Alison Balsom is an award-winning classical trumpeter. Born in Hertfordshire in 1978, she began playing the trumpet at seven and graduated from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in 2001. Her debut album was released the following year; she won best female artist at the 2009 and 2011 Classical Brit awards. She lives in London with her husband, director Sam Mendes, and their two children. Balsom gives the UK premiere of Wynton Marsalis’s Trumpet Concerto with the London Symphony Orchestra on 11 April at the Barbican and 12 April at Bristol Beacon, and with RSNO at Usher Hall on 18 August as part of the Edinburgh international festival.
