Bassam Mussad

The trumpeter Bassam Mussad was born in 1984 to Egyptian parents in Khartoum, Sudan. In 1993 the family emigrated to the United States, initially moving to California and then to Georgia. It was there that Mussad had his first trumpet lessons at the age of nine. His studies later took him to Fred Mills of the Canadian Brass Ensemble at the University of Georgia and to Vincent Penzarella, a member of the New York Philharmonic, at the Manhattan School of Music. In 2005 Mussad auditioned for Daniel Barenboim in Seville and was immediately accepted into the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra. On Barenboim’s recommendation he then moved to Germany, where he could work on a wide repertoire at the Orchestral Academy of the Berlin Staatsoper. Following this practical training phase, he was engaged as principal trumpet with the Mecklenburg State Theater Orchestra in Schwerin, where he was a member for four years. Since 2014 Bassam Mussad has been principal trumpeter of the Düsseldorf Symphony, with which he has performed several times as a soloist in various trumpet concertos, including, in February 2017, Haydn’s Concerto in E-flat major conducted by Adám Fischer. Mussad joined with his orchestra in the fall of 2016 to perform a “Welcome Concert” for refugees, which was hosted in English and Arabic. In addition to this permanent engagement, Bassam Mussad has played with other acclaimed orchestras, such as the Filarmonica della Scala, the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, and the Malaysian Philharmonic. He remains closely associated with the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra as principal trumpet. Following this concert in Lucerne, he will additionally perform Shostakovich’s Concerto for Piano and Trumpet at the Salzburg Festival.

April 2017