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Alison Balsom has cemented an international reputation as one of classical music’s great ambassadors. She has been honoured with numerous awards by Classic FM, Gramophone and Echo Klassik and in 2009 she became the first ever Briton to be crowned “Female Artist of the Year” at the Classical BRITs. In September 2009 Alison headlined classical music’s most celebrated concert – The Last Night of the BBC Proms – which reached its biggest ever global television audience of an estimated 200 million.

While represented by the Young Concert Artists Trust, Alison caught the ear of EMI Classics with whom she records exclusively. Her internationally celebrated Bach Trumpet and Organ disc of 2005 was quickly followed by the Caprice album which won her further critical acclaim. Her third album, featuring the great pillars of the trumpet repertoire, the concertos of Haydn and Hummel, firmly established her as the world’s leading trumpeter. Alison’s latest release for EMI Classics includes her own arrangements of Italian Baroque Concertos, originally written for oboe and violin.

Under the auspices of BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artists scheme, Alison performed at the Wigmore Hall and with all of the BBC orchestras.

Recent and upcoming highlights include appearances with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Orchestre de Paris, San Francisco Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre National de France, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Toronto Symphony, Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia, BBC Philharmonic and the Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano Giuseppe Verdi. Alison also looks forward to embarking on major international tours with I Musici di Roma, the Scottish Ensemble and Alison’s own Balsom Ensemble in 10/11 and beyond.

Alison studied trumpet at the Guildhall School of Music, the Paris Conservatoire, and with Håkan Hardenberger. She was previously a member of the Gustav Mahler Jugendorchester and the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain. Alison was a concerto finalist in the BBC Young Musician competition in 1998 and received the Feeling Musique Prize for quality of sound in the 4th Maurice André International Trumpet Competition. She is Visiting Professor of Trumpet to the Guildhall School of Music. Alison performs a wide range of recital and concerto repertoire, from Albinoni to Zimmermann and performs on both modern and baroque trumpets.

 

ALISON BALSOM

SERAPH 

Internationaly Best-Selling and Award-Winning Trumpeter Releases New Recording of Modern Concertos 

EMI Classics- February 7^th, 2012 

 

“Her playing is breathtaking….Listening to it is nothing less than a life enhancing experience.” BBC Music Magazine

“Alison Balsom’s mixture of glamour, charisma and unaffected, genuine-spirited musicianship has won the public’s heart and in the process begun to transform the image of the trumpet itself.” The Independant

January 10, 2012 (New York, NY) – Trumpeter Alison Balsom’s new recording of modern and contemporary repertoire, Seraph (EMI Classics, out February 7, 2012) marks an important artistic stepping stone in her career. This labor of love features the world premiere recording of Seraph, James MacMillan’s trumpet concerto written for Alison, works by Takemitsu and Zimmermann and includes her long-awaited recording of the ever popular Arutunian Trumpet Concerto. Joining Alison in the concertos is the Scottish Ensemble.

James MacMillan’s Seraph (2010), a concertino for trumpet and strings in three short movements, was co-commissioned by the Scottish Ensemble and Perth Concert Hall. Seraph - the meaning of the word is ‘a celestial being or angel, usually and traditionally associated with trumpets’ – was premiered by its dedicatee at the Wigmore Hall in February 2011 and the premiere was recorded without patching. 

Alison says, “I’d met James Macmillan and worked with him before. He is one of my all-time favourite composers. He has such an original voice with so much beauty and so many layers and I just thought if there was any way he would ever write something else for the trumpet [he wrote an earlier trumpet concerto in another context]. I approached him with the Scottish Ensemble, and we were delighted when he agreed. He was a trumpet player at one stage in his life so he has a soft spot for the instrument. I think he also recognised that the trumpet has many sides to its character. His first concerto explores one particular side, the heroic and other techniques on the trumpet. Seraph is probably more in a singing style, although there is a lot of virtuosity in the piece. The second movement is very beautiful. The Scottish Ensemble and I have played the concerto three or four times now. It’s definitely going to be a staple in my repertoire and a valuable treasure for all trumpet players.” 

Reviewing the premiere, The (London) Times wrote, “Alison Balsom … Britain’s favourite trumpeter produced a sound so warm, so bold, that it seemed more than the hall could hold. This was not contemporary music at its most brutal….the second movement, an adagio, hooked us right from the murmur of tremulous strings, with trumpet and solo violin…duetting and musing in the sky above. Balsom’s awesome breath control made her long quiet notes succulently seductive. The finale, almost as memorable, opened gruffly with cellos and double basses, to be punched into bliss by Balsom’s trumpet striding along with military fanfares and trills packed inside. All told, a useful and portable concerto: short, mildly modern, crimson-bright.”

“MacMillan has dedicated [Seraph] to Balsom,” observed The Scotsman, “It already sounds as if she has full ownership of it. Opening with an almost breathtaking urgency, the piece offers Balsom some exciting trumpet gymnastics, and some sublime strings for us to lose ourselves in.” 

Toru Takemitsu’s Michi [Paths] for solo trumpet received its premiere in 1994 at the Warsaw Autumn Festival’s Hommage à Witold Lutoslawski. In this work, the composer makes extensive use of the Harmon mute (plunger removed) in the style of Miles Davis. It is a moving piece, climaxing with a fortissimo high C# on the C trumpet. “Michi is based around a journey through a Japanese garden and the various different lights and subtly different viewpoints about this Japanese formal garden,” Alison comments. “It’s a really interesting way to treat the trumpet, showing the subtleties of the instrument and colours. I have wanted to record it for a long time.”

Arutunian’s music is noted for its simple and attractive musical language, which incorporates features of Armenian folk music. His Trumpet Concerto (1950) remains a staple of the repertory worldwide. It was dedicated to Haykaz Mesiayan, who gave its premiere performance in Moscow‘s Tchaikovsky Hall with the conductor Karl Eliasberg leading the USSR State Orchestra. The outstanding Russian trumpet player Timofei Dokshizer wrote a virtuosic cadenza based on the work’s main thematic material. He also made the first recording of the work and he championed the concerto in the US. Alison Balsom describes the concerto as being “the trumpet concerto all trumpet players know and love. It is very romantic and lush, passionate with lots of great melodies.

Before the Zimmermann Trumpet Concerto, Alison plays her own solo arrangement of the spiritual Nobody knows de trouble I see, which Zimmermann incorporated in his Concerto in C. “I play it as simply as possible”, she says. “And I decided to accompany it with myself. So underneath, very, very quiet harmony, it’s trumpets using multi-tracking, where each line is layered. It sounds like lots of people but it’s actually all me.” Zimmermann occupies a special position in German music of the twentieth century, with his original musical language and techniques. For much of his career Zimmermann taught at the Cologne Musikhochschule. His music draws from his own wide cultural background and his roots in Catholic teaching and tradition. The use of musical quotations was also a hallmark of Zimmermann‘s musical voice.  

The Trumpet Concerto in C major (1954) is based on both a 12-note row and the black American spiritual Nobody knows de trouble I see. His incorporation of the spiritual as a key element is integral to the score‘s musical logic, and was also a political gesture intended as a protest against what the composer perceived as the racial hatred he saw poisoning society. Complete in one movement, the concerto adopts techniques reminiscent of the chorale prelude, with the spiritual theme serving as the chorale, as well as making extensive use of jazz media and techniques. The orchestration incorporates big band brass, an array of percussion and a Hammond organ. 

“I really wanted to include the Zimmerman concerto on this disc because it’s an incredibly important piece for the trumpet” Alison says, “it was very ahead of its time in the way it successfully blends jazz and humorous elements with dark elements, songlike elements and absurd, crazy elements. It’s a wonderful work, the sort of thing you can listen to for years and hear it in a different way each time. It’s a big work, it’s very physical.”

ALISON BALSOM

Alison Balsom aspired to be a trumpet soloist from the age of ten, when her parents took her to a Barbican Hall performance by the great Swedish trumpeter Håkan Hardenberger. She went on to study at the Guildhall School of Music, at the Paris Conservatoire and with Håkan Hardenberger himself. Through BBC Radio 3’s New Generation Artists scheme from 2004 to 2006, she appeared at the Wigmore Hall and with all the BBC Orchestras. 

Recently (2011) named ‘Female Artist of the Year’ for the second time at the Classic BRITs, Alison has achieved an international reputation as one of classical music’s great ambassadors and is ranked among today’s most distinctive and ground-breaking musicians. She has also been honoured with numerous awards by Classic FM, Gramophone and ECHO Klassik. In 2009, she performed at the Last Night of the BBC Proms, which attracted an estimated global television audience of 200 million and the following year she made her US television debut with the Orchestra of St. Luke’s on The Late Show with David Letterman.

Alison has appeared throughout Europe, the United States and Asia with leading orchestras, as a recitalist on both Baroque and modern trumpets and in chamber music with the Balsom Ensemble. She is currently Visiting Professor of Trumpet at the Guildhall School of Music.  

In 2011/2012 Balsom returns to China to perform with Lorin Maazel and the National Symphony Orchestra in the nationally televised New Year Gala event in Beijing.  She also performs with Toronto Symphony Orchestra, National Symphony Orchestra (Washington, D.C.), Wiener Symphoniker, Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia, and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. Looking further ahead, Balsom embarks on major international tours with I Musici di Roma, the Scottish Ensemble, Kremerata Baltica, Kammerorchesterbasel and Concerto Köln.  

Alison Balsom records exclusively for EMI Classics. Her internationally celebrated Bach Trumpet and Organ disc of 2005 was followed by the Caprice album which won her further critical acclaim. Her recording of the Haydn and Hummel’s Trumpet Concertos was named among the 24 best classical CDs of 2008 by The New York Times and her Italian Concertos CD about which Gramophone wrote, “The Baroque composers on this disc … would have been positively delighted with Balsom’s suave, characterful performances.” BBC Music Magazinesaid, “Listening to it is nothing less than a life-enhancing experience.”