Page 84 - Alison Balsom Quiet City FULL BOOK

15 September 2022

Alison Balsom interview: sketches of America

Martin Cullingford

Alison Balsom’s new album explores music from an era when jazz
and classical met and mingled. Martin Cullingford talks to the

trumpeter about her fascinating personal project

Alison Balsom (photo: Simon Fowler)

Alison Balsom (across a prolific recording career featuring 15 albums and counting)
has long led listeners where the trumpet traditionally treads (Purcell, Haydn, Hummel
and so on) as well as into musical modernity courtesy of new works. Acclaim has

followed, along with a profile she’s used well to champion both the trumpet and
classical music in general. But to mark her 20th anniversary in the studio, an

anniversary sealed with a further five-year deal with her label Warner Classics,
Balsom has turned – or rather returned – to a piece with which she first found