Described as “…simply divine” by the Sunday Telegraph, Alison Balsom OBE has dedicated her career to broadening the artistic horizons of the trumpet. Balsom has performed with many of the worlds leading orchestras including the London Philharmonic, New York Philharmonic, London Symphony, SWR Stuttgart, Munich Philharmonic, Swedish Radio Symphony, Australian Chamber Orchestra, Philadelphia Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Philharmonia (London) all of the BBC Orchestras, the English Concert, Academy of St Martin in the Fields, Academy of Ancient Music, Orchestra de Paris, Orchestra Swiss Romande and Wiener Symphoniker amongst others. Conductors she has collaborated with include Sir Antonio Pappano, Sir Stephen Cleobury, Edward Gardner, Tianyi Lu, Sir Roger Norrington, Pierre Boulez, Lorin Maazel, Claudio Abbado, David Roberts, Elim Chan, Santtu-Matias Rouvali, Cristian Macelaru and Trevor Pinnock. She also leads the Balsom Ensemble, a handpicked group of some of the world’s most foremost musicians, as well as regularly recording with the choir of King's College, Cambridge.
Alison has recorded exclusively with EMI / Warner Classics since 2001, and is a three-time recipient of Germany’s Echo Klassik Award, Gramophone Artist of the Year, and three Classic BRIT awards (two of which as Female Artist of the Year), and has received a Nordoff Robbins O2 Silver Clef Award. During her time as Artistic Director of Cheltenham Music Festival, Alison brought the LSO, CBSO, the AAM, and commissioned twenty new works from leading composers to celebrate the Festival’s 75th anniversary, whilst also founding the contemporary music symposium — Composium. Constantly exploring the boundaries of her instrument, she has had numerous concertos written for her including World Premieres of Thea Musgrave’s Trumpet Concerto, Qigang-Chen’s Joie Eternelle and Guy Barker’s Lanterne of Light at the BBC Proms.
After her successful tenure as Artist in Resident at the Barbican in London in 2019, Balsom returned to the Barbican, the Bristol Beacon, the Köln Philharmonie, and the Hamburg Elbphilharmonie, to perform with the London Symphony Orchestra and Sir Antonio Pappano, for the UK and German Premieres of Wynton Marsalis’ eagerly anticipated Trumpet Concerto. Having first performed the work this year a number of times with the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra and Christian Macelaru for the Swedish Premiere, she performed it again with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra under the baton of Elim Chan at the 2024 Edinburgh International Festival.
Balsom has commissioned much music, and had hundreds of works written for her, including by composers such as Betsy Jolas, Dobrinka Tabakova, James MacMillan, and Thea Musgrave.
Regular collaborative partnerships include harpsichordist and director Trevor Pinnock, organist Anna Lapwood and pianist Tom Poster - with whom she released a highly successful duo recording featuring corner stones of the trumpet and piano repertory. To add to her rich discography on the EMI/Warner Classics labels, Balsom’s next album (her sixteenth with the label) will be the hotly anticipated Baroque Concertos album with Trevor Pinnock and a hand picked group of Europe's top baroque specialists. Recorded in early 2024 for imminent release, this recording of baroque concertos will be the sequel to EMI's highest selling classical album of 2010 - Balsom’s Italian Concertos.
Alison Balsom was awarded an OBE for services to music in 2016 in Queen Elizabeth’s 90th Birthday Honours. She was educated at state school in the UK.
“She is an astonishing virtuosa”
“Balsom is simply divine”
“Above it all soars that music, played with exquisite eloquence”