Marco Blaauw

Marco Blaauw (born 23 September 1965 in Lichtenvoorde, Gelderland) is a Dutch trumpeter.

Marco Blaauw studied trumpet at the Sweelinck Conservatorium in Amsterdam. He continued studying with Pierre Thibaud and with Markus Stockhausen. He has an international career as a trumpet soloist and is a permanent member of the ensemble musikFabrik in Cologne. Some of the orchestras and new music ensembles with which he has performed as soloist are: the Dutch Radio Symphony Orchestra, the National Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra, WDR Symphony Orchestra Cologne, the Deutsche Oper Berlin, Klangforum Wien, London Sinfonietta and Asko|Schönberg Ensemble.

Marco Blaauw's goal is the further development of the trumpet, its technique and its repertoire. He works in close collaboration both with the established and younger composers of our time. Many works have been written especially for Blaauw or have been inspired by his playing, including compositions by Peter Eötvös, Rebecca Saunders, Richard Ayres, Isabel Mundry and Hanna Kulenty.

Beginning in 1998, Marco Blaauw worked intensely with Karlheinz Stockhausen and premiered solo roles in scenes of the opera cycle LICHT. In August 2008 he presented the premiere of "HARMONIES for trumpet" from Stockhausen’s unfinished cycle KLANG for BBC Radio 3 in the Royal Albert Hall.

Marco Blaauw's performances are widely documented in radio and CD recordings. The first solo CD Blaauw was released in September 2005, his second solo CD, HOT, came out in October 2006. In 2007 he presented Improvisation, a duo album with Gijsbrecht Roye.

In 2003 Marco Blaauw was awarded the Orpheus Prize for his performance of Hanna Kulenty's Trumpet Concerto during the Warsaw Autumn Festival. In 2008 he received the Karel de Grote-award from the city of Nijmegen.

He is also active as a teacher with notable residencies since 2003 at the Stockhausen Courses in Kürten and in 2004 and 2006 at the Darmstadt International Summer Courses for New Music. From August 2008 Marco Blaauw is guest teacher at the School of Music of Lucerne, Switzerland.

Marco Blaauw plays different sorts of trumpets and related instruments: C trumpet, Es flat/ D trumpet, Bflat trumpet, Piccolo trumpet, C-Cornet, Flugelhorn, Natural trumpet, Tibetian trumpet, Indian temple trumpet, Didgeridoo in D, Shofar (a horn of a ram), Conch (a shell) and the Double bell trumpet. He plays instruments manufactured by fellow Dutchman Hub van Laar.

One trumpet Marco Blaauw plays needs special attention: the double bell trumpet is a specially designed trumpet with two bells.

"The self designed trumpet is build by Dieter Gärtner, from the company Gärtner und Thul in Düren, Germany. The trumpet uses the standard three valves, plus a fourth and fifth valve. The fourth valve enables me to play quarter-tones, fast and over the whole range of the trumpet. An extra, surprisingly good and controllable effect is playing half-valve; in combination with the three “normal” valves, it sounds relatively well in tune over the whole range. It is like using a strange kind of mute. The fifth valve is for changing between the two bells: having two bells on a trumpet was an old dream of mine, it gives many extra possibilities:

• the double bell makes very fast changing between an open- and muted trumpet easy (colour-change and echo-effect). This effect suggests the existence of a second trumpet…
• the 5th valve can make a gradual change between open and muted, a large scale of exciting colours arises…
• changing between two open bells gives a tremolo effect, possible on any note in the register
• you can play a regular piece with two different trumpets! because the bells are made of slightly different material
• sitting in an orchestra or ensemble you can change your direction of playing just by using the fifth valve; use the "bells up"-effect without changing your sitting-position.

Before starting experimenting, I considered it almost impossible to extend the trumpet and improve it in the same time. The cheerful experiment worked out very well though! It seems that the evolution of the trumpet is far from reaching an end-point."

As Featured Artist

• 2005 Blaauw (BVHAAST)
• 2006 HOT (BVHAAST)
• 2008 Improvisation, with Gijsbrecht Roye (World Edition)
• 2010 Play Robot Dream, with Yannis Kyriakides (Unsounds)

Appearances

• 1993 Arrows in Time, by Rajesh Mehta Collective (New Limits); Performing Rajesh Mehta's Third Kalpa for 4 trumpets
• 1995 Mauricio Kagel 7: Nah und Fern, by Mauricio Kagel (Montaigne)
• 1996 Music + Practice, by Ives Ensemble (Donemus); Performing Richard Ayres' No. 5 Untitled for trumpet and piano
• 1997 Bassetsu-Trio, by Karlheinz Stockhausen (Stockhausen Verlag)
• 1997 Conquest of Melody, by Marcus Weiss (Hat Hut); Performing Stefan Wolpe's Quartet for trumpet, tenor saxophone, piano and percussion
• 1999 Madrigale, by Ives Ensemble (Hat Hut); Performing Aldo Clementi's Studi for violin, trumpet and piano
• 2000 Counterpoise, by Marcus Weiss, Trio Accanto, XASAX (Hat Hut); Performing Wolpe's Quartet & John Carisi's “Counterpoise No 1” for trumpet, baritone sax, percussion and piano
• 2000 James Tenney Forms 1-4, by musikFabrik (Hat Hut); Performing Stefan Wolpe's Piece for Trumpet and 7 Instruments
• 2002 Dutch New Music, by Concertzender Live 02 (Muziekgroep Nederland); Performing Christina Viola Oorebeek's Fulgura Frango for trumpet/piccolo/flugel and ensemble
• 2002 Licht-Bilder, by Karlheinz Stockhausen (Stockhausen Verlag)
• 2001 Cornelius Cardew, Chamber Music 1955–1964, by Apartment House (Matchless Recordings); Performing Cornelius Cardew's Three Rhythmic Pieces for Trumpet and Piano
• 2001 Arcs & Circles - Portrait Concert of Hanna Kulenty, by Hanna Kulenty (Frau Musica); Performing A Sixth Circle for trumpet and piano
• 2003 Warsaw Autumn 2003, no. 1, by Sinfonia Varsovia under Renato Rivolta; Performing Hanna Kulenty's Trumpet Concerto
• 2003 ON Turntable Jazz, by Produciehuis Oost Nederland
• 2003 Michaels Ruf, Quitt, and Trumpetent, by Karlheinz Stockhausen (Stockhausen Verlag)
• 2004 Hoch-Zeiten, by Karlheinz Stockhausen (Stockhausen Verlag)
• 2004 Snatches, by Péter Eötvös (BMC); Performing Snatches of a Conversation for double-bell trumpet, speaker and ensemble
• 2004 Vision, by Karlheinz Stockhausen (Stockhausen Verlag)
• 2005 Soundstreams Canada, Performing world première of Hanna Kulenty's Brass No. 1 for double bell trumpet
• 2005 fiato coninuo 1,2,3,4,5, by Bojidar Spassov (Wergo); Performing Fiato Coninuo IV for trumpet and tape
• 2007 Dokumentation Wittener Tage für Neue Kammermusik 2007, 20. Bis 22. April, by Salome Kammer, Stimme, and WDR Rundfunkchor Köln under Rupert Huber; Performing Isabel Mundry's gesichtet, gesichelt for voice, trumpet and 3 choirs
• 2007 50th Warsaw Autumn, CD no8, by Various Artists; Performing Yannis Kyriakides' “Dog Song” (Cerberus serenades Orpheus)
• 2008 Witten 2008 Tage für neue Kammermusik; Performing Rebecca Saunders' Company for 5 soloists
• 2008 Musik in Deutschland 1955-2000, by musikFabrik (Deutsche Musikrat); Performing Rebecca Saunders' Behind the Velvet Curtain & Richard Ayres' No 31 noncerto for trumpet and ensemble
• 2008 Richard Ayres Portrait CD, by musikFabrik (BMC); Performing Richard Ayres' No 31 and No. 5 Untitled
• 2008 Stirrings Still, by musikFabrik (Wergo); Performing Rebecca Saunders' Blaauw for double bell trumpet
• 2009 Speech Songs, by musikFabrik (Wergo)
• 2009 Visible Traces, by musikFabrik (Wergo)
• 2009 from Heaven to Hell, by musikFabrik (Wergo)
• 2009 Antichamber, by Yannis Kyriakides; Performing “Dog Song” (Cerberus serenades Orpheus)
• 2010 Gleichzeit, by Junge Deutsche Philharmonie under Susanna Mälkki; Performing Bernd Alois Zimmermann's Nobody Knows the Trouble I See
• 2010 Harmonien und Schönheit, by Karlheinz Stockhausen (Stockhausen Verlag)