I played in an education project with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment (OAE) which was based on Purcell’s Fairy Queen. This community opera, called The Fairy Queen: Three Wishes featured music by the composer and animateur James Redwood with lyrics by Hazel Gould. The performance took place at Northgate High School in Ipswich on Wednesday 22 November 2023 and it featured students from Northgate

I played first trumpet in a sold-out concert of Bach’s Christmas Oratorio at St. Dunstan’s Church in Mayfield in East Sussex. I performed this festive work with the Mayfield Festival Choir, directed by Jeremy Summerly, on Sunday 19 November 2023. The orchestra was led by George Clifford (violin) and the trumpet section featured Russell Gilmour, William Russell, and Imogen Whitehead, with Laura

London’s St. John’s Smith Square was the venue for a performance Handel’s Messiah, in which I played first trumpet (alongside Will Russell, 2nd trumpet, and Adrian Bending, timpani) on Saturday 18 November 2023. The concert was directed by Scott Inglis-Kidger and featured the Platinum Consort, Platinum Choristers, and Platinum 415 baroque ensemble led by Conor Gricmanis (violin). It was wonderful

I performed Vivaldi’s Gloria (RV 589) and Handel’s ‘Eternal Source of Light Divine’ from the Ode for the Birthday of Queen Anne (HWV 74) at Snape Maltings on Saturday 11 November 2023. The performance featured the wonderful Aldeburgh Music Club (choir) and was directed by Tom Appleton. The all-Vivaldi first half began with Ostro picta, armata spina (RV 642) and continued with his most famous

I played Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach’s Magnificat in a performance with the Adderbury Ensemble and Cherwell Choral Society, directed by Paul Hedley, at Deddington Parish Church in Oxfordshire on Saturday 4th November 2023. The performance also featured motets by Telemann and Bach’s fifth Brandenburg Concerto, performed by Anhad Arora (harpsichord)—who stepped in at very short notice. I played first

I performed Bach’s Orchestral Suite No. 3 [BWV 1068], Orchestral Suite No. 4 [BWV 1069], and Handel’s Water Music in D major [HWV 349] with the orchestra Armonia Atenea in the Megaron concert hall in Athens on Sunday 22nd October 2023. It was wonderful to visit Greece again and to perform in Athens for the first time—my previous visit was en route to a wedding on the island of Santorini in 2011. 

I played the Zugtrompete (a trumpet with a single slide) and a trumpet in low B-flat at A = 415 Hz for a performance of Johann Sebastian Bach’s Wo soll ich fliehen hin [BWV 5] with the Choir of New College, Oxford under their Director of Music, Robert Quinney. We performed the cantata as part of a Sunday service in New College Chapel, and the service also included readings in German and Lutheran

I first visited Poland in July 2011 to play cornetto in Mikołaj Zieleński’s Offertoria et Communiones Totius Anni (1611), alongside David Staff (cornetto), with Emma Kirkby (soprano), Joel Frederiksen (bass), and a group called Collegium Zielenski directed by Stanisław Gałoński (who is now 93 years old) in Krakow. David Staff and I returned to Krakow several times for recordings and performances

I played third trumpet in Bach’s cantatas Nun ist das Heil und die Kraft [BWV 50], Herr Gott, dich loben alle wir [BWV 130], Es erhub sich ein Streit [BWV 19] and Man singet mit Freuden vom Sieg [BWV 149] at New College in Oxford on Sunday 1st October 2023. These festive cantatas were composed between 1724 and 1729 for the Feast of the Archangel Michael. I performed exactly this programme

I played first trumpet in Handel’s ‘Eternal Source of Light Divine’ as part of a performance entitled ‘Music to her Majestie’ with Spiritato, directed by the lutenist Elizabeth Kenny, at St Giles Cripplegate in London on Sunday 10 September 2023. The programme featured Purcell’s From Hardy Climes, Eccles’ Inspire us Genius—a modern (and perhaps an overall) premiere—and Handel’s

I played first trumpet in Handel’s Coronation Anthems in Southwell Minster on Sunday 27th August 2023. The performance was part of Southwell Music Festival, and it was conducted by the festival's founder and artistic director, Marcus Farnsworth. The performance also featured a Concerto Grosso by Handel, and his Dixit Domimus, after the interval.Our section comprised Russell Gilmour, Will Russell,

I performed with Christophe Rousset, Marina Viotti, and Les Talens Lyriques on Friday 25th August 2023 in the courtyard of the Château Louis XI in La Côte-Saint-André as part of the 2023 Berlioz Festival. Our programme, Hommage à Pauline Viardot, was a live version of the album we made in 2021, with some new additions to the programme by Gluck and other composers. The programme now included

Five years ago, I performed Delalande’s Te Deum with Vox Luminis in the Utrecht Early Music Festival. We performed the Te Deum four times, and four audiences walked between four different venues in Utrecht to hear four different programmes. We also used four trumpets, although only two parts were notated by the composer: I wrote trumpet parts for the occasion to ensure a good realisation

Just a few days after performing Bach’s B Minor Mass with Vox Luminis at Wigmore Hall in London, I travelled to Belgium (via the Eurostar) to record Heinrich Schütz’s Weihnachtshistorie (‘Christmas Story’) [SWV 345] with Vox Luminis in Gedinne, in the tranquil Belgian countryside near the French border.I played the second clarino part, alongside Rudolf Lörinc, and a small continuo team comprising

I travelled to Malonne, near Namur, in Belgium the morning after our performance with Les Talens Lyriques at La Seine Musicale. I was in Belgium to rehearse Bach’s B Minor Mass with the choir and orchestra of Vox Luminis at their rehearsal headquarters in Wallonia.We subsequently travelled to London and performed Bach’s B Minor Mass at Wigmore Hall. Robert Hughill described a performance with

It was great to revisit the programme, 'Mozart and Friends', that Les Talens Lyriques, under Christophe Rousset and with the baritone Benjamin Appl, most recently performed in April 2023 in Krakow. This time, 27th June 2023, we performed at La Seine Musicale in Paris (Boulogne-Billancourt).After the exciting Louise Bertin Fausto project last week, it was wonderful to play some well-known repertoire,

Fresh from a tour of Spain with the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra, I continued this action-packed month with a recording and performance—thought to be a modern premiere—of Louise Bertin’s Fausto (1831) with Les Talens Lyriques and Christophe Rousset. The performance took place on Tuesday 20th June 2023 at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris, and the recording took place in La Seine Musicale

After a wonderful Handel Festival in Göttingen, I returned home for just a few days before returning to Germany with a case full of cornetti and trumpets. I joined the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra, under the conductor René Jacobs, for their rehearsals and performances of Christoph Willibald Gluck’s Orfeo Ed Euriduce in June 2023. We began with rehearsals in the beautiful city of Freiburg, in

It was a great pleasure to play with the Festspiel Orchester Göttingen (FOG) as part of the Göttingen Handel Festival 2023, under their new artistic director, George Petrou. I played first trumpet, with Gareth Hoddinott on second, Maarten van der Valk on timpani, and the horn players Stephan Katte and Claudia Pallaver.This year I arrived in Göttingen on 14th May 2023 and departed on 29th May 2023. The

I played cornett with His Majestys Sagbutts and Cornetts and the St Cecilia Players for a performance of Monteverdi’s Vespers at The Oratory on Brompton Road in London on Wednesday 10th May 2023. The performance was directed by Charles Cole and featured the exceptional singers of the Schola Cantorum of the London Oratory School and the tenor soloists Peter Davoren and Mark Dobell. We performed