Marco Blaauw

Trumpeter Marco Blaauw, who was born in 1965 in Lichtenvoorde in the Netherlands, initially studied at the Sweelinck Conservatory in Amsterdam and later continued his training with Pierre Thibaud and Markus Stockhausen. He is an internationally sought-after soloist and a longstanding member of the Cologne-based Ensemble Musikfabrik. A central focus of his artistic work is the development of the trumpet and its playing techniques, as well as the expansion of the repertoire for his instrument. To this end, he collaborates with contemporary composers. Numerous works have been written specifically for him, including pieces by Peter Eötvös, Georg Friedrich Haas, Olga Neuwirth, Wolfgang Rihm, Rebecca Saunders, and John Zorn. Marco Blaauw collaborated closely with Karlheinz Stockhausen: he performed Michael’s Journey Around the Earth, gave the world premiere of Harmonies from the Klang cycle at the 2008 BBC Proms, and took on several solo roles in Stockhausen’s opera cycle Licht. Together with La Monte Young, he developed a trumpet version of The Second Dream of the High-Tension Line Stepdown Transformer and performed the work throughout Europe. In 2015, Marco Blaauw founded the trumpet ensemble The Monochrome Project, which explores extended concert formats. In 2016, he initiated Global Breath, a worldwide research project on the trumpet. In addition to his work as a musician, Blaauw is active as a curator, educator, composer, and producer, among other roles. This year, he assumed artistic direction of the contemporary music festival “Klangspuren Schwaz” in Tyrol. He has been honored for his work with such awards as the Polish Orpheus Prize, the Karel de Grote Oeuvreprijs from the City of Nijmegen, the Karl Sczuka Prize from SWR, and the Palma Ars Acustica Radio Art Prize from the European Broadcasting Union (EBU). His work is documented on six solo CDs, among other recordings; in 2014 he received the German Record Critics’ Award.

May 2026