Page 37 - Alison Balsom Quiet City FULL BOOK

Can you talk about your early years as a trumpeter? What inspired

you to become a soloist, and who were your role models?

I started in my school and local town band when I was seven. I played
the cornet and the trumpet at the same time. I had a wonderful

teacher at my school who made it really fun, and I loved to socialise

with all my friends, girls and boys, who were also playing trumpet in a

band, and I just carried on. I had a few seminal moments; I heard
Hardenberger when I was ten in London, and it really blew my mind

that one could play the trumpet like that in front of an orchestra with

music as beautiful as that. He was playing the Hummel Concerto. And
then I heard a recording of Dizzy Gillespie on cassette when I was a

young kid. I couldn’t believe a trumpet could sound like that! There

were one or two moments of real inspiration, and I was so lucky to
also have brilliant teachers. I studied at the junior department of

the Guildhall School of Music and Drama from thirteen and had John

Miller, one of the greatest teachers imaginable. Have you seen Karate