Marco Blaauw

Marco Blaauw is a Dutch trumpet soloist known for his work in the field of new music and with Cologne-based contemporary music group Ensemble Musikfabrik. He is credited with the development of the first double bell trumpet, an invention that has allowed for numerous new compositions for trumpet, including those by Ernst von Siemens Music Prize winner, Rebecca Saunders. Blaauw is a consistent faculty member at the Darmstadt Summer Course, the Stockhausen Courses Kürten, the Lucerne Festival, and the Chosen Vale International Trumpet Seminar.
Biography.
Marco Blaauw was born September 23, 1965 in Lichtenvoorde, the Netherlands, and began playing trumpet at a young age in the local band. As a young student, Blaauw attended the Sweelinck Conservatorium in Amsterdam and later studied with Pierre Thibaud and Markus Stockhausen.
Blaauw has an extensive solo career, particularly in the contemporary, new, and improvised music scenes. He has collaborated on and premiered several pieces for trumpet solo and ensemble and is well known for his work with composer Karlheinz Stockhausen. Marco was also a founding member of contemporary music group Ensemble Musikfabrik in Cologne, Germany, and appears on several recordings with the ensemble.
Blaauw has performed solo with numerous orchestras and new music ensembles, including 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. He has also performed at festivals such as Musikfest Berlin, Donaueschinger Musiktage, Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, the Lucerne Festival, and more.
The focus of Marco Blaauw's work 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, and many works have been written especially for Blaauw or have been inspired by his playing, including Peter Eötvös, Rebecca Saunders, Richard Ayres, Isabel Mundry, Hanna Kulenty, Georg Friedrich Haas, John Zorn, and Wolfgang Rihm.
Double bell trumpet.
Marco Blaauw is credited with the development and first use of the double bell trumpet. The first model was made by Dieter Gaertner in Düren, Germany, with whom Blaauw had previously worked on various C trumpets. This instrument inspired composer Péter Eötvös to write the first piece for the instrument – "Snatches of a Conversation" – which Blaauw premiered and recorded. In the relatively short life of the double bell trumpet, Marco Blaauw has generated a huge amount of new repertoire for the instrument and helped spearhead development of other double bell brass instruments (now used by Ensemble Musikfabrik).
Since the first iteration of the double bell trumpet built by Gaertner, Blaauw has developed a close working relation with Hub van Laar of Van Laar Trumpets and Flugelhorns in Margraten, the Netherlands. Along with B-flat, C, and piccolo trumpets, Van Laar has also made the quarter-tone flugelhorn (notable for its use in Karlheinz Stockhausen's PIETA from DIENSTAG aus LICHT) and the double bell trumpet that Blaauw now plays.
Collaborations and projects.
Marco Blaauw worked in close collaboration with German composer Karlheinz Stockhausen for 17 years. 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 "KLANG" for BBC Radio 3 in the Royal Albert Hall. Blaauw has since performed all major works for trumpet by Stockhausen and can be heard on several recordings of the Stockhausen Verlag (see discography).
In 2015, Blaauw started working with La Monte Young on “the Second Dream of the High Tension Line Stepdown Transformer" for a concert in the Chelsea Dream House, NYC, and went on to perform to critical acclaim in Warsaw, Huddersfield, Paris, Oslo, Amsterdam, Krems, Cologne, and Polling. This project has since grown into the Monochrome Project – an ensemble of 8 trumpet players – which maintains an active schedule of premieres, including works by Anthony Braxton.
Blaauw has also worked in close collaboration with famous German painter Gerhard Richter. Blaauw, with Ensemble Musikfabrik, premiered "Richter's Patterns" by composer Marcus Schmickler at the Kölner Philharmonie in 2016, and Blaauw has continued a close working relationship with the artist since. In 2019, Blaauw played for the premiere of Richter's "Moving Picture 946-3" at the Kiyomizu-dera Temple in Kyoto, Japan. The film was created in collaboration with Corinna Belz (filmmaker) with score for solo trumpet and electronics by Rebecca Saunders and has since also been a featured event at Musikfest Berlin 2020.
Recently, Blaauw has been working on the Global Breath project working to record and archive iconographic sounds, as well as connect pioneering trumpet players worldwide. The project will host a conference in March 2021.
Teaching.
Marco Blaauw served on the faculty of the Masters aus LICHT program at the Koninklijk Conservatorium in The Hague, the Netherlands from 2017 until 2019. This one-time masters program served to instruct students in the performance of the music of Karlheinz Stockhausen and prepare them to play solo roles in the "aus LICHT" production of the Dutch National Opera and 2019 Holland Festival.
Marco Blaauw has been a teacher at the Darmstadt Summer Course since 2014 and head of the Brass Academy since 2016. He also currently leads the trumpet class at the Stockhausen Courses Kurten and has served as a faculty member of the Chosen Vale International Trumpet Seminar since 2008. In 2018, Blaauw and the Musikfabrik brass soloists created the Ensemble Musikfabrik Brass Academy, and they have since hosted the course at the Musikfabrik studios every summer with the exception of 2020, when the Academy took place online due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Honors and awards.
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. Blaauw's sixth solo CD, "Angels", was awarded the Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik 2014. As a composer, Blaauw was awarded the 2016 Karl Sczuka Prize for his first radio play, "deathangel". Blaauw also gave the laudation speech in honor of Rebecca Saunders for her Ernst von Siemens Music Prize award.