Gold trunk artist gives musicians (9)
I believe the answer is:
orchestra
'musicians' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'gold trunk artist' is the wordplay.
'gold' becomes 'or' ('or' is the heraldic name for gold).
'trunk' becomes 'chest' (I've seen this before).
'artist' becomes 'ra' (Royal Academician, member of Royal Academy of Arts).
'or'+'chest'+'ra'='ORCHESTRA'
'gives' is the link.
(Other definitions for orchestra that I've seen before include "Instrumental group" , "Musical ensemble" , "Big band" , "Assembly of musicians as in pit" , "eg Halle" .)