”From the very first moment I imagined a troubadour, who by the means of his art spreads news. That’s exactly what I want – by the means of my trumpet.”
Marco Blaauw’s aim and wish is to further develop the trumpet, its technique and its repertoire. He supplements his engagement in internationally prestigious ensembles by solo projects of composed and improvised contemporary music. Thereby he intensely co-operates with both well known and young composers of our time. Many works are written especially for Marco Blaauw or incited by him, amongst them compositions of Péter Eötvös, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Richard Ayres and Isabel Mundry.
Born in 1965 in the Netherlands, Blaauw first studied at the Sweelinck Conservatorium Amsterdam. later he continued his studies with Pierre Thibaud, Reinhard Friedrich and Markus Stockhausen. Marco is a member of the ensemble MusikFabrik in Düsseldorf and the Ives Ensemble in Amsterdam. He has an international carreer as a soloist, amongst others he played with Klangforum Vienna, apartmenthouse London, Schönberg Ensemble and the Dutch Radio Symphony Orchestra. His performances as soloist and in ensembles has been documented in numerous radio and CD recordings. Already during his studies, Marco Blaauw was very interested in the works of Karlheinz Stockhausen. He worked with Stockhausen for the first time in 1993 when he participated in the staged world première of TUESDAY from LIGHT in Leipzig. Then, there was an intensive collaboration in 1998 for the world première of MICHAELION, which was followed by a tour of MOMENTE with the WDR orchestra and choir. It is planned that Marco Blaauw will perform as one of the soloists in the world première of LIGHT-PICTURES, a scene of SUNDAY from LIGHT.
Marco Blaauw considers the rehearsals with Karlheinz Stockhausen to be extremely important for his musical development. Working with the composer on works such as ARIES, MICHAEL-GREETING, HALT, PIETÀ, TRUMPETENT, MICHAELION (of WEDNESDAY from LIGHT), ENGEL-PROZESSIONEN (of SUNDAY from LIGHT), LICHT-BILDER (of SUNDAY from LIGHT), HOCH-ZEITEN (of SUNDAY from LIGHT) and KLANG 1st Hour: ASCENSION greatly influenced his playing and his attitude about the trumpet as a ”speaking” solo instrument.