Martón Illés, Réz-Tér, for 8 trumpets
performed by The Monochrome Project
Marco Blaauw, Nathan Plante, Laura Vukobratovič, Markus Schwind, Bob Koertshuis, Matthew Conley, Rike Huy, Christine Chapman

Recording of the premier performance during lockdown
10th December 2020, Kunststation St. Peter, Cologne

Martón Illés, Réz-Tér, The Monochrome Project

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

Milica Djordjevic, WERGO, Deutsche Musikrat

Milica Djordjevic, Phosphorescence

Fabian Panisello, trumpet concerto, 
Marco Blaauw, double bell trumpet, Plural Ensemble, conductor Fabian Panisello
recorded in Madrid, 2010

Portrait CD Panisello, NEOS

Fabian Panisello, Trompetenkonzert

Niels Rosing-Schow, WINDGEBOREN (1998) for trumpet quartet.
I Intonation
II Passage
III Hymne ... sed signifer sanctus Michael repraesentet eas in lucem sanctam

recorded in Copenhagen in 1999, 
by Markus Stockhausen, Marco Blaauw, Andreas Adam, Achim Gorsch

’Windgeboren’ belongs together with the orchestral work ’Windshapes’, the sinfonietta work ’...sous les râles du vent d’est’ and the violin concerto ’Trees’(work in progress) to a group of works in which musical conceptions are nourished by the wind as a gathering metaphor of the perceptible but invisible ’natural forces’ behind the music.

In addition to this image a number of other impressions have arisen during the process of composition which have to some extent left their mark on the three strongly contrasting movements, for instance:

- wind and spirit are said to be expressed by the same word in Hebrew.
- The archangel Michael is portrayed as the weigher of souls in many wonderful Danish frescos.
- Saint Michael in the role of standard-bearer and soul leader performs in the offertorium of the Requiem Mass. He leads the souls toward clarity, the holy light, the tripartition: beginning - middle - conclusion; birth - life - death; intonation - passage - hymn.

Niels Rosing-Schow, Windgeboren, trumpet quartet

Liza Lim, Roda - the living circle, 
Performed by Marco Blaauw, recorded during lockdown on December 13th, 2020
at Ensemble Musikfabrik, Cologne

Liza Lim, Roda-the living circle (Marco Blaauw)

Guillaume Dufay (1400-1474) Messe Se La Face Ay Pale
Arrangement by Marco Blaauw, for 6 trumpets and electronics

Recorded in March 2023, Cologne by Niklas Werani 
Edited and Mix, Niklas Werani and Marco Blaauw

Performed by The Monochrome Project

G. Dufay, Messe Se La Face Ay Pale for 6 trumpets and electronics

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

The Monochrome Project, first performance of "monochrome light blue darkness", composition by Milica Djordjević.
Recorded at Wittener Tage für Neue Kammermusik, May 3d 2024
Marco Blaauw, Christine Chapman, Mathilde Conley, Christopher Collings, Rike Huy, Bob Koertshuis, Nathan Plante, Laura Vukobratović

Milica Djordjević "monochrome light blue darkness"

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

Anna Korsun FOS, performed by The Monochrome Project, recording of the premier performance at the festival Romanische Sommer 2024, Sankt Gereon, Cologne, on 5th June 2024. 

The Monochrome Project:
Marco Blaauw, Christine Chapman, Christopher Collings, Mathilde Conley, Mechthild Drop, Lucy Humphris, Markus Schwind, Laura Vukobratović

Anna Korsun, FOS, The Monochrome Project

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

Peter Jakober "little beauty" composed for 88 wind players, performed by The Monochrome Project and wind band BLOW Witten.
This piece was designed for a spontaneous ensemble of as many players as possible (professionals and amateurs)
Performed on May 5th 2024, Wittener Tage für Neue Kammermusik

Peter Jakober "little beauty" The Monochrome Project and BLOW Witten

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

Dai Fujikura "Bell" performed by Marco Blaauw, trumpet
studio recording October 2023
"Bell" was composed from pre-existing work “Obi” for sho and backing track. “Obi” was commissioned by Tamami Tono.
The backing track is derived from the original backing track of "Obi," with the sho material performed by Tamami Tono, and the trumpet harmonizer element played by Marco Blaauw. The trumpet transcription from the original piece 'Obi' was crafted by Marco Blaauw, with newly composed trumpet elements by the composer.

uploaded with kind permission from Marco Blaauw

Dai Fujikura, "Bell", 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)

O.M. Rising, composed by Ayanna Witter-Johnson, performed by Marco Blaauw.
recorded at Ludwigsburger Schlossfestspiele 2021, first performance, live to tape
O.M. Rising!

Born in Jamaica in 1952, Olive Morris moved to London with her family at nine years old. Following an incident with the Police aged 16, where she tried to defend the unlawful arrest of a Nigerian diplomat, she was physically assaulted and racially abused by the police, arrested, and given a three-month suspended jail sentence. This incident gave rise to Olive's commitment to challenging oppression. Throughout her life, she campaigned for racial and gender equality, squatters rights, led protests, demonstrations, and co-founded the Brixton Black Women's Group in 1973, one of Britain's first networks for black women.  Morris died aged 27.
 
As a young Black British woman of Jamaican heritage, I have been inspired by Olive's Morris' legacy and composed this piece in honour of her memory and the values she fought for that remain as relevant today as when she was alive. The central pulsing rhythm that weaves its way through the piece forms a part of Olive’s heritage and belongs to the Kumina Tradition in Jamaica. Kumina is a religious group, which originated in Congo, West Africa, and was brought to Jamaica by the free Africans who arrived between the 1840s and 1860s. Kumina is the most African of the [cultural expressions] found in Jamaica, with negligible European or Christian influence. The three most important elements in a Kumina session are dancing, singing and drumming. 

Within the form of the piece, I wanted to explore the challenges, sadness, strength, persistance, frustration and hope of a single voice motivated to inspire change by speaking out against a broken system. 

By Ayanna Witter-Johnson

Ayanna Witter - Johnson, O.M. Rising,  Performed by Marco Blaauw

Luciano Berio, Kol Od, Marco Blaauw, Trumpet Live Rec

Fever employs the irresistible sound of eight trumpets to explore encounters of hope and despair that conjure both ancient rituals and contemporary challenges

Claudia Molitor "Fever" composed for The Monochrome Project

a trumpet sound around the world in 40 minutes


Global Breath, World of Trumpet Sounds, composition for radio by Marco Blaauw

The Prix Palma Ars Acustica 2024 goes to Marco Blaauw's radio composition Global Breath – World of Trumpet Sounds, a production from SWR, for its outstanding approach to travelling the world through the means of trumpet instruments, encompassing not only man-made instruments, but also sounds from the environment, ie. animals and birds. A subtle journey through the ancestral rituals of the horn or trumpet. The sound of the trumpet plays the role of an instrument of communication across cultures and continents.
https://www.ebu.ch/music/palma-ars-acustica

Global Breath, World of Trumpet Sounds

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)

Trio for brass, horn, trumpet and tuba, plus electronics. Recorded on 11th April 2022 at Harvard University. Edited and mastered by Elena Rykova. 

Elena Rykova, Whispering to the Stars

Recorded December 2004 for Solo CD "Blaauw"

Isabel Mundry, Solo Auf Schwellen for double bell trumpet

Duo version for soprano (Barbara Hannigan) and quarter tone flugelhorn, recorded December 2004 for the Solo CD "Blaauw"

BLAAUW

Karlheinz Stockhausen, PIETA

Violin Solo, Trumpet Solo, Ensemble Musikfabrik, Peter Rundel, live recording from 2010

musikFabrik im WDR - Reihe 13 - 27.05.2006

Rebecca Saunders, Cinnabar

ZKM projekt

Agostino die Scipio, Modes of Interference

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

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

Marco Blaauw

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