On Wednesday 16 July 2025, I played first trumpet in a recording of Handel’s Zadok the Priest (HWV 258) at St Columba’s Church on Pont Street in Knightsbridge, London. The session, conducted by Ben Lewis-Smith, featured a twelve-piece professional choir, three trumpets, and organ.The recording took place in the organ gallery at the back of the church, with both audio and video captured for use

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.

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

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

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

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

I performed Handel’s Messiah at Temple Church in London on Thursday 5 December 2024. The performance was led by Dominika Fehér (violin) and directed by Thomas Allery, Director of Music (and formerly my direct contemporary at the Royal College of Music).I performed The Trumpet Shall Sound with the bass soloist Ashley Riches. The other vocal soloists, equally excellent, were Jessica Cale (soprano),

I played ‘Abide with Me’ (Eventide), ‘It is well with my soul’ (Ville du Havre) and ‘Here is love’ (Cymraeg) with the Quintabile Brass Quintet on Friday 4 October 2024 at St Barnabus in Kensington. The music formed part of a memorial service, which had been written by the gentleman (in his early thirties) who sadly lost his battle with cancer. The memorial service featured a great deal

I was delighted to rejoin the Brandenburg Baroque Soloists with the Chapel Choir of the Royal Hospital Chelsea and the Old Royal Naval College Trinity Laban Chapel Choir for a reprise of a programme from a concert given in April 2024 at the Old Royal Naval College in Greenwich. This concert, on Thursday 26 September 2024 was part of the Chelsea History Festival and took place at the Royal Hospital

It was a great pleasure to meet up with some of the patrons, supporters, and friends of ‘Just’ Natural Trumpet at the Harp in London on Saturday 10 August 2024. ‘Just’ Natural Trumpet had been officially launched online on Friday 2 August 2024, following the release of this YouTube video. We took a photograph of the attendees of the book launch gathering, which included two of

I played two of Handel’s Coronation Anthems with St. Martin’s Voices (directed by Andrew Earis) at St. Martin-in-the-Fields on Monday 6th May 2024. I played first trumpet with Rebecca Toal on second. I came directly from an Aurora Orchestra rehearsal at Henry Wood Hall, where I had been playing Beethoven’s 'Eroica' symphony (from memory), ahead of performances at the Apex in Bury St Edmunds,

I performed with the Brandenburg Baroque Soloists at the Chapel of St Peter and St Paul at the Old Royal Naval College in Greenwich on Tuesday 30th April 2024. The performance featured two choirs, the Old Royal Naval College Trinity Laban Chapel Choir (directed by Ralph Allwood) and the Chapel Choir of the Royal Hospital Chelsea (directed by William Vann). The concert was a choral celebration

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

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

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 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