Alison Balsom

"You have to let music take you over, put ego aside, be a clean conductor – in the electrical sense."

"When I tell people I’m a trumpet soloist, there are three kinds of response I usually get: “Wow, what a great job!”, “Isn’t that unusual for a woman?” And “That’s jazz, right?”"

"I believe the emergence and explosion of jazz in the last century is one of the pinnacles of human achievement."