Page 22 - Alison Balsom Quiet City FULL BOOK

Balsom started free trumpet lessons aged seven at her primary school in Hertfordshire. She is

distressed by the diminished role of music in the curriculum. “It’s one of the biggest crimes of

my generation. People need to understand that this is a whole ecosystem and it’s no good just

throwing money at one end of it. An enthusiasm for culture needs to be encouraged from

schoolchildren through to the profession.”

She fears that young people from low-income families will experience increasing cultural

poverty: “It will become a thing only for those whose parents can afford to put them in front of
lots of different opportunities to play and learn.” It’s a great loss, when music has the power to

“unlock potential” in children and in all of us. In the title track of Quiet City Balsom’s trumpet

represents the sound of a man’s conscience. It’s a sound you want to follow, to get a true sense

of who we really are.

Elizabeth Alker presents Saturday Breakfast, Northern Drift and Unclassified every week on

Radio 3. Quiet City album is out in August and Alison will perform at it on 11 April at the Royal

Albert Hall and on Classic FM live