Brian Paulding is a trombone player, international tour manager, music educator, and composer. He is the cofounder and trombone player for Kotoko Brass, an instrumental Ghanaian dance band described by the Boston Globe as “propulsive, infectious party music.” He has performed to sold out crowds in Turkey, Germany, Georgia and across the USA. In addition to a busy performance schedule, Brian is music faculty at Boston Arts Academy, teaching wind and brass instruments, ensembles, and music theory. He also is the Brass Instructor and Youth Latin Ensemble Director at Zumix, an award winning music and youth development organization in East Boston, MA.

In 2017, along with drummer Ben Paulding, Brian cofounded Kotoko Brass. Combining the brothers’ decades of varied musical experiences in performance, education, and ethnomusicology, the band melds the beautifully complex traditional drumming of Central Ghana, the sturdy bass and keyboards of the Caribbean, and the joyous horns of New Orleans. Outside of his work with Kotoko Brass, Brian is an active freelance trombone player.  He performs with Booty Vortex, Boston’s finest 70’s funk/disco band, as well as East Coast Soul, Massachusetts’ premier wedding band. 

When he is not performing, Brian is a passionate music educator and youth development worker. He is music faculty at Boston Arts Academy, and since 2012, he has been the Brass Instructor and Youth Latin Ensemble coach at Zumix, an East Boston nonprofit organization dedicated to building community through music and creative technology. Brian is a Massachusetts Cultural Council Music Educators and Teaching Artist (META) fellow, and, in 2016 taught masterclasses in reggae and funk improvisation at the University of Trinidad and Tobago. He holds an MA in Music Education from Longy School of Music, and a BA in Entrepreneurial Music Business/Management from Berklee College of Music.

He is the composer and multi-instrumentalist behind DORCAS MORTON, a solo project in which Brian composes, plays all instruments, engineers and mixes all recordings. With eleven self-released albums, his ambient soundscape compositions have been featured in NPR’s Invisibilia podcast and Boston’s Illuminus Festival.