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Marine Band Members
Solo Cornet
Master Gunnery Sgt. Matthew Harding

Cornetist Master Gunnery Sergeant Matthew Harding of North Dartmouth, Mass., joined “The President’s Own” United States Marine Band in September 1998. He was appointed solo cornet in January 2000.

Master Gunnery Sgt. Harding began his musical instruction at age 9. A 1992 graduate of Dartmouth High School, he earned his bachelor’s degree in music from the Eastman School of Music of the University of Rochester in New York in 1996, and has completed one year of master’s-level study at Rice University in Houston. He has studied with John Martin of Boston, Charles Geyer of Eastman, and the late Armando Ghitalla.

Prior to joining “The President’s Own,” Master Gunnery Sgt. Harding spent a year with the New World Symphony in Miami; toured Japan with the Eastman Wind Ensemble; and performed at the Aspen Music Festival in Colorado, Chautauqua Music Center in New York, and Walt Disney World in Orlando, Fla. He also was a fellow at the Tanglewood Music Center in Lenox, Mass.

Master Gunnery Sgt. Harding performs with the Marine Band and Marine Chamber Orchestra at the White House, in the Washington, D.C., area, and across the country during the band’s annual concert tour. In 2002 he was a featured tour soloist on Carl Höhne’s Slavonic Fantasy and on the 2009 tour he performed the Allegro con brio from James Stephenson’s Trumpet Concerto.