Milica Djordjevic, Phosphorescence (2014, trio for horn, trumpet, trombone

Milica Djordjevic, WERGO, Deutsche Musikrat

Milica Djordjevic, Phosphorescence

Yidaki meets double bell trumpet,
 jam session at GAYŊURU STUDIOS, ARDS radio station
April 29, 2018, Nhulunbuy, NE Arnhem land, Australia
GAYŊURU STUDIOS
April 29, 2018
Nhulunbuy, NE Arnhem land, Australia

Musicians
Larry Larrtjaŋga Gurruwiwi,
Yidaki
Vernon Marrițŋu Gurruwiwi,
Yidaki
Sebastian Guyundula Z Burarrwaŋa,
Songman
Adrian Guyundu Gurruwiwi,
Songman
Andrew Minyapa Gurruwiwi,
Keyboard, spoken word
Marco Blaauw
Double bell trumpet, piccolo trumpet

Recording Engineer Andrew Grimes
Final mix Alexandria Smith

Yidaki meets double bell trumpet Track 1  Larry and Marco

Raven Chacon, "Call for the Company, in the Morning", 
composition for 8 trumpets, written for The Monochrome Project,
commissioned by the BBC and the Huddersfield Contemporary MUsic Festival.
Live performance at the Angelica Festival, Bologna, 
November 23d, 2022
The Monochrome Project:
Marco Blaauw, Christine Chapman, Christopher Collings, Mathilde Conley, Rike Huy, Bob Koertshuis, Nathan Plante, Laura Vukobratović

Raven Chacon, Call for the Company, in the Morning

Arvo Pärt, Summa, original for 4 voices, arrangement for 8 trumpets by Marco Blaauw for The Monochrome Project
Laura Vukobratović, Rike Huy, Mathilde Conley, Bob Koertshuis, Markus Schwind, Nathan Plante, Christine Chapman, Marco Blaauw 
Live recording by WDR Cologne at the festival Romanische Sommer, Cologne 6th June 2021

Arvo Pärt, Summa, arrangement for 8 trumpets (Marco Blaauw)

Juste Janulyte, Unanime, long version for 8 trumpets
The Monochrome Project, live @ festival Romanische Sommer, Cologne 6th June 2021
Marco Blaauw, Christine Chapman, Mathilde Conley, Rike Huy, Bob Koertshuis, Nathan Plante, Markus Schwind, Laura Vukobratović

Juste Janulyte, Unanime, The Monochrome Project

Placid Mobile, a work for 36 muted trumpets, composed by Harrison Birtwistle, performed by The Monochrome Project and 28 players from Dublin, London, Paris, Essen and Stockholm.
Organised by David Collins, Royal Irish Academy of Music, directed by Marco Blaauw, recorded at the New Music Dublin festival on April 25th 2024.
Sophie Kukulies
Jasmin Ghera 
Ellinor Bengtson 
Alexander Hancorn 
Thomas Leighton-Jones 
Harry Plant
James Kelly 
Malte Sunding 
Essen:
Malon Maat
Diego Iglesias 
Joao Carreiras 
Evyatar Zidon 
Ivan Abalo Barros
Paris:
Eloi Germain 
Thaïs Jude 
Stockholm:
Nathan McDonnell 
Kalle Nordström 
Martin Björkvall
Dublin:
David Collins
Grace Taite 
Aoife Garry 
Glen Carr 
Jack O’Reilly 
Erick Castillo
Amelia Robinson
Sean Molloy
Erinn Lennon 
Niamh Walsh

Harrison Birtwistle, Placid Mobile for 36 muted trumpets

Milica Djordjević, Nailing Clouds II, for Eflat flugehorn solo, performed by Marco Blaauw at the festival Acht Brücken.
Recording of the premier performance on 1st of May 2023.

Milica Djordjevic, Nailing Clouds II, for Eflat flugelhorn, Marco Blaauw

Liza Lim, "Shallow Grave" solo for neolithic horn and F trumpet
premier performance by Marco Blaauw at Eclat festival, Stuttgart, February 2024
There’s an image that sticks in my mind: March 2022, 12 days into the war in Ukraine, a military brass band plays, standing around a crater made by a Russian bomb. The image echoes on in our times of extreme and often incomprehensible violence and I’ve been thinking a lot about music’s power to address and reach into a hole in the ground and pull back up some life energy from what has been destroyed. The power of music to speak to the dead, to reach back in time and unwind something; to make passages for the living; music as a living knot in time between the ancestral and the unborn—these are some basic themes of recent work.
Shallow Grave is in two parts. In the first part, Marco Blaauw plays a ‘Neolithic’ horn, a replica of a 3,000-year-old ceramic horn excavated from a rock shelter in Vallabrix, Southern France and recreated by André Schlauch as part of the European Music Archaeology project. It’s shaped like an animal horn but I think of it as a lump of earth with a mouth. The second part of the piece is for solo trumpet; music of bitter and ironic humour, an imaginary ‘Punch and Judy’ show of stupid sock puppets bashing each other with sticks and rocks until the puppets bleed.

Liza Lim, Shallow Grave, performed by Marco Blaauw

"Buzzing" composed by George Lewis, world premier performance 
by Marco Blaauw, trumpet, and George Lewis, live electronics, at the festival Wittener Tage für Neue Kammermusik, 4th of May, 2024.

George Lewis "Buzzing", performed by Marco Blaauw and George Lewis

Isabel Mundry, Solo auf Schwellen (2003)
performed by Marco Blaauw (2004)
Recorded in 2004, at Deutschland Funk, Cologne

Isabel Mundry, Solo Auf Schwellen (2003)

Peter Eötvös, Snatches Of A Conversation, Marco Blaauw, Double Bell Trumpet

trumpet solo in acoustics of a large space (long reverberation) 
Recorded in the Vigeland Mausoleum, Oslo, October 2024
Marco Blaauw, double bell trumpet

Elena Rykova, Vicissitudes (2023)

2025 04 04 The Monochrome Project @ Muziekgebouw Amsterdam, performance of 8 trumpets (6 double bell trumpets and 2 F trumpets), spatialised in the Foyer of the Muziekgebouw. First performance of this composition by Elena Rykova

Elena Rykova, No Grid in the Sky

a duo for 2 Norwegian Lurs, by Rolf Wallin, unplugged (please find also a version for ours plus electronics!)

Rolf Wallin, Prillar Unplugged, 2 norwegian lurs

Global Breath: Trumpet Sounds Around the World
In this radio artwork, Marco Blaauw weaves a single, globe-spanning trumpet sound from an extraordinary range of trumpet-like instruments and traditions worldwide. Recordings made during concerts, ceremonies, rituals, archives, and newly produced sessions reveal how breath, blown through vibrating lips, becomes a shared sound across cultures.
Winner of the EBU Radiokunstpreis.

2024 Global Breath, Trumpet sounds around the World

LICHT-BILDER is the third scene of Sonntag aus LICHT from the seven-opera cycle LICHT by Karlheinz Stockhausen, begun in 1977 and structured around the seven days of the week.
Premiered in 2004 at the Donaueschinger Musiktage, the work reflects Stockhausen’s exploration of the cosmos, unity, and the interaction between human and universal forces.
The central figures Michael, Eve, and Lucifer are derived from the Superformula, generating a highly determined musical structure modeled on the prism of light.
The LICHT cycle is renowned—and controversial—for its visionary scope and esoteric content.
Production: a cooperative commission by CCMIX Paris and ZKM | Karlsruhe, supported by the Kunststiftung NRW

LICHT-BILDER (with ring modulation)

LICHT-BILDER is the third scene of Sonntag aus LICHT from the seven-opera cycle LICHT by Karlheinz Stockhausen, begun in 1977 and structured around the seven days of the week.
Premiered in 2004 at the Donaueschinger Musiktage, the work reflects Stockhausen’s exploration of the cosmos, unity, and the interaction between human and universal forces.
The central figures Michael, Eve, and Lucifer are derived from the Superformula, generating a highly determined musical structure modeled on the prism of light.
The LICHT cycle is renowned—and controversial—for its visionary scope and esoteric content.
Production: a cooperative commission by CCMIX Paris and ZKM | Karlsruhe, supported by the Kunststiftung NRW.
recorded in 2004

LICHT-BILDER

QUITT (1989) is a chamber work for three players by Karlheinz Stockhausen.
Written for flexible instrumentation, the first version was premiered by Kathinka Pasveer, alto flute, Suzanna Stephens, bass-clarinet, and Marco Blaauw, piccolo trumpet.
The piece is catalogued as Werk Nr. 1 ex 59 and exemplifies Stockhausen’s late chamber style with precise interaction between the players. 
premiered and recorded in 2004

Karlheinz Stockhausen, QUITT

MICHAELS-RUF, version for 4 trumpets (1994) is a short but iconic work for four trumpets by Karlheinz Stockhausen.
Often used to open concerts, the piece projects sharp, dissonant chordal blocks into space, followed by wave-like dynamics and repetitive figures.
These gestures form a dialogue — simultaneously a call and a message — unfolding with a contemplative, almost spiritual character.
Recorded 1997 by WDR
Markus Stockhausen, Marco Blaauw, Andreas Adam, Achim Gorsch

MICHAELs CALL

VISION is a scene from Donnerstag aus LICHT, part of the opera cycle LICHT by Karlheinz Stockhausen.
The work centers on the tenor and  trumpet as the voice of Michael and unfolds as a ritualized, visionary solo shaped by extreme concentration, spatial presence, and symbolic gesture.
Recorded by Karlheinz Stockhausen on 12 March 2005
Hubert Meyer, tenor
Marco Blaauw, trumpet
Antonio Perez Abellan, synthesizer

Karlheinz Stockhausen VISION

OBERLIPPENTANZ is a solo aria from the opera SAMSTAG aus LICHT by Karlheinz Stockhausen 
composed for Markus Stockhausen
recorded by Marco Blaauw, in July 2019 at Ensemble Musikfabrik, recorded by Stefan Schmidt


Karlheinz Stockhausen, OBERLIPPENTANZ

OBERLIPPENTANZ is a solo aria for piccolo trumpet in LUZIFERs TANZ, from SAMSTAG aus LICHT, by Karlheinz Stockhausen.
Live Recording on 30. June 2013, with the orchestra of the Bavarian Radio (Bayerische Rundfunk), conductor Ingo Metzmacher, bass singer Michael Leibundgut, piccolo trumpet Marco Blaauw


2013-6-30 OBERLIPPENTANZ BR München

ARIES is a solo work for trumpet and electronics, extracted from SIRIUS, a 96 minute opera for 4 soloists and electronics by Karlheinz Stockhausen, Originally written for Markus Stockhausen, I made this recording in 1991 as part of my studies at the conservatory of Amsterdam.  Broadcasted in The Netherlands, de Concertzender in 1992.


Karlheinz Stockhausen ARIES

Georges Aperghis, Heart Blowing, for 2 trumpets, horn, trombone, tuba
arranged / composed in 2023 
Recorded at Ensemble Musikfabrik 2024-10-08 
Christine Chapman, horn
Marco Blaauw, Lucy Humphris trumpets
Stephen Menotti, trombones
Maxiem Morel, tuba

Georges Aperghis, Heart Blowing

Karlheinz Stockhausen, SCHÖNHEIT (BEAUTY), 6th hour of KLANG (SOUND) The 24 hours of the day
for flute, bass clarinet and trumpet
composed in 2006, commissioned by the Gulbenkian Foundation, premiered in 2009, recorded on May 15th 2010 at Sound Studio N, Cologne 

Karlheinz Stockhausen, SCHÖNHEIT

my last Solo CD with contemporary solo repertoire and trumpet ensembles was coproduced by SWR (South West German Radio) and released on Label WERGO.

Agata Zubel, wounded angel

Georg Friedrich Haas, …einklang freier wesen... flugelhorn solo

Rebecca Saunders, Neither, for two double bell trumpets

Egmont Swaan composed this solo for piccolo trumpet for a music theatre piece. Recorded in December 2004 for the Solo CD "Blaauw"

BLAAUW

Blaauw

Egmont Swaan, the Sigh of Marib...

In December 2014, Georg Friedrich Haas composed "I can't breathe" for solo trumpet. He asked me to perform, record and publish this work as soon as possible, as a statement on the tragedy of Eric Garner. This is a live recording of the first performance in the Pihilharmonie, Cologne, Germany. The composer commented: 
"...Eric Garner has become a symbol. He had double bad luck. First off, he was in the wrong place at the wrong time. But most of all, he had the wrong skin color. His crime: selling cigarettes. And being an African American. The police thought he was a bootlegger, and took him into custody. During this process, he suffocated. He was an asthmatic. His last words were: "I can't breathe!" Those responsible for his death weren't acquitted. They never even had to go to court. This was not an isolated incident. Protests erupted. The slogan "Black lives matter!" was carried in prominent demonstrations throughout the land. With this piece, I declare my solidarity with the protesters..."

Georg Friedrich Haas - I can't breathe, live recording February 2015

Stereo recording of the European premier of Anthony Braxton's composition no. 103, for 7 trumpets, and excerpts from composition no. 173, at the Ruhrtriennale Festival, 19 September 2018
the monochrome project
speaker: Lisa Charlotte Friederich
trumpets: Markus Schwind, Nathan Plante, Rike Huy, Matthew Conley, Callum G'Froer, Christine Chapman, Marco Blaauw

Braxton, composition no. 103, EU premier 19 September 2018

Juste Janulyte, Unanime (2020)(short version)
for 8 trumpets, written for The Monochrome Project,
multitrack recording during lockdown April 2020 by Marco Blaauw, trumpet

Juste Janulyte, Unanime, for 8 trumpets

"I can't breathe" for solo trumpet
in memory of Eric Garner

In December 2014, Georg Friedrich Haas composed "I can't breathe" for solo trumpet. He asked me to perform, record and publish this work as soon as possible, as a statement on the tragedy of Eric Garner. This is a live recording of the first performance in the Philharmonie, Cologne, Germany. 
The composer commented: 
" I live in the U.S.A. It is a wonderful land with wonderful people and a wonderful culture.

However...

When I walk down a lonely street in New York at night, I am afraid. Afraid of criminals. It my skin was black, however, I'd have to be more afraid of the police than criminals.

Eric Garner has become a symbol.
He had double bad luck. First off, he was in the wrong place at the wrong time. But most of all, he had the wrong skin color. His crime: selling cigarettes. And being an African American. The police thought he was a bootlegger, and took him into custody. During this process, he suffocated. He was an asthmatic. His last words were: "I can't breathe!"

Those responsible for his death weren't acquitted. They never even had to go to court.

This was not an isolated incident.

Protests erupted. The slogan "Black lives matter!" was carried in prominent demonstrations throughout the land. With this piece, I declare my solidarity with the protesters.

"I can't breathe" for solo trumpet, in memory of Eric Garner begins - quite traditionally - with a dirge: an open cantilena within the world of twelve tones. The intervals then start to contract. The song suffocates more and more, ending in a sixth-tone scale. This self-constricting dirge takes place within a sound realm of widely spaced trumpet tones of extreme register and varying color - perhaps careful symbols for the world out of which the victim was violently ripped. 

I give no sound sound to the perpetrators.”

Recorded at ZKM, Karlsruhe, by Sebastian Schottke, for Label Musikfabrik

Georg Friedrich Haas, I Can'´t Breathe, recording Label Musikfabrik

Trumpet solo from 1991, published in 1992 by Askolta Publishing Houten, The Netherlands. Recorded in 2001
The title is taken from 
Rainer Maria Rilke, Vergers XLI
Puisque tout passe, 
faisons la mélodie passagère; 
celle qui nous désaltère, 
aura de nous raison.

Chantons ce qui nous quitte avec amour et art; 
soyons plus vite 
que le rapide départ.
 
Since everything passes,
Let’s sing a parting melody,
A song of our own making
That will quench grief

Let’s use love and art to praise our losses,
And let’s do it more quickly than what departs.
(Translation by Susanne Petermann, from the bundle “When I Go”)
 
Daan Manneke commissioned me to arrange his saxophone solo "Soyons plus vite que le rapids depart" for trumpet.
I happily took on that challenge but stumbled over 2 issues: range and multiphonics. The first issue had to do with melodies that went up too high for me to reach on the trumpet. The second issue had to do with multiphonics. I knew about vocalized notes but those didn't convince the composer. 
I introduced Daan Manneke to a sound that actually came from a lack of control: My sound would often crack in a register change or when I started a note in the second octave. The result was a split tone: 2 neighbouring harmonics from one overtone series, played at the same time. 
Daan Manneke was fascinated and encouraged me to cultivate that effect and use it as multiphonics in his piece. 
Is this the first score with notated spilt tones on the trumpet?

Daan Manneke, Soyons Plus Vite... Recording from 5 February 2001

Isabel Mundry for trumpet quartet, recorded by the MICHAELs TRUMPETERS, Markus Stockhausen, Marco Blaauw, Andreas Adam, Bence Horvath

Isabel Mundry, Geträumte Räume

Rebecca Saunders, Blaauw (2004) for double bell trumpet
Recorded in February 2019, at the Emanuel Vigeland Mausoleum in Oslo, by Sebastian Schottke

Rebecca Saunders, Blaauw, recorded at the E. Vigeland Mausoleum

My first Solo CD, "Blaauw" (blue) released in 2004, was the first CD of my trilogy of personal portraits of the trumpet. "HOT" (red) from 2006, was the second CD, "ANGELS" (white) will be released this year at WERGO.

"Und dann, in den nächsten 70 Minuten, lässt sich alles erleben: Quieken, Quietschen, Hupen, Pfeifen, Röcheln, Singen, Schluchzen, Flüstern... Marco Blaauw beweist, das es für seine Trompete keine technischen Beschränkungen gibt. Oder vielleicht, dass die Weiterentwicklung der Spieltechnik und dadurch der Ausdrucksmöglichkeiten seines Instrumentes durchaus möglich sind." Katarzyna Kwiecien, NMZ

"A different kind of recording, a rich feast." Cadence

"Blaauw heeft met zijn fabelachtige techniek de mogelijkheden van zijn instrument opgerekt en gaf al veel componisten opdracht tot het schrijven van nieuw werk. Bijvoorbeld voor de door hem ontwikkelde trompet met twee klankbekers – twee trompetsoorten in één lichaam, met daardoor een groter bereik en andere ongekende mogelijkheden." Anthony Fiumara, Trouw

"E difatti BLAAUW del trombettista olandese Marco Blaauw è un lavoro staordinario, raro nel suo genere, prezioso per quanti vanno ricercando da tempo composizioni nuove e originali, per solo, di compositori di musica "classica" contemporanea." Alvaro Merz


Richard Ayres, blue

Toru Takemitsu, Paths

with permission of the composer this piece for choir was arranged for 4 trumpets and recorded in 1998 by the Michaels Trompeter, Markus Stockhausen, Andreas Adam, Achim Gorsch and Marco Blaauw

Marco Blaauw

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