Callum Au – Trombone
Tuesday 16 August 2016
“The remarkable young arranger, Callum Au, is already a master.” The Guardian
Callum Au is a British composer, arranger, orchestrator, and trombonist. He writes music across a wide
range of genres, with a particular passion for big band and large jazz ensemble music. He is highly
regarded for his stylistic awareness and versatility, and has worked with some of the world’s biggest
artists.
Born in London to a Scottish mother and a Chinese father, Callum spent most of his formative years in
Blackpool before moving to London, where he now lives and works
Over the past fifteen years, Callum has established himself as one of the busiest arrangers and
orchestrators in Europe. He has had the privilege of writing music for many international artists,
including Quincy Jones, Jamie Cullum and Randy Brecker, and ensembles including the SWR Big Band,
the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and the Britten Sinfonia. In 2019, he was commissioned to arrange
the big band songs in the Hollywood movie adaptation of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s ‘Cats’. More recently,
he had the pleasure of writing two new arrangements for Michael Bublé’s album ‘Higher’, and
conducting the BBC Concert Orchestra in a special episode of ‘Sunday Night Is Music Night’ for BBC
Radio 2.
Callum is increasingly in demand as a composer for classical ensembles, with his flair for arresting
melodies and lush complex harmony proving popular with audiences and musicians alike. Recent
commissions include works for Inner City Brass at the Spitalfields and Ryedale Festivals and pieces
recorded and performed by the Metropole Orkest and the Tippett Quartet.
In 2020 Callum released his second album, ‘Songs and Stories’; a selection of jazz standards and
American Songbook classics given compelling, sensitive, modern orchestral treatment, and featuring
multi -award winning singer Claire Martin OBE alongside full symphonic forces. The record won ‘Album
of the Year’ at the Parliamentary Jazz Awards in 2021 and a much awaited live performance will take
place at the Cadogan Hall in January 2023.
classic big band charts by artists such as Nelson Riddle, Billy May, and Chico O’Farrill. These
transcriptions have been performed by many of the world’s finest jazz singers, including Clare Teal,
Matt Forbes, and Dee Dee Bridgewater.
Callum has been the jazz trombonist with the Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Orchestra since 2012, one of the
UK’s premier large jazz ensembles, with a performance schedule to match. He has also composed or
arranged a substantial proportion of the band’s current working repertoire.
With the RSJO, Callum has performed alongside top jazz stars including Curtis Stigers, Seth
MacFarlane, Maria Schneider, and at venues including the Cheltenham Festival, the Royal Albert Hall,
and Buckingham Palace. He has worked in a freelance capacity with most of the top big bands and jazz
ensembles in the UK, for multiple West End musicals, at the BBC Proms, and as a session musician on
many recordings for film and TV.
When he’s not busy arranging and composing music for fellow artists, the various ensembles that he
directs and plays in are Callum’s primary creative outlets.
Callum’s long standing collaboration with high note trumpet sensation Louis Dowdeswell has seen
their videos amass over 8 million combined views on YouTube. The pair continue to work together on
new video content, a second album, live shows, and more recently, their wildly popular ‘Louis and Cal’s
Ultimate Big Band Toolkit’ series, that allows aspiring and professional big band players to learn and
play remotely with some of the best musicians on the scene. 2022 saw them collaborate with the Cory
Band at the International Brass Band Championships gala concert, where Callum’s genre defying
arrangements for both groups in tandem brought the house down.
