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 played with the Quintabile Brass Quintet for a carol concert at Christ Church Mayfair on Thursday 12 December 2024. I played with Sam Kinrade (trumpet), Emily Allen (horn), David Pitts (trombone), and Stuart Beard (tuba). It was wonderful to perform these well-arranged carols with these fine brass-playing friends and colleagues.I walked to Mayfair from St. Pancras and enjoyed seeing the Christmas

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 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 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 performed Christmas carols at Hampton Court Palace, on Monday 2nd January 2023, with a fine group of musicians including Sam Goble, Nicholas Perry, Martyn Sanderson, Guy Morley, and Bill Lyons. We performed both inside and outside Hampton Court Palace, including by the magnificent Christmas tree in Clock court. We played arrangements of carols, old and new, from the new SP&S Christmas Collection. 

I performed in a Christmas carol service with Onchan Silver Band (the band in which I began learning to play when I was five years old) at Old Kirk Braddan on the Isle of Man on Boxing Day 2022. I have played at this service for as long as I can remember, and I only missed it during the pandemic. This was my first time performing with David Karran as the musical director: he started playing in the

I performed at a wedding at St Peter and Holy Cross Church in Wherwell in rural Hampshire on Saturday 3rd September 2022. I played Handel’s Eternal Source of Light Divine, with the organist Anthony Burns-Cox, who played the vocal solo part, as well as the accompaniment, on the organ. I also played descants in the hymns Cwm Rhondda and Jerusalem. Finally, we played Stanley’s Trumpet Voluntary and

Since I first performed at Shakespeare’s Globe (Othello in 2018), I have noticed the building more and more. I look at it every time I cross Blackfriars bridge on the train, and it is surprising how often it appears on television: it was a much sought-after venue during the pandemic as it is, of course, predominantly outdoors (where Covid infection was deemed less likely).And so it was, in a heatwave,

I performed in an education project on Wednesday 6th July 2022 with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment which took place at the Lee Valley VeloPark—the velodrome built for the 2012 Olympics. This event entitled 'Passing the Baton' marked 10 years since London hosted the Olympic Games. Incidentally, it was exactly 10 years ago today that my Royal College of Music graduation ceremony took

I performed in a carol service which was led by students from Emanuel School. The service took place at St Luke's Church on Thurleigh Road, near Clapham South tube station on Tuesday 7th December 2021. I performed in the brass quintet with Sam Kinrade (trumpet), Katrina Lauder (horn), Rory Cartmell (trombone) and Sasha Koushk-Jalali (tuba). Charles Jenz directed the school choir, organist, and brass

Over the years Will Russell (2nd trumpet) and I have been fortunate enough to come into the possession of several rare and unusual nineteenth-century brass instruments. We were delighted when Les Talens Lyriques invited us to join their recording project – Portrait de Pauline Viardot – as we do not often get the opportunity to play these instruments professionally. The programme featured music

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

After an 'interval' of 172 days since my last concert (at York Minster in March), it was a great pleasure and huge relief to play live music with the Brandenburg Sinfonia for their Last Night of the Proms-inspired outdoor performance in the grounds of Hever Castle in Kent on Sunday 30th August 2020. View this post on Instagram First actual gig in 172 days! A post shared by Russell

While my B-flat trumpet lay dormant in the trumpet cupboard at home, its sound could be heard on BBC Radio 4's Easter Sunday service which aired on Sunday 12th April 2020. The Covid-19 pandemic has prevented any equivalent services from taking place this year. Andrew Earis (Director of Music at St. Martin-in-the-Fields) produced a BBC radio programme which featured some of the music from the 2013 service

It is always great to perform at one of the most famous churches in London, St. Martin-in-the-Fields, on the northeast corner of Trafalgar Square. On this occasion, Thursday 13th February 2020, I played Vivaldi’s Gloria [RV 589] on the piccolo trumpet with the Brandenburg Sinfonia under the direction of Andrew Earis (Director of Music at St. Martin-in-the-Fields). In preparation for this performance,

I had the pleasure of mentoring for ‘Future Talent’ at the Royal Northern College of Music (RNCM) on Sunday 9th February 2020. The extreme weather of Storm Ciara made some of the travel arrangements a bit of a challenge. Fortunately my route to and from Manchester was largely unaffected but there was more debris on the roads than normal, and at one point I had to ford a deeply-flooded road on

Bob Porter conducted Handel's Messiah in a candlelit St. Martin-in-the-Fields on Monday 30th December 2019 at 18:30. The concert was part of the Brandenburg Choral Festival of London and it featured the Brandenburg Sinfonia and Brandenburg Festival Chorus. I played second trumpet, Paul Archibald played first trumpet and Tristan Fry played timpani. Ours was the first of two concerts this evening.

I performed in the Brandenburg Traditional Christmas Concert at St. James's Sussex Gardens (Paddington) at 2pm on Tuesday 3rd December 2019. Bob Porter conducted the Brandenburg Singers who were accompanied by Rupert Jeffcoat on the organ. The performance began with Once in Royal David's City, followed by: See Amid the Winter's Snow, In the Bleak Midwinter (Darke), The Shepherd's Farewell, Angels

I performed the Last Post and Rouse in the Eucharist for Remembrance Sunday at St. Martin-in-the-Fields on the morning of Sunday 10th November 2019. I also played Malcolm Archer's 'In War, Resolution' (2010) and Ralph Vaughan Williams' motet 'Lord, Thou hast been our refuge' (1921) with the Choir of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, directed by Tom Williams and accompanied by Andrew Earis on the organ. I