About Alex Armbruster

Alex Armbruster was born and raised in Baltimore, Maryland, and is an alumnus of UMBC where they received a B.A. in Jazz Studies and a B.A. in Global Studies. At 24 years young, Alex has over 5 years of experience teaching music students of all ages. Though primarily a drummer/percussionist, Alex also works as a composer, arranger, and multi-instrumentalist, performing in a variety of ensembles. At UMBC, Alex spent four years as a leader in the Percussion Ensemble and four years as the drummer of the Jazz Big Band and Jazz Small Groups. In the popular music world, Alex is the drummer of indie/electronic group Life Puzzler, who headlined Baltimore's infamous Ratscape music festival in 2019. Alex has shared the stage with legendary acts such as Waxahatchee, Girlpool, Snail Mail, and JPEGMAFIA. In 2020, Alex founded Hi Tom Ensemble, an up-and-coming percussion quartet that has premieried compositions by Jeffrey Martin and Sean McFarland. In 2021, Alex was selected to receive UMBC's Undergraduate Research Award for their research on women jazz singers accompanied by transcriptions of Ella Fitzgerald scatting solos. Alex has studied percussion under Grant Menefee, Scott Tiemann, and Tom Goldstein; guitar under Mike Kirkpatrick, Jonathan Zwi, and Ray Forton; and composition under Linda Dusman, Daniel Pesca, and Matthew Belzer.