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 plays a 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 PIETÀ 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. 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. 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. 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. ==Discography==