COMPOSER
ARRANGER
ORCHESTRATOR
TROMBONIST
Callum Au is a British composer, arranger, orchestrator, and trombonist. He writes music across a wide range of genres, with a particular passion for orchestral 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.
Arranger, Orchestrator, Composer
Over the past fifteen years, Callum has established himself as one of the busiest arrangers in the world. He has had the privilege of writing music for many international artists including Quincy Jones, Jamie Cullum and RAYE, and ensembles including the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the WDR Funkhaus Orchestra, and the Danish Radio Big Band. In 2021 he arranged two songs for Michael Bublé’s Grammy winning album ‘Higher’. More recently, he contributed four arrangements to Dua Lipa’s ‘Live from the Royal Albert Hall’ and wrote the vast majority of the critically acclaimed 2024 BBC Concert Orchestra Disco Prom.
Callum is also active as a composer, 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, the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, and Bone a-fide Trombone Quartet, and groups as diverse as the BBC Concert Orchestra and the SWR Big Band have performed his original music.
Musical Director
Callum is increasingly busy as a musical director and conductor in both live and studio contexts. He brings to the table his stylistic awareness and his expertise as a performer and arranger. In 2021 he conducted and directed the BBC Concert Orchestra in a special Sunday Night is Music Night broadcast from the Watford Town Hall; he has subsequently conducted several of the Radio 2 Piano Rooms series. In 2023 he was invited to guest-direct Stuttgart’s SWR Big Band as part of their Heimspiel series. He is equally at home as a studio MD, having recently conducted the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra on Emma Smith’s single ‘Alfie’.
Songs and Stories
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.
“…the result is what many strive for but few achieve: popular music that sounds both familiar and new. By recasting songs such as Hello, Young Lovers and I Concentrate On You, Martin and Au bring them to life, sometimes quite startlingly. That’s what you get with a brilliant score and 82 hand-picked musicians.”
— The Guardian
Trombonist
Callum has been the jazz trombonist with the Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Orchestra since 2012. The band is one of the UK’s premier large jazz ensembles, with a performance schedule to match. He often writes new music for the band to play.
Callum is often seen moonlighting as a session trombonist, playing on many of the films and album projects that are recorded in the London studios.
Callum is a Yamaha Artist, and plays the YSL-897Z jazz trombone, the YSL882ORII tenor trombone and the YBL835GD Bass trombone.
“It was the finale though that took things into orbit; Calum Au’s ‘Pictures at an Exhibition’ curated with a particular genius that turned the familiar framings into the eye-popping works of Damien Hirst and the Chapman Brothers. The sheer ballsy boldness to carry it off with such tongue in cheek insouciant glitter-ball brilliance left you breathless in admiration for all concerned.”
— 4 Bars Rest
Collaboration
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, which 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.