Mark Nemoyten has been a professional musician active in the bay area music scene for over thirty years. He has been the Solo Cornet/Trumpet with the Golden Gate Park Band since 1996. He performs often with the Marin based Echo Chamber Orchestra and has played in the annual Christmas Revels with the brass ensemble for over twenty years.
He held the position of second trumpet with the late Napa Valley Symphony for 23 years. He has also been principal trumpet with the West Marin Music Festival Orchestra, the North Bay Philharmonic, and the San Francisco Wind Orchestra and Second Trumpet with the Golden Gate Opera Orchestra. He was an invited performer with the San Francisco Wind Symphony during it’s first two concerts.

An active free lancer, Mark has performed with many Bay Area orchestras, including the San Francisco Opera, San Francisco Ballet, the Western Opera Theater Orchestra, Oakland Opera, Marin Opera, Festival Opera, the Golden Gate Opera, and the California, Monterey, Santa Rosa, Sacramento, Berkeley, Modesto, Stockton, Vallejo, and Marin Symphonies. From 2010 to 2012 he performed as an extra with the Russian National Orchestra at the Festival del Sole in Napa. He has worked with many local and internationally known conductors, including Kent Nagano, Robert Shaw, Heinrich Hollreiser, Stéphane Denève, JoAnn Faletta, Jeffrey Kahane, Dennis de Coteau, Asher Raboy, Sandor Salgo, David Ramadanoff, Bruno Ferrandis, and Thomas Conlin.

He has been a featured soloist with the Contra Costa Chamber Orchestra, the Golden Gate Park Band, The Echo Chamber Orchestra, the West Marin Music Festival, The North Bay Philharmonic, North Bay Wind Ensemble the S.F. Concerto Orchestra, and the Quincy Illinois Park Band. He has performed solo recitals throughout the Bay Area, and has performed works ranging from baroque classical masterpieces of Purcell, Telemann, Bach, Haydn and Hummel, Nineteenth century style cornet solos of Arban and Herbert L. Clark,  to twentieth century works by Arutunian, Copland, Bernstein, Kaminsky, Starer, Tomasi and Hindemith.

An avid chamber music performer, Mark has worked with many brass groups, including Bay Area Rapid Brass, Victorian Brass, Brass West, and Buzz.  He has an extensive library of brass chamber music.

He also performs with show orchestras, jazz and pop groups. Mark was the lead trumpet for the City Swing Big Band for three years and has held the lead trumpet spot with the Peter Mintun Orchestra during Bay Area engagements since 1999. He plays regularly with the Starduster Orchestra (a 17 piece Big Band), The Overcommitments, a super funky party band, The Mad Maggies, a band that plays an eclectic mix of genres, and occasionally with Jeff Sanford’s Cartoon Jazz Orchestra

He has backed many famous pop and jazz musicians, including Doc Severinsen, Mel Torme, Burt Bacharach, Sergio Mendez, The Temptations, Neil Sedaka, Johnny Mathis, Dave Brubeck, Chris Botti, Pink Martini, Simone, Andrea Markovichi, Wesla Whitfield and John Tesh. He has played many shows, including Kismet, Sweeny Todd, A Little Night Music, Peter Pan, Oliver, Evita, Anything Goes, Miss Saigon, Gypsy, Hello Dolly, Mame, How to Succeed in Business…, Oklahoma, The Music Man, Carousel, West Side Story, Singing in the Rain, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Fiddler on the Roof and Guys and Dolls, The Lazy Chaperone, Saturday Night at Grossinger’s, The Adams Family, Newsies, and more. During his days at San Francisco State he was the substitute trumpet player and bartender for Beach Blanket Babylon. Mark has also performed in recording sessions for various independent artists, video games, and films. 

Mr. Nemoyten started playing trumpet at the age of nine. His first teacher was his father Bill Nemoyten,  who was also a music teacher and professional musician. At age 11 he took lessons from Frank Bradshaw, then principal trumpet in the Akron Symphony in Ohio. In High School his principal teacher and mentor was Charles Winking, of Quincy College in Illinois. After studies at Quincy College with Jeffrey Piper he went on to earn both a Bachelor of Music degree in trumpet performance and a California Teaching Credential in music from San Francisco State University where his trumpet teacher was the legendary Joseph Alessi Sr. Other teachers include John Coppola, Laurie McGaw (San Francisco Symphony, retired), and James Miller (formerly SF Opera).

He has participated in Master Classes of the New York Brass Quintet, Empire Brass, Phillip Jones Brass, Gerard Schwartz, Armando Ghittala, and Edward Tarr. In addition he has had coaching from Mario Guarneri, David Burkhart, Glen Fischtal (S.F. Symphony) and Tim Wilson (S.F. Opera). He is a member of the American Federation of Musicians Local 6 and The California Music Educators Association. He has contributed many reviews for publication in the Journal of the International Trumpet Guild.

Mark performs on the following instruments:
B flat trumpets: Mt Vernon Bach Stradivarius ML (1957) & Cannonball Lynx

C trumpets: Bach Stradivarius Large Bore reverse lead pipe, 239 standard or 229 “Chicago” tune-able bell customized by Dick Akright

Rotary Valve: Willenburg C

D trumpet: Yamaha YTR-761E flat trumpet: Schilke EL4

Piccolo trumpet : Schilke P5-4 with Najoom “A”  leadpipe

Cornets: Getzen Eterna Bb  & Frank Holton New Proportion Bb/A (1914)

Flugelhorn: Cousnon Monople Star

Baroque trumpet: Christian Bosc C/D

Mouthpieces: Warburton   3md or 3mdv with 8* or 9* back bore for most classical playing. For pop/ jazz I generally use a 3m cup with a 6 backbore,  and a 3s or 3vs for higher lead playing with a KT or 4* backbore. Baroque trumpet mouthpieces by Christian Bosc

In addition to trumpet Mark has performed on the Baritone horn, natural trumpet, Alpenhorn, Conch Shell, kelp horn, bugle, hosaphone and several other unconventional brass instruments. He also teaches and plays some French horn, trombone, and tuba. He is currently preparing his own version of the Horn Man show where he will demonstrate and perform on over 15 brass instruments in a 30 to 60 minute program.

Mark started the position of Conductor and Music Director for the Corte Madera Town Band, a community band based in Marin County, in the Fall of 2017. He made his conducting debut with the Golden Gate Park Band in June 2022.

Mark lives in Novato California with Ellen, an artist and writer and his wife and partner for the last 41 years. He has two grown children, Sarah, a teacher, and Aaron who works as a game developer. When he is not teaching, performing, working on audio projects or participating in Musicians Union activities he spends time with his family, reading, traveling, hiking, watching the occasional movie and surfing aimlessly on the internet.