Photo: Hales7000 / CC BY-SA 3.0 (source: Wikimedia Commons)
My Take
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.
Overview
Alison Louise Balsom, Lady Mendes, (born 7 October 1978) is a retired English trumpet soloist. She is an arranger, producer, and music educator. Balsom was awarded Artist of the Year at the 2013 Gramophone Awards and has won three Classic BRIT Awards and three German Echo Awards, and was a soloist at the BBC Last Night of the Proms in 2009 and finally in 2025.
Summary adapted from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.
1. Profile
- 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
- Blood type
- Private
- Height
- Private
- Agency
- Private
- Occupation
- trumpeter
2. Background
- Elementary school
- Private
- Junior high
- Private
- High school
- Private
- 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
3. Relationships
- Spouse
- Private
- Children
- Private
- Parents
- Private
- Siblings
- Private
4. Personality
Motto
Private
6. Links
Trumpeter — see all → · More people from United Kingdom →
7. About this entry
Tags
- Last updated
- 2026-06-02
Facts are limited to publicly available information up to 2024; non-public items are marked "Private / Unknown". English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.