Case study 3 - Alison Balsam Female trumpeter

Case Study - Female trumpeter, Alison Balsom

(Image of Alison Balsom at the Latitude Festival)

My experiences of gender and the trumpet has influenced this research into Alison Balsom. Throughout the years of my trumpet and flugelhorn practice, the fact that I am a female player of this instrument had come of a surprise to other musicians I would meet. During the first year of the course where I completed my collaborative project for my unit 8, I had lacked confidence with being a female brass player as all of the other females in my group were 'feminine singers' and I felt 'different' to play such a loud and physically demanding instrument.Within this I lacked confidence in my performances where I played the head melody to 'Cantaloupe Island' and improvised ontop of the head melody.Therefore, within this case study, I will talk about how playing the trumpet links to masculinity during my case study.
I have decided to relate female brass playing to the whole idea of my project which is contrasting the ways that the trumpet was used and is still considered as classical instrument. Despite Alison Balsom being a classical trumpeter, I will be doing a case study to try to find out whether there are similarities between the judgement of females in the brass section of music.
Along the course of this project, I would like to become a more confident female brass player whilst having confidence in my femininity. To prevent this from coming in the way of my progress and aims as a musician, I will be adding small parts of this during my project.
After this course, I will be going to Middlesex university to study BA music where I will continue my studies of the flugelhorn to work on achieving my aims of band playing, following the idea of using my instrument in different styles rather than just reading from a classical score. Therefore practicing my self-confidence throughout this project will allow me to play to my strengths an flourish as female trumpeter.

Within this case study, I am looking into the successes of a female trumpeter as oppose to male trumpeters. Due to there being more male brass players, I looked into Alison Balsom to gain inspiration from a female as my aspirations are to play as part of a band and continue into further studies with the flugelhorn with confidence rather than what is perceived from female brass players.

Alison Balsom is a an English female trumpeter who was interested in the trumpet from an early age. From this, she began taking lessons in school and playing as a member of the Royston Town Band which she still visits yearly for Christmas Carols. Studying at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, she went on to study at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and played with Hakan Hardenberger in Paris. Releasing music for the trumpet and organ, Alison includes works by Bach and Purcell.

To mark her 10 year anniversary in the Classical music industry, she had attended the Abbey Road studios where she recorded a 10 year compilation album called 'The Sound of Alison Balsom'. The Abbey road studios are the most famous recording studios in London. I look up to Alison Balsom as a successful solo female trumpeter due to her musical achievements, awards and collaborations who I can learn from as I aim to play as a female flugelhornist as part of a fusion band. Lastly, she conducted a show at the south bank's Globe Theatre while collaborating with instrumentalists and actors of the English concert.

Her Album called 'The sound of Alison Balsom has come of an interest to me as she has used this album to show how versatile the trumpet can be. This is said in a quote 'I've spent my whole life trying to show how versatile the trumpet can be,' which is what I aim to do within my flugelhorn fusion EP, however with more variety of styles.

Although she talks about this in terms of playing the trumpet in the classical industry, classical music is a very broad style ranging from baroque, romantic, concerto which are styles that she has performed in. Outlining the comparisons between the violin, piano to the trumpet, she feels that the trumpet is held back by limited repertoire and says "As a musician, I want to be challenged in lots of different ways, so i'm trying to be as varied as possible".

Despite her achievements, Alison is also known for her gender as an instrumentalist in the classical music industry during a recent interview she said "I remember talking to women brass players a generation older than me and being shocked at the stories they told of sexism they had encountered,"(Alison Balsom/Classic FM. 2019). Her acknowledgement of other female brass players in the industry shows that she recognises the situations many females in the music industry face, especially due to the domination of men as trumpeters.

As a dedicated female trumpeter, this is evident in the time where she rehearsed in the disused building site at the airport, shown in the image to the left. This inspires me as a female flugelhornist as she expresses her dedication to her work despite being a female artist where there could be many barriers in the industry. 
Sexism today is common and especially in the music industry, however, I am inspired in the way the Alison doesn't talk about negative experiences and focuses on the trumpet and her music. 

Further research into Alison Balsom since I watched one of her performances a few years back, will have an impact on my project as I am a female flugelhornist and I am to express this in my project through the design of my final product. On the front of my EP containing a flugelhorn fusion, I will use a design which represents female brass playing.
Although playing an alternative style to Alison Balsom, my aims of extending the styles for the trumpet and flugelhorn are similar to varying and not being held back by limited repertoire.

The video features Alison Balsom playing the Eb Concerto.

To conclude this, Alison Balsom compares her personality to her trumpet playing by saying that 'it's her personality'. 'The trumpet is extrovert and physical and many girls are too'. This links to my project because I aim to be able to build my confidence as a female trumpeter throughout this project.