Autumn Concert November 2025
Mike Hardy - Trumpet
Mike Hardy began playing the trumpet at the age of 7, having already begun playing the piano and recorder aged 6 at Lowerplace Primary School in his home town of Rochdale. Showing a considerable flair for the trumpet, he went on to the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester at the age of 13 to continue his musical studies. Aged 15, he was awarded Outstanding Performer under 16 and at aged 16, he won the award for Outstanding Performer under 21 at his local music festival in Rochdale.
Mike went on to Cambridge University where, in amongst his studies for his engineering degree and subsequent PhD in engineering, he played with the Cambridge Symphony Orchestra and Cambridge Light Orchestra along with the Cambridge Musical Society and was lead trumpet in the Cambridge Big Band and Brass Quintet.
Mike’s first solo performance came at the age of 15 where he performed the Haydn Trumpet Concerto with the Rochdale Youth Orchestra and he has subsequently performed trumpet across Scotland from Aberdeen, Pitlochry, Glasgow and Edinburgh and into the Borders. He has previously performed concerts with the Scottish Sinfonia, Peebles Orchestra and The Cambridge University Music Society, where he first performed the Arutiunian Trumpet Concert, as a soloist.
Moving to the Scottish Borders, Mike went on to lecture in Engineering at Edinburgh University and became very engaged with music in the area. He is currently the Musical Director of Berwick Male Voice Choir, Berwick Musical & Theatre Society and Kelso Amateur Operatic Society, and has composed and arranged music for the Edinburgh Light Orchestra as well as his own Big Band and Brass Quintet in Edinburgh. His musical, Jim Clark: The Musical, with book by Alex Watson has been produced twice in Duns.
Mike is currently the Director of Music at Longridge Towers School where he also teaches A Level physics and maths. He lives in Allanton with his wife and five children.
