We are very pleased to announce trumpeter Alison Balsom as Artist in Residence for 2016/17 Cambridge Classical Concert Series. She will be delivering some inspirational music education workshops to students throughout the county, in partnership with Cambridge Live and Cambridgeshire Music.
Alison is a passionate advocate of the importance of music education. She studied trumpet at the Paris Conservatoire, and with Håkan Hardenberger. She also studied, and is now an honorary fellow at, the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. She regularly teaches masterclasses worldwide including at the
Julliard School, New York, and the Curtis Institute, Philadelphia. Balsom regularly gives talks and seminars including a TED talk at the TEDMED conference at the Royal Albert Hall, London in 2014, entitled ‘Music as a Healer’, and in 2015 a lecture at Somerville College, Oxford University, entitled ‘Women in the Arts’.
"I’m absolutely thrilled that I am to be artist in residence at this glorious venue next season. I have played in Cambridge almost from the first month I started to play the trumpet at the age of seven, and many of my most cherished musical memories and experiences are from the Corn Exchange and surrounding areas. I’m hugely looking forward to playing once again in this great acoustic with a variety of my favourite concert programmes, and with world class friends and collaborators." Alison Balsom
ALISON BALSOM: It was a fantastic experience, and the orchestra were not only immensely powerful but also subtle. It was just brilliant - they were incredibly welcoming and made it a real pleasure.
Thank you, and of course! Sam went to Cambridge University, and I grew up in Royston and attended school there, and in Cambridge, and have had some of my most memorable musical experiences at King's College chapel, Trinity College chapel, West Road Concert Hall and the Corn Exchange, and my family live close by, so we will of course be returning regularly for a variety of reasons.
Other projects to look forward to include returning to the world class City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra to perform Guy Barker’s Trumpet Concerto in May, I also have a continuing Wigmore Hall residency as well as my next concert at the Corn Exchange with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra on Saturday, June 17. As President of Deal Festival, I open their Festival in July with Haydn's Trumpet Concerto and then also get to do an education project with them which of course is very close to my heart.
After I perform at the Hollywood Bowl with the LA Phil in August I intend to take a season's sabbatical from touring. It feels like the perfect time to spend less time on the road, and more time at home making the recordings I've been planning for years, but not had the time to fully focus on.
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