Baker Artist Portfolios

Mount Vernon resident  Andrew Balio is both a solo trumpet player and writer/ public speaker, advocating  for the renewal of classical music to reach a far broader audience. 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 2019, he was guest principal trumpet of the Chicago Symphony and in 2020, the Hong Kong Philharmonic. Prior to his arrival in Baltimore, he had been principal trumpet of the Israel Philharmonic under Zubin Mehta since 1994 and the Orquesta Sinfonica del Estado de Mexico since 1990, as well as the Boston Philharmonic.  

In 2014, he launched the Foundation for the Future of Classical Music, an advocacy think tank to examine the complexities of making classical music financially viable while preserving their artistic mission. Their website www.ffclassicalmusic.org has garnered much attention in the international press. For his work in this area, he was invited in to the Academy of Philosophy and Letters as a board member and has presented papers during its conferences.

He maintained  a life-long connection with the Trumpet Concerto op.92 of Polish-Jewish composer Moishe Weinberg, eventually recording it in St Petersburg after his decade playing in Israel. Most recently, he and Jonathan Heyward performed it together in  both Germany and here in Baltimore with the BSO. He most recently recorded another album of his own Brahms transcriptions  with Peabody pianist, John Wilson, at Skywalker Studio, on the ranch of Star Wars director, George Lucas. 

For his pandemic project, the recording, Soli Deo Gloria, his own transcriptions of the music of JS Bach for trumpet and organ, received much acclaim. 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."  Since its release he, has performed programs from it throughout Italy, Austria, Czechia, Hungary, England, Korea and Guatemala. 

As a soloist, Mr. Balio has appeared in Europe, South America, Japan and the United States under such conductors such as Mehta, Temirkanov, Alsop, Heyward, 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 who escaped communism.

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, LAWO, Outhere and Teldec labels.