12
Jan
2026
Virtual Brass Academy · Live Stream
18 new works for horn, trumpet, trombone and tuba
Trumpet Player
Music experimenter and creator
Curator • Researcher • Producer
For more than 30 years, Marco Blaauw has been performing as a trumpet soloist specializing in contemporary music. As a soloist and as a member of Ensemble Musikfabrik, he has been at the forefront of innovations in music, always researching and developing his instruments and playing techniques, working on new repertoire and adventurous performing formats in close collaboration with established and young composers.
Engagements have taken him around the world, where he has performed as a soloist with major orchestras and ensembles. His work has been featured at prominent theatre and music festivals and is documented on six solo records and countless radio, CD, and video recordings. In addition to his performance work, Blaauw is active in many other fields, including as a curator, dedicated educator, composer, producer, and researcher.
Blaauw initiated and leads The Monochrome Project, an 8-player trumpet ensemble that experiments with long formats to deepen the experience of listening and merging into sound. In 2016, he started his research project, Global Breath, taking his passion for the trumpet to new realms of knowledge and performance. His research reflects the shared human connection in the sound of the trumpet.
From 2026 Blaauw will be artistic director of the Tyrolean festival for new music Klangspuren Schwaz. Blaauw’s work has received awards such as the Polish Orpheus Prize, the Karel de Grote Oeuvreprijs of the city of Nijmegen, the Karl Sczuka Prize of the SWR, and most recently, the Palma Ars Acustica of the EBU. Grants from the Ernst von Siemens Foundation, Musikfonds, Ministry of Culture and Science NRW, Societé Gavigniés, and the Art Foundation of NRW have supported his work.
Selected concerts, festivals and projects with Marco Blaauw.
18 new works for horn, trumpet, trombone and tuba
Reihe im WDR
Premiere · Georges Aperghis “Trompe-Oreilles” (double bell trumpet & electronics)
Georges Aperghis — “Selfie in the Dark”
Georges Aperghis — “Intermezzi”
Masterclasses & workshops (Contemporary Music Studies)
Reihe im WDR
Opening concert
Live stream concert
Premiere work for trumpet & electronics
New works for brass
Research / development period
8 new works by students
Teaching / coaching
“Trompe-Oreilles”
Richter / Saunders — Moving Picture (946-3) Kyoto
“Happy New Ears”
“Happy New Ears”
New work for horn, trumpet, trombone, tuba & electronics
An important focus of Marco Blaauw's work is the further development of the trumpet as an instrument, its playing techniques, and the creation of new repertoire. Blaauw works in close collaboration with both established and younger composers of our time. Many composers have written works especially for him. Recent collaborations include Rebecca Saunders (Blaauw, White, Alba), Georges Aperghis (Trompe-Oreilles), Liza Lim (Tongue of the Land), George Lewis (Buzzing), Georg Friedrich Haas (I Can’t Breathe), and John Zorn (Merlin). Between 1991 and 2007, Blaauw also worked intensively with Karlheinz Stockhausen. Blaauw continuously develops new projects and concert programs. He performs as a soloist, in concerts for trumpet and electronics, and as a soloist with orchestra.
Global Breath is an ongoing artistic research project exploring the universality of trumpet sound.
The central hypothesis of this research is that a trumpet sound can be sent around the world and be understood by anyone who hears it along the way.
The project began with a dream: a trumpet sound that travels continuously around the globe, connecting the world's many cultures. A global breath — an archaic sound of profound symbolic value, representing a fundamental bond shared by all people on this planet.
To ground this vision in research, Marco Blaauw initiated an international project that offers a unique insight into the most important traditions, practices, and sounds of the trumpet and other lip-blown instruments worldwide.
Since the launch of the Global Breath research project, the following initiatives have emerged:
Next steps include planning interviews and research trips to Africa and South America, continuing collaborations with selected composers, and further processing video and audio materials for the Global Breath Archive and future publications.
The Monochrome Project is an ensemble of 8 trumpets, founded by Marco Blaauw in 2015.
The ensemble focuses solely on the sound of the trumpet, working with duplication, dense sound fields, subtle color changes, gradual and extreme dynamic curves, motion, shifting distances and perspectives. The single timbre becomes both the sonic foundation and accentuating highlight. The Monochrome Project proves that less can also be more.
In 2015, the ensemble collaborated with La Monte Young and performed throughout Europe as the Theatre of Eternal Music Brass Ensemble.
In 2018, The Monochrome Project performed the European premiere of "composition no. 103” by Anthony Braxton and received rave reviews from audiences at the Ruhrtriennale and the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival.
During the COVID-19 lockdowns of 2020 and 2021, the ensemble used the enforced pause as a moment of artistic renewal, developing new repertoire and producing video and audio works for West German Radio (WDR) and the Cologne Philharmonie. In 2022, the ensemble collaborated with Pulitzer Prize–winning composer Raven Chacon, premiering his 30-minute work Call for the Company, commissioned by the BBC. In 2024 and 2025, the ensemble continued to expand its artistic scope through a series of new projects and commissions by Milica Djordjević, Anna Korsun, Cat Lamb, Claudia Molitor, Elena Rykova, Wadada Leo Smith, and Rolf Wallin, presented at leading new-music festivals across Europe. In 2026, the ensemble will pause its concert activities to focus on recordings, research, and the development of new performance formats.
Since 1993, Marco Blaauw has been a member of Ensemble Musikfabrik. The group of 15 international soloists take all business and artistic decisions as a collective and have been innovative leaders in contemporary music since their formation. Next to their outstanding performances of conducted ensemble repertoire, the ensemble develops interdisciplinary projects; solo, chamber, and ensemble music repertoire; and works using open form and improvisation.
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