Jazz Trumpeter Alexandra Ridout is from the UK and is currently based in New York City.
At the age of 17 Alexandra was crowned the winner of the BBC Young Musician Jazz
Award 2016, which is the most prominent jazz competition in the UK, widely promoted by
the BBC on National TV and Radio. She was catapulted into a very busy and high profile
jazz career and has been wowing audiences ever since.
Since her win, Alexandra has gone on to receive an array of awards and accolades including
the British Jazz Awards ‘Rising Star’ 2018, in 2019 being named one of ‘London’s Most
Influential People under 25’ by the Evening Standard, she was a Parliamentary Jazz
Awards nominee 2020, a winner of the highly competitive American Laurie Frink Career
Grant for trumpet 2022. She received the ‘Best Soloist’ award at the ‘Keep an Eye
International Jazz Award’ 2023, was awarded 2nd Place at the most
prestigious jazz trumpet competition in the world - the Caruso International Jazz Trumpet
Competition 2023 and most recently won the the Next Jazz Legacy award through New Music USA.
Alexandra’s career took off in the UK and beyond from 2016 onwards. She has been in great
demand as a bandleader, composer, musical collaborator, educator and featured artist,
performing in 100’s of shows in all of the UK’s top venues, including 2 appearances in the
2018 BBC Proms, which included her performance as a featured guest for ‘40 years of The
BBC Young Musician’. During this time Alexandra also had her music played on multiple
BBC Radio 3 show’s, Jazz FM and across Europe and the USA.
Since being based in the UK and USA in 2021, Alexandra’s exquisite playing has been sought out by
many revered international musicians, including touring with 5 time Grammy Award Winning Vocalist Samara Joy’s Octet,
European touring with world renowned Renee Rosnes’ Blue Note signed band ‘Artemis’, Orlando Le Fleming’s ‘Romantic Funk’
(including a London residency with the band), prestigious New York venues and USA performances as a member of award winning saxophonist
Dayna Stephens’ ‘Custom Deluxe’, New York shows and European Touring and Recording in world famous jazz drummer Jochen Rueckert’s new
quartet, regularly performing at the famous Birdland Jazz Club and many other USA and worldwide venues as a member of Arturo O’Farrill’s
8 time Grammy winning Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra. She also performs in NYC in the bands of Caroline Davis, Melissa Aldana, Dave Douglas,
Savannah Harris, Christine Jensen, Mingus Big Band, Alexandra was also twice invited to be a featured artist with Pablo Held as part of his
‘Pablo Held meets... series in Germany and is touring twice in 2026 with the Pablo Held Trio. She is also performing and recording regularly with
ECM artist Kit Downes and multi award winning saxophonist Alex Hitchcock.
Alexandra has performed with her bands multiple times and as an in demand member of many other bands in NYC venues such as The Jazz
Gallery, Close Up, Smalls, Dizzy’s Jazz Club, Bar Lunatico, Ornithology Jazz Club, Nublu, the Kennedy
Centre in DC and many more.
She was a showcased performer/composer in the International Festival of New Trumpet
Music with her trio in New York in 2022. The Festival is curated by world famous jazz trumpeter Dave
Douglas, who she performed with in the FONT in 2024 and recorded an album with his new project 'alloy'
in 2025
30th April 2024 sees Alexandra as a highlighted composer and performer on International Jazz
Day, bringing her quintet to Columbus, Ohio as the main artist of the 2024 Columbus
International Jazz Series in conjunction with Jazz Appreciation month presented by leading
jazz organisation ‘A Tribe for Jazz’.
She has performed at many festivals around the world including Montreux Jazz Festival, North Sea Jazz
Festival, recently an artist in residence at the Guimarães Jazz Festival, Unity Jazz Festival at the Lincoln
Centre, London Jazz Festival, Love Supreme Jazz Festival and many more all across europe and is
reguarly touring around europe and the US with her own projects and as a side person
She released her debut EP ‘Remote Duets’ in 2020 and is to recording her debut album in 2025 after a 10 date european tour with her quartet in November 2025.
“Pretty much from the first note you know that you’re dealing with an original voice”
- Matt Penman announcing the winner of the ‘Keep an Eye International Jazz Award’
“Her incredibly sweet, subtle and well-controlled tone....absolutely owning the stage and the
room...melodic, fluent and engaging...great sound, and an emotional content to her playing,
but again with superb control even in very high register”
– Jazz Journal
“Alexandra Ridout…. showed her poise, shining tone, and instrumental command with an
unaccompanied trumpet intro .......... a sparkling duet with Simcock on Herbie Hancock’s
Sonrisa.....obviously a player of huge promise”
- London Jazz News
“Her unaccompanied intro had heads nodding and feet tapping even before the band joined
in. There was also a grooving take on Steve Wonder’s ‘Golden Lady’ to close the set in style,
with a sizzling exchange of fours with Gwilym Simcock”
– Jazzwise magazine
“Alexandra, she stood out because she connected with everybody. There’s a sense that she
really really loves the music. She gets it and I think rhythmically she was just streets ahead, in
terms of connecting with the groove of the music and trying to swing. It was beautiful.”
- Julian Joseph on ‘Jazz Line Up’, BBC Radio 3.