Fanfare for the MODERN WOMAN.

I'm used to seeing Alison Balsom on CD covers or on TV for musical events such as the Classic Brit Awards, where she won Best Female Artist this year. The trumpet soloist, who is redefining the image of the instrument, is usually styled in Armani gowns and lipgloss: the archetypal classical Glamazon. In real life, she's a bare-faced and bejeaned tomboy. She looks about 17 and even her vocabulary seems schoolgirlish. 'I'm such a saddo. I'm 33, but don't write that. It was my birthday a couple of days ago. I didn't celebrate, I just wanted to go to bed,' she says. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]