It was a great pleasure to play principal trumpet with the Aurora Orchestra under the baton of Nicholas Collon in the Queen Elizabeth Hall at the Southbank Centre in London on Sunday 29 June 2025. The programme featured Harold in Italy (Op. 16, H. 68) by Hector Berlioz, with the obbligato viola part played by Lawrence Power, and we also gave a memorised rendition of Felix Mendelssohn’s Symphony No.

Following on from a very enjoyable performance at Bachfest Leipzig, Solomon’s Knot reprised their all-Bach programme at Stour Music Festival at Boughton Aluph Church, a beautiful venue in the Kent countryside, on Friday 27 June 2025, performing Johann Christoph Bach’s Es erhub sich ein Streit and J. S. Bach’s Man singet mit Freuden vom Sieg (BWV 149), Es erhub sich ein Streit (BWV 19), Herr Gott,

Leipzig’s Nikolaikirche was the venue for Solomon’s Knot’s all-Bach programme, on Sunday 22 June 2025, as part of the famous and truly international Bachfest Leipzig. I last performed in this festival (also with Solomon’s Knot) in 2016. Solomon’s Knot last performed a similar programme to this at the BBC Proms in 2016. On this occasion the programme began with Johann Christoph Bach’s

I have long been an admirer of Masaaki Suzuki’s recordings with Bach Collegium Japan, so it was an enormous pleasure for me to play for this champion of Bach interpretation when he directed the English Baroque Soloists and Monteverdi Choir for a performance at London’s St. Martin-in-the-Fields on Thursday 19 June 2025 (an exceptionally warm day). The artfully crafted programme featured four

Mitridate, re di Ponto [K. 87 (74a)] was written in 1770 by a 14-year-old Mozart, and it was premiered at Milan’s Teatro Regio Ducale. On Sunday 18 May 2025, I played first trumpet in this work with Les Talens Lyriques under the direction of Christophe Rousset at Milan’s famous Teatro alla Scala. I first performed at this venue only a few months ago, with the English Baroque Soloists, also directed

Handel’s Solomon (HWV 67) was the chosen oratorio at this year’s Göttingen International Handel Festival, which centred around the theme of laurels (Lorbeeren). George Petrou directed the Festspiel Orchester Göttingen (FOG) for two performances of this oratorio; the first took place at Hamburg’s Elbphilharmonie on 15 May 2025 and the second at Göttingen’s recently refurbished Stadthalle,

To celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Croatian Baroque Ensemble (Hrvatski Barokni Ansambl), as well as the 50th birthday of the trumpeter Krešimir Fabijanić, the Croatian Baroque Ensemble performed an instrumental programme entitled ‘Tromba Gloriosa’, featuring music by Biber, Purcell, Telemann, Bach and Handel. The programme began with Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber’s Sonata Sancti Polycarpi

It was a great pleasure to rejoin Christophe Rousset’s Les Talens Lyriques, once again as principal trumpet, for five all-Bach performances over the Easter period. Following rehearsals in Paris, we performed at the MC2 concert hall in Grenoble (16 April 2025), the Kultur- und Kongresszentrum Luzern (KKL) in Lucerne (18 April 2025), as part of the Festival de Pâques at the Grand Théâtre de Provence

I played first trumpet in Handel’s Saul with the Monteverdi String Band (led by Oliver Webber) and the Romsey Choral Society, conducted by Richard Pearce on Saturday 29 March 2025. The performance featured soloists Simon Thorpe (Saul), Maryam Wocial (Merab, Witch of Endor), Beatriz Volante (Michal), Christopher Bowen (Jonathan, Samuel, High Priest, Amalekite, Messenger) and

I played first trumpet in Bach’s Easter Oratorio (BWV 249) at St Clement Danes Church in London on Thursday 27 March 2025 with the ensemble Liturnia, directed by Joel Sanderson. The programme also featured Bach’s cantata Ihr werdet weinen und heulen (BWV 103) in which the trumpet aria, Erholet euch, betrübte Stimmen, was played by Nick Walker (who has performed it with this group on a previous

St Bartholomew the Great, London’s oldest parish church, was a suitably ancient venue for a performance of Monteverdi’s Vespro della Beata Vergine (1610) on Wednesday 26 March 2025. The performance, directed by Rupert Gough, featured the Brandenburg Baroque Soloists and the excellent choir of Royal Holloway, University of London. I realised, when the conductor placed the parts for Monteverdi’s

I played second trumpet, alongside Adrian Woodward and Daniel Weitz, in Bach’s B Minor Mass (BWV 232) at the Parish Church of St John the Baptist in Chester on Saturday 22 March 2025.The performance given by the Chester Bach Singers featured the superb soloists Ruth Provost (soprano), Amy Wood (soprano), Joseph Judge (alto), William Balkwill (tenor [formerly a trumpeter!]), and Peter Edge (Baritone).

After an amazing fortnight of performances with the Aurora Orchestra (and a couple of days to rest at home), I travelled to Brittany to perform with Le Banquet Céleste: a French period-instrument orchestra based in Rennes. Before leaving home, I had a brief look at the list of musicians in the schedule and I did not see any names that I recognised. However, when I arrived (via Eurostar,

Words simply cannot convey the brilliance of the past fortnight, which I have spent performing with the Aurora Orchestra under the baton of Nicholas Collon. After a fairly gentle start to the year for me (professionally), the reunion of this family-like orchestra felt all the more uplifting. We performed Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7 from memory at Saffron Hall (23 February), the Isarphilharmonie in

I performed Bach’s Christmas Oratorio with the Oxford Bach Soloists at SJE Arts in Oxford on Friday 3 January 2025 and at St James Piccadilly in London on Saturday 4 January 2025. The performance, featuring parts I, IV, and VI of the Christmas Oratorio, was directed by Steven Grahl and featured the soloists Nick Pritchard (Evangelist), Emilia Bertolini (soprano), Stephanie Franklin (alto), Thomas

On Friday 20 and Saturday 21 December 2024, I finished an incredibly busy week by playing carols with a small ensemble at Hampton Court Palace. We played Christmas music in the Great Hall and, later, a selection of carols requested by the visitors in the Presence Chamber and the Guard Chamber and . ‘Silent Night’ and ‘In the Bleak Midwinter’ (the Holst version) were among the more traditional

I went to Gatwick Airport on 17 December 2024, straight after performing at St. Martin-in-the-Fields with the English Baroque Soloists, in preparation to travel to Gran Canaria early the following morning. Once I arrived in Gran Canaria on Wednesday 18 December 2024 (and following a quick dip in the hotel’s rooftop swimming pool, where the water temperature was a bracing 13°C and the weather

La Scala, Milan | Alte Oper, Frankfurt | Elbphilharmonie, Hamburg | St. Martin-in-the-Fields, LondonThe final concert of our tour, which featured Marc-Antoine Charpentier’s Messe de minuit pour Noël, [H 9], Johann Sebastian Bach’s Schwingt freudig euch empor [BWV 36c], and Bach’s Unser Mund sei voll Lachens [BWV 110] took place at St. Martin-in-the-Fields in London on Tuesday 17 December

I played first trumpet in Bach’s Christmas Oratorio [BWV 248] at Brompton Oratory in London on Monday 16 December 2024. This remarkable performance, directed by Charles Cole, featured only one professional singer (Peter Davoren, tenor) as the Evangelist, the rest of the soloists came from within the ranks of this incredible choir. The students and teachers of this fine choral school should be extremely

La Scala, Milan | Alte Oper, Frankfurt | Elbphilharmonie, Hamburg | St. Martin-in-the-Fields, LondonThe third concert of our tour, featuring Marc-Antoine Charpentier’s Messe de minuit pour Noël, [H 9], Johann Sebastian Bach’s Schwingt freudig euch empor [BWV 36c] and Bach’s Unser Mund sei voll Lachens [BWV 110] took place at the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg on Saturday 14 December 2024. This