Bio

Wisconsin native Andrew Balio was appointed as Principal Trumpet of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra in 2001 by Yuri Temirkanov. He recently served as principal trumpet of the Oslo Philharmonic concurrently with his BSO duties in 2014/15. Just prior to the pandemic, he was guest principal trumpet of the Chicago Symphony and the Hong Kong Philharmonic. Prior to his arrival in Baltimore, he had been principal trumpet of the Israel Philharmonic under Zubin Mehta from 1993 and the Orquesta Sinfonica del Estado de Mexico since 1990, as well as the Boston Philharmonic.  His solo debut was at age 15 with the Milwaukee Symphony playing the Haydn Concerto.  His teachers included Charles Schlueter, Adolph Herseth, Roger Voisin and Gene Young.

Among his acclaimed solo recordings, Soli Deo Gloria, are transcriptions of the music of J.S. Bach for trumpet and organ. Fanfare Magazine wrote of his album; “This is, hands down, the most magnificent, eloquent, communicative trumpet playing I have ever heard in my life, and I have a whole shelf full of trumpet CDs by virtuosos past and present against which I am comparing it.” He recently completed another volume of his own transcriptions, that of Brahms, Schumann and Schubert, recorded at Skywalker Ranch. His first solo recording was issued from Russia with the St. Petersburg Symphony, that of the Weinberg Trumpet Concerto, which he will be playing with Jonathan Heyward in the US and Germany.

As a soloist, throughout his career, Andrew Balio has appeared in Europe, South America, Japan and the United States under such conductors such as Mehta, Temirkanov, Rozdestvensky, Herbig, Venzago, Stenz, McGeegan, Bergman, Orbelian, and Lintu.

His Carnegie Hall solo debut was with the Moscow Chamber Orchestra in a special concert for victims of Hurricane Sandy, many of which were Soviet émigrés.

In 2014, he launched The Future Symphony Institute, an online think tank to examine the complexities of making symphony orchestras financially viable while preserving their artistic mission. The website www.futuresymphony.org has garnered much attention in the international press. For his work in this area, he was invited into the Academy of Philosophy and Letters as a board member and has presented papers during its conferences.

As a teacher, Mr. Balio has taught master classes regularly in Russia, Poland and Italy, the Conservatorio Nacional of Mexico, as well as in Brazil, Chile, Scandanavia, Israel, Japan and the United States.  He has recorded for the Sony, RCA, Angel, Phillips, Naxos and Teldec labels.