BIOGRAPHY

Riley Helgeson is a freelance trumpet player and composer based in Minneapolis/Saint Paul, MN.

Helgeson has toured North America and Europe with Sonny Knight and the Lakers, Friendly Fires (UK), and his own project, McNasty Brass Band. He has also performed on ABC’s “Shark Tank,” with Minneapolis-based McNasty Brass Band. His performances have been broadcast on MPR, The Current, and "The Lowertown Line" at Twin Cities PBS.

He has had the honor to perform with O.A.R., PJ Morton, Marie Osmond, Stokely, Fred Wesley(James Brown, Parliament-Funkadelic) and John “Jabo” Starks(Bobby Bland, James Brown).

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Other notable performances include shows at the Ordway Center for Performing Arts (MN), Fitzgerald Theater (MN), the Armory (MN), First Avenue (MN), the Fonda Theater (Los Angeles), The Fillmore (San Francisco), Monterey Jazz Festival (CA), Rochester Jazz Festival (NY), Saratoga Springs Jazz Festival (NY), Twin Cities Jazz Festival (MN), Winnipeg Jazz Festival (MB), and Pori Jazz Festival (Finland).

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Riley serves as the Jazz Program Director for the Shell Lake Arts Center (WI), the oldest jazz camp in the world. He also maintains a private trumpet studio in the Twin Cities, and is trumpet faculty at Century College.

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Riley Helgeson is an XO Brass artist.