Stephen Altoft
Stephen Altoft is dedicated to the creation of new repertoire for the trumpet. As a solo artist with electronics, and with percussionist Lee Ferguson as duo Contour, he has given concerts throughout Europe, the United States and Canada. He is a member of ensemble chronophonie (Freiburg) and ensemble linea (Strasbourg), and has played with the Kammersinfonie Berlin, the Cornelius Cardew Ensemble, ensemble Courage, the Dresdner Sinfoniker, Collegium Novum Brass (Zurich), Klangforum Wien, Slowind Wind Quintet, SUONO MOBILE and the Karlsruhe Conservatory Trumpet Class under the direction of Rheinhold Friedrich. More recently, he was trumpeter in the Music theatre production, “Niebla” by Elena Mendoza and Matthias Rebstock at the Festspielhaus, Dresden, Berlin Konzerthaus and Teatro del Canal, Madrid.
Stephen studied at the University of Huddersfield (1991-5) where he was awarded B.Mus Honours and Masters degrees (in performance) and the Ricordi Prize for Contemporary Performance. This was followed by periods of private study with Markus Stockhausen (Cologne 1996-8) and, with assistance from the Music Sound Foundation, with William Forman (Berlin 1998-1999).
Between 2001-2, Stephen was a consultant for the Centre for New Musical Instruments, London, where he tested a prototype microtonal trumpet. During this time he began working on a microtonal trumpet manual with composer, Donald Bousted, now available here as an online resource. After further research, Stephen developed, in collaboration with Johannes Radeke and Siegmar Fischer (Musik Gillhaus) in Freiburg, Germany, a fourth (rotary) valve mechanism to enable the conversion of his existing trumpets into microtonal instruments (a 19-division B flat trumpet and quarter-tone C trumpet). This project has developed into the microtonal brass project, Mikroblech and a duo project with improviser-pianist, Thomas Wenk.
In 2009 and 2010 Stephen has been trumpeter (ensemble linea) on the Royaumont Composition Courses in France, where he has worked alongside Brian Ferneyhough, Isabel Mundry, Misato Mochizuki and Liza Lim.
Stephen has recorded for radio and televison (SWR, WDR, Deutschlandfunk Köln, Deutschland Radio in Germany, BBC Radio 3 in the UK and Bulgarian National Television) and for the Budapest Music Center (Peter Eötvös), Microtonal Projects and Wergo labels (Elena Mendoza).
