the global pandemic, he was commissioned to compose and record the song Together Apart for the Phillips Exeter Academy virtual dance performance.

Additional Awards and Honors

He also performs with the award-winning storytelling, music, and movement duo Armstrong & Aichele: World Tales, which has received wide critical acclaim. With Do’a World Music Ensemble and as a solo acoustic guitarist and electric guitarist, 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 for the Arts.

He has shared the stage with legendary artists such as Dizzy Gillespie, King Sunny Ade, Fatoumata Diawara, the Paul Winter Consort, Babatunde Olatunji, Mose Allison, Pierre Bensusan, Michael Hedges, Eddie Palmieri, and Richie Havens.

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