Ian Bousfield was born in York, England, in1964 and began playing the trombone at the age of seven. Like so many of England's top brass players, Ian’s musical roots are firmly planted in the brass band scene, having been principal trombonist in the National Youth Brass Band at age 13, and for four years, principal with the Yorkshire Imperial Band, during which time they won the British, National and Yorkshire championships.
In 1979, Ian became the youngest winner ever of the Shell/London Symphony Orchestra Music Scholarship, and in 1980, joined the European Union Youth Orchestra. After winning a scholarship to the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, he completed only six months of the four-year course when, in March of 1983, he joined the Hallé Orchestra as principal trombonist. In 1988 Ian was appointed principal trombonist of the London Symphony Orchestra -- only the fourth in the orchestra's history. In September of 2000 he accepted a new position as principal trombonist of the Vienna State Opera/Vienna Philharmonic.
Ian's solo compact disks so far include The Versatile Virtuoso (Doyen), Frank Martin's Ballade with the London Philharmonic Orchestra and Matthias Bamert (Chandos); Elgar Howarth's Concerto for Trombone with Eikkanger-Bjørsvik Musikklag and Howart conducting (Doyen) as well as all the standard trombone and piano repertoire on EMI as part of its Virtuosi series.
Ian was appointed professor of trombone at the Royal Academy of Music in 1992 and has since been awarded Honorary Membership of the Royal Academy of Music. He has given classes in every music college and specialist music school in the United Kingdom as well as recitals, master classes and workshops at the Juilliard School in New York and the universities of Indiana, Illinois, Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa and Edmonton. He has also been a guest professor at the Tanglewood International Music School following an invitation from the Empire Brass Quintet.
