Exactly one week ago, also at 15:00, I was standing right here in Boughton Aluph playing in the Stour Music Festival. I was glad to be back on Sunday 26th June 2022: it has been a busy intervening week. I’ve been doing a lot of work on my book (www.justnaturaltrumpet.com) but also trying to make time to enjoy nature and the good weather; I've been memorising Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5 ready for

It was great to return to Stour Music Festival in East Kent to revisit Spiritato’s programme entitled ‘Inspiring Bach’, with the Marian Consort. We picked up from where we left off after our performance at St Giles Cripplegate in October 2021. I last performed at the Stour Music Festival in 2019, for I Fagiolini's performance of Monteverdi's L'Orfeo.On Sunday 19th June 2022, we performed

I performed with the Gabrieli Consort & Players, directed by Paul McCreesh, at London’s Wigmore Hall on Friday 27th May 2022. A subsequent performance of the same programme took place at Lady St. Mary’s Church in Wareham the following day. I last performed at Wigmore Hall with this group just last month, and I had previously performed at the Purbeck Art Weeks festival in Dorset with I Fagiolini

I performed music by Johann Sebastian Bach and Antonio Vivaldi at St Edmundsbury Cathedral in Bury St Edmunds on Saturday 21st May 2022. I played first trumpet, with William Russell and Gareth Hoddinott in the trumpet section.The performance, which featured the Bury Bach Choir—in their 90th year—and the Suffolk Baroque Players, began with Bach’s O Jesu Christ, meins Lebens Licht [BWV 118] and

I played first trumpet in Bach’s B Minor Mass with the Schola Cantorum of the London Oratory School and the St. Cecilia Players (led by Jean Paterson) on Wednesday 11th May 2022. The performance was directed by Charles Cole and it took place at The Oratory on Brompton Road in London's South Kensington. Singers stepped forward from the ranks of the choir to sing solos and several of the duet

I played first trumpet [BWV 59] and third trumpet [BWV 172] in two of the four Bach cantatas that the Oxford Bach Soloists, directed by Tom Hammond-Davies, performed on Sunday 8th May 2022 at New College, Oxford. The orchestra was led by violinist Conor Gricmanis. The programme featured:BWV 12 Weinen, Klagen, Sorgen, Zagen BWV 44 Sie werden euch in den Bann tun BWV 59 Wer mich liebet, der wird mein

I performed Bach’s B Minor Mass at Oxford Town Hall on Saturday 23rd April 2022. The performance featured the Schola Cantorum of Oxford, directed by Steven Grahl, the orchestra Instruments of Time & Truth, and soloists: Robyn Allegra Parton, Lucy Cox, Martha McLorinan, Nick Pritchard and Roderick Williams. This delayed performance marked the 60th anniversary of the Schola Cantorum of Oxford.

It was a case of ‘third time lucky’ for my first appearance on stage at London’s Wigmore Hall: Covid-19 rescheduling brought a diary conflict in September 2021, when I was first due to be playing there. The next time I was invited to play there was in December 2021 but I had to cancel as I had Covid-19 and had to isolate. I was finally able to perform at this highly-revered venue for the first

I returned to Oxford on Saturday 16th April 2022 to perform in the Oxford Bach Soloists’ Easter Festival at New College. I played the cornetto part in Christ lag in Todesbanden [BWV 4] and I played trumpet in Bach’s Der Himmel lacht! Die Erde jubilieret [BWV 31] and the Easter Oratorio [BWV 249]. Tom Hammond-Davies directed the choir and orchestra. There were excellent vocal and instrumental features

I performed with the Oxford Bach Soloists for a concert in celebration of an 80th birthday. The performance took place at New College in Oxford on Friday 1st April 2022, and was directed by Tom Hammond-Davies. It featured the soprano soloists Mary Bevan and Joanne Lunn, and the bass soloist Alex Ashworth. The programme featured Mozart’s Exsultate, Jubilate (K. 165), Mozart’s Fate Presto O Cari

I performed with the Aldeburgh Music Club (founded by Benjamin Britten) and the Suffolk Baroque Players at Snape Maltings on Saturday 26th March 2022. Their all-Bach programme featured the Easter Oratorio [BWV 249] and the Magnificat in D [BWV 243], under the direction of their new director, Tom Appleton.This concert was dedicated to the memory of their former director, Edmond Fivet CBE, who I had

I played first trumpet with Oxford Bach Soloists for their performance of Bach’s cantata Vereinigte Zwietracht der wechselnden Saiten [BWV 207] at New College, Oxford, on Sunday 23rd January 2022. BWV 207 was the final piece in the concert, which also included Bach’s first Brandenburg Concerto [BWV 1046] and the cantata Falsche Welt, dir trau ich nicht! [BWV 52]. Each cantata featured recognisable

On 20th November 2021, I played first trumpet in Bach's Christmas Oratorio [BWV 248] at St. George's Church in Jesmond in Newcastle with the Newcastle Bach Choir. Their performance, conducted by Eric Cross, marked the choir's first concert since the beginning of the pandemic. It was only the second choral society concert I have done since March 2020, but it is good to see that these are gradually returning.

I performed Bach’s B Minor Mass [BWV 232] at St. James’s Piccadilly in London on Saturday 9th October 2021. The performance was directed by Richard Mayo and was led by Lesley Larkum (violin); singers stepped forward from the choir to sing the solo and duet arias. The brass section played, as did the rest of the orchestra (the English Heritage Chamber Orchestra), on modern instruments. I played

I performed as one of the soloists in Bach’s Second Brandenburg Concerto [BWV 1047] with the Croatian Baroque Ensemble - Hrvatski barokni ansambl - for the second time this year. Last time, in May, I played in a programme entitled ‘Erschallet, Trompeten!’ in the Croatian Music Institute in Zagreb and I had to isolate for 10 days upon my return. This time I performed in Varaždin as part

I performed Bach's B Minor Mass [BWV 232] with the Gabrieli Consort in the Great Hall at the historic St Bartholomew's Hospital in London on Thursday 8th July 2021. The hospital was founded by Rahere, a courtier of Henry I, in 1123. An astonishing 900 years later, the hospital is still caring for patients on the same site. This YouTube video explains the fascinating history of the hospital: 

Prof. Dr. Edward Hankins Tarr (b.15/06/1936 Norwich, Connecticut, USA - d.24/03/2020 Rheinfelden, Germany) was a pioneering performer and one of the most esteemed modern scholars of the natural trumpet. His research, editions, articles, dictionary entries, and books are indispensable to any student of the trumpet or natural trumpet. His translations of Bendinelli, Fantini and Altenburg’s treatises,

After yesterday’s recording of Bach’s Easter Oratorio [BWV 249] and Der Himmel Lacht! Die Erde jubilieret [BWV 31], and last week’s recording of the B Minor Mass [BWV 232], I was invited back to Oxford to perform Christ lag in Todes Banden [BWV 4]. I play the Cornetto for a video recording at the chapel of New College, Oxford as part of Oxford Bach Soloists’ Easter festival. I played the Cornetto

Following last week’s B Minor Mass [BWV 232] video recording, I returned to Oxford to play first trumpet for another video recording with the Oxford Bach Soloists; this time we recorded Bach’s Easter Oratorio [BWV 249] and Der Himmel Lacht! Die Erde jubilieret [BWV 31], two of Bach’s exemplary works with trumpets. The recording took place on Friday 12th March 2021 at Christ Church Cathedral -

It has been three months since my last performance, which took place in York in December 2020. I am fortunate enough to have performed even this 'recently'; despite all adversity, just enough performing work has come my way to keep me physically and mentally agile as a trumpet player. I am also fortunate to be healthy, and physically unscathed by the coronavirus. Recent months seem to have passed by