Alison Balsom

Trumpet player, arranger, producer, and music educator Alison Balsom, OBE was born in Hitchin, Hertfordshire, England on October 7, 1978. Since childhood, she had a passion for the trumpet and took her first lessons at the age of 7. She played in a local brass band, the Royston Town Band, before joining the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain at the age of 15. She then studied at the Guildhall School in London, the Royal Scottish Conservatory in Glasgow, and the Paris Conservatory. As well as being a fine trumpet player she has won an impressive array of industry awards in a career which started when she was a finalist in the BBC Young Musicians Competition in 1998. Alison Balsom has gone on to record 13 studio albums including Music for Trumpet and Organ with Quentin Thomas (2001), Bach: Works for Trumpet (2005), Caprice with the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra (2006), and Haydn - Hummel: Trumpet Concertos (2008). She has risen swiftly through the ranks in the world of classical music, earning herself an OBE in the process. She doesn't confine herself to classical music and occasionally makes forays into the world of jazz. During an appearance at Last Night of the Proms, she performed a jazz arrangement of a Gershwin composition. Her esteemed catalog also includes albums such as Sound the Trumpet - Royal Music of Purcell & Handel (2012), Italian Concertos (2010), Paris (2014), Jubilo: Bach, Corelli, Torelli, Fasch (2016), Legende - Works for Trumpet & Piano with Tom Poster (2017) and Quiet City (2022). As well as being a trumpet soloist she also classes herself as an arranger, producer, music educator, curator, and spokesperson for the importance of music education. An Officer of the Order of the British Empire since 2016, Alison Balsom was appointed artistic director of the Cheltenham Festival in 2019 but gave up this role to focus on her career. She is married to film director Sam Mendes.

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