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

La Scala, Milan | Alte Oper, Frankfurt | Elbphilharmonie, Hamburg | St. Martin-in-the-Fields, London I rejoined the English Baroque Soloists under the direction of Christophe Rousset to perform Johann Sebastian Bach’s Unser Mund sei voll Lachens [BWV 110] alongside the Monteverdi Choir at the Alte Oper in Frankfurt on Sunday 8 December 2024. This was the second performance of the project,

As storm Darragh raged across much of the UK, I performed Bach’s Christmas Oratorio with the Adderbury Ensemble and the Cherwell Choral Society at St Peter and St Pauls Church in Deddington, Oxfordshire. It was nice to return to this village one year after our performance of Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach’s Magnificat last year.The performance, which took place on Saturday 7 December 2024, was directed

I played first trumpet in Bach’s B minor Mass (BWV 232) at Snape Maltings in Suffolk on Saturday 16 November 2024. The performance featured the Aldeburgh Music Club choir, directed by Tom Appleton. There were many wonderful musical moments, including from the stellar oboe section led by Gail Hennessy. The trumpet and timpani section comprised Russell Gilmour, William Russell, Nick Wright, and Nick

I coached students of the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester from 18–21 June 2024 as part of the Academy of Ancient Music's AAMplify initiative. I taught with Joe Crouch (cello) and (fellow RNCM alumni) Mark Baigent (oboe). I played first trumpet alongside the RNCM students in a performance of Bach’s Lobet Gott in seinen Reichen (Ascension Oratorio, BWV 11), directed by Alexander Rebetge,

I played first trumpet with the Istante Collective at St Thomas the Apostle church in Finsbury Park, London, on 18 May 2024. The performance featured the three trumpets and timpani in Handel’s coronation anthem, ‘The King Shall Rejoice’ and in Bach’s cantata, O ewiges Feuer, o Ursprung der Liebe [BWV 34]. I played first trumpet with Will Russell on second, Rebecca Toal on third and Ben Fullbrook

The Hampstead Collective formed in 2020 and managed to present a season of 17 weekly performances amid the Covid-19 pandemic; it is fantastic that they have continued to give (now monthly) concerts in Hampstead Parish Church. They began the year in style with a performance of Bach’s Christmas Oratorio (cantatas 1, 3, 5 and 6), conducted by Aidan Coburn, on Monday 8th January 2024. I had the pleasure

I performed Bach’s Christmas Oratorio [BWV 248] with Vox Luminis four times in December 2023, with performances at: deSingel in Antwerp, Lyon’s Chapelle de la Trinité, Malonne Abbaye, and the Concertgebouw in Bruges. I played first trumpet with Will Russell on second, Krešimir Fabijanić on third, and Koen Plaetinck on timpani—a fantastic section. It was an excellent project, and such

What an experience it would have been to hear Bach’s music in the first year of his 27-year tenure as Thomaskantor and director musices of Leipzig in 1723. It was wonderful to be involved in an ambitious initiative, called Bach300, which is providing opportunities to perform works by Bach 300 years after the occasions for which they were originally composed. It was with great pleasure that I was

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

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 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 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

Eight performances of Bach’s Christmas Oratorio; eight standing ovations. This was a tour of Holland to remember, with so many great components, including the Nederlands Kamerkoor, Les Talens Lyriques, Christophe Rousset, Johanna Winkel (soprano), Sophie Harmsen (alto), Zachary Wilder (tenor) and Krešimir Strazanac (bass). We performed in the Tivoli Vredenburg in Utrecht (12 December 2022), De

As part of their 30th anniversary season Les Talens Lyriques performed an all-Bach programme in three cities in the week beginning 21st November 2022. The first performance took place at Salle Gaveau in Paris (21st), the second at the Théâtre d'Orléans (23rd), and the third at the Casino de Montbenon as part of the Bach Festival in Lausanne (25th). The programme featured Bach’s Orchestral Suite

I was extremely lucky, on Sunday 30th October 2022, to be able to fill in for an indisposed trumpet player in a B minor mass at the Victoria Theatre in Halifax. At 5pm I finished another all-Bach performance in Leeds, and by 5:40pm I was in Halifax, ready for a 6:30pm B minor mass. As a period instrument specialist, this basically never happens—what luck! The performance featured the Halifax Choral

I performed with Leeds Baroque under the direction of Peter Holman on Sunday 30th October 2022 at the  Clothworkers Centenary Concert Hall, part of the School of Music of the University of Leeds. The programme featured three works with kettledrums, as the concert celebrated the recent purchase of Leeds Baroque's own timpani. The programme also featured a contrasting cantata (without trumpets and