Page 20 - Alison Balsom Quiet City FULL BOOK

Balsom has a refreshing presence that has revived classical music over the past two decades,

since she was a finalist in the BBC’s Young Musician of the Year competition in 1998. We meet

at the Wigmore Hall. Balsom orders tea and is excited to talk about her new five-album deal

with Warner Classics.

Quiet City is a collection of tracks that reflect a particular time in American music. It showcases

works by composers from the late 1930s onwards such as Aaron Copland, who wrote the title

track, Miles Davis and George Gershwin. Balsom likes that they were political. “They were

looking out to the rest of the world, drinking in the influence of different societies. Things are

becoming more siloed and polarised and the diversity of sound and influence in this music feels
like a precious thing.”

In the context of what is happening in Ukraine, she has been thinking even more about how

“music is a universal language” and musicians can act like “artistic diplomats”. “Musicians

almost take for granted that we have such a precious commodity — that music is a universal
language. It’s the language that takes over when words have run out.”