Alison Balsom

Alison Balsom is the trumpeter I'd hand to anyone who thinks the instrument lives only in jazz clubs or marching bands. Born in Royston in 1978, she made the trumpet feel like a leading concert voice, and the honors back it up: an OBE in 2016, Artist of the Year at the 2013 Gramophone Awards, three Classic BRIT Awards and three German Echo prizes. What strikes me is that she's now retired as a soloist, having closed a chapter that ran from the Last Night of the Proms in 2009 to a final return in 2025. That arc reads like a deliberate, complete career rather than a fade-out.

Name (English)

Alison Balsom

Name (Japanese)

アリソン・バルサム

Reading

ありそん・ばるさむ

Born

October 7, 1978 (age 47)

Zodiac / Chinese zodiac

Libra / Horse

Origin

Royston, United Kingdom

Occupation

trumpeter

University

Hills Road Sixth Form College

Awards & achievements

• 2016 Officer of the Order of the British Empire
• honorary doctor of the University of Leicester
• 2012 Echo Klassik – Instrumentalist of the Year
• Classic Brit Awards

Motto

Private

• Official sitehttps://www.alisonbalsom.com
• Instagramhttps://www.instagram.com/alisonbalsom/
• Xhttps://x.com/AlisonBalsom
• Wikipedia (Japanese)https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%82%A2%E3%83%AA%E3%82%BD%E3%83%B3%E3%83%BB%E3%83%90%E3%83%AB%E3%82%B5%E3%83%A0

Tags

• trumpeter

Last updated

2026-06-02

Facts are limited to publicly available information up to 2024; non-public or unconfirmed items are omitted. English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.