I played first trumpet with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment for a performance of Joseph Haydn’s Nelson Mass (Hob. XXII:11) with the University of Essex Choir on Saturday 9 May 2026. The ensemble was directed by Ben Vonberg-Clark and the orchestra was led by the violinist Kati Debretzeni. The soloists were Charlotte Bowden (soprano), Rebecca Leggett (alto), James Way (tenor) and Bozidar

I played first trumpet in Johann Sebastian Bach’s Ich hatte viel Bekümmernis (BWV 21) under the direction of Graham Walker, with Gabriella Jones leading, for a church service at Emmanuel College, Cambridge on Sunday 3 May 2026. The service also included music by Georg Philipp Telemann, namely his Conclusion in D major (TWV 50:9) and Graham Walker’s arrangement of George Frideric Handel’s

On Sunday 26 April 2026 I visited Mayfield in East Sussex to perform Handel’s Israel in Egypt. The 2026 Mayfield Festival opened with this performance at St Dunstan’s Church, conducted by Jeremy Summerly, with George Clifford leading from the violin, and the following soloists: Natalka Pasicznyk (Soprano), Aneska Diament (Soprano), Alexandria Moon (Alto), Francis Melville (Tenor), Edward Burchinall

As a musician, I have some sense of what it takes to practise and gradually refine a difficult skill, and perhaps this has shaped how I approach learning new ones. I try not to get discouraged by difficulty; in fact, I often find a task all the more motivating and engaging because of it. In the words of the travel writer and comedian, Michael Palin (2019), ‘the more difficult somewhere is to get

Following on from our performance at the Theater an der Wien earlier this month, we revisited Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Ascanio in Alba (K. 111) for two further performances and a recording with Les Talens Lyriques under the direction of Christophe Rousset.Our recording took place at La Seine Musicale in Paris, and it was flanked by performances at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris on 25

L’Opera Seria, an opera by the Bohemian-born composer Florian Leopold Gassmann (1729–1774), was the main focus of Les Talens Lyriques’ three-week residency at Vienna’s Theater an der Wien (the newly refurbished theatre where several of Ludwig van Beethoven’s symphonies were once premiered). Our fully staged production of L’Opera Seria, directed by Christophe Rousset, was performed on 26

While we were in Vienna performing Florian Leopold Gassmann’s L’Opera Seria, Les Talens Lyriques also gave a concert (i.e. un-staged) performance of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Ascanio in Alba (K. 111), a work written for the wedding of the son of Empress Maria Theresa in 1771. We performed the opera on stage at the Theater an der Wien, where we have been in residence for a few weeks already. The

On Thursday 22 January 2026, I played the trumpet and took part in an on-location recording for BBC Radio 3’s The Early Music Show at St Paul’s Cathedral. The programme, presented by Dr Hannah French and produced by Ben Collingwood, will be broadcast in March. Listen to the programme by clicking this link.This episode of The Early Music Show explored music by John Blow, William Croft, and

I played third trumpet in Bach’s B minor mass (BWV 232) at Winchester Cathedral on Wednesday 21 January 2026. The performance brought together the combined forces of five choirs from Oxford and Winchester: the Winchester Philharmonic Choir, the Winchester College Choral Society, the Winchester College Chapel Choir, the Winchester Cathedral Chamber Choir, and the Oxford Bach Soloists Choral Scholars. The

I played third trumpet in Johann Sebastian Bach’s Christmas Oratorio (BWV 248) at the University Church of St Mary the Virgin, Oxford, on Saturday 3 January 2026. The performance, featuring cantatas I, II, and VI of the Christmas Oratorio, was given by Oxford Bach Soloists and conducted by Steven Grahl. The soloists were Mariana Rodrigues (soprano), Stephanie Franklin (alto), Nicholas Mulroy (tenor),

I met the organist, harpsichordist, and director of Il Gusto Barocco, Jörg Halubek when I recorded Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 2, as a last-minute stand-in, in 2019.  View this post on Instagram A post shared by Il Gusto Barocco (@ilgustobarocco) Fast forward to 2025, and I was delighted to be invited to perform a trumpet and organ recital with him at the Hospitalkirche

It was wonderful to perform at Wiltshire Music Centre (21 November 2025), Snape Maltings (22 November), Saffron Hall (23 November), Highgate Wood School (24 November), and the Royal Concert Hall in Nottingham (25 November) with the Aurora Orchestra; we performed Prokofiev’s Violin Concerto No. 2 with Chloë Hanslip and Mendelssohn’s 4th Symphony from memory under the baton of Nicholas Collon. It

An extensive Vox Luminis project of festive music by Johann Sebastian Bach and other Baroque composers began with rehearsals in Malonne, near Namur in Belgium on Saturday 6 December 2025. The first concert took place on Tuesday 9 December at the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg. The programme featured Telemann’s Uns ist ein Kind geboren (TWV 1:1451), J. S. Bach’s Christen äztet diesen Tag (BWV 63) and

It was a pleasure to perform Purcell’s The Fairy Queen (Z. 692) with Vox Luminis at De Bijloke in Ghent on Thursday 13 November 2025 and at the Teatro Real in Madrid on Saturday 15 November 2025. We began rehearsing in Belgium on Armistice Day—Namur was particularly quiet on this poignant day. It was great to explore the historic old town in Ghent and fantastic to revisit Madrid. My last performance

It was a pleasure to give two performances with Spiritato this week: firstly at the Wiltshire Music Centre in Bradford on Avon on 5 November 2025 and then again as part of the London Festival of Baroque Music at Smith Square Hall (formerly St. John’s Smith Square) on 7 November 2025. The orchestra, directed from the violin by Kinga Ujszászi, presented a thrilling programme that explored the music

I played first trumpet with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment (OAEducation) for an education outreach project on Tuesday 21 October 2025 at the Corn Exchange in King’s Lynn. The project featured music from The Fairy Queen by Henry Purcell with additional music composed by James Redwood, who was also an engaging animateur and leader. The project brought together the Orchestra of the Age

It can sometimes be difficult to find an inventive way to start writing an article—I believe writers refer to their initial angle as an ‘in’. Writer’s block seems particularly strong, in my experience, when I am attempting to document something that has been particularly enjoyable, impressive, or formative. In such cases I hope to illustrate my enjoyment through a well-written account in order

On Sunday 24 August 2025 I played first trumpet in Bach’s B minor mass (BWV 232) at Southwell Minster. The performance was part of the Southwell Music Festival and it showcased the Festival Voices and Baroque Sinfonia under the musical and artistic director, Marcus Farnsworth. In addition to the performance of the B minor mass on Sunday, we also performed Bach’s Magnificat (BWV 243) for the ‘Come

After enjoyable performances at Bachfest Leipzig and Stour Music Festival, Solomon’s Knot gave two all-Bach concerts on consecutive evenings (Wednesday 6 and Thursday 7 August 2025) at St Gumbertus Church for Bachwoche Ansbach. The first programme featured movements of Johann Sebastian Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 6 (BWV 1051) interspersed throughout. For the second, the order was altered:

I’m delighted to share the release of a long-awaited video interview, filmed in Wandsworth in May 2023, between myself and the now-retired trumpeter Michael Laird (b. 1942). In it, Michael reflects on his studies with Walter Holy (1921–2006), which began in 1963, and the development of the finger-holed trumpet during the ‘Early Music Revival’ of the late 20th century.When I was a student at