My first project with the Aurora Orchestra was in 2019 (Hector Berlioz’s 150th anniversary year): we performed Berlioz’s Symphonie Fantastique at Snape Maltings, Saffron Hall, and at the BBC Proms in the Royal Albert Hall. That project became a scintillating piece of orchestral theatre, complete with masks, firefly lights, Mathew Baynton as Berlioz, a glitter ball, an illuminated moon, and the whole thing was performed entirely from memory. We later revisited Symphonie Fantastique in Bonn, London, Bregenz, Hamburg, Antwerp and Dublin in 2022. I thoroughly enjoyed those projects and Nicholas Collon’s infectious enthusiasm for Berlioz’s music. 

Therefore, it was a delight to explore a different work by Berlioz under Collon’s baton, and with suitably Auroraesque theatrical elements: the actor Charlotte Richie delivered a script based on Berlioz’s memoirs, with other spoken contributions coming from the conductor and soloist. In true Aurora style, movement played a key part in the performance. The soloist, Lawrence Power, performed entirely from memory, so he was free to move around the Queen Elizabeth Hall; at one point he stood on a raised platform next to the harpist Sally Pryce, who accompanied him admirably; at another he left the proscenium and played among the audience while ascending the tiered seating steps. Other key instrumentalists performed sections of the piece from memory, including Steven Hudson (oboe and cor anglais) and an offstage string trio (effectively a quartet when joined by the viola soloist). These were very effective touches. 

I really enjoyed playing Harold in Italy by Berlioz. This was the first time I had played it and it took quite a bit of time to learn. Almost all of the trumpet entries are marked forte or fortissimo, and many of them are rhythmic stabs—which could be a recipe for disaster if I did not thoroughly know it. Once I had proven to myself that I had memorised Mendelssohn 4 (after the first rehearsal at BBC Maida Vale on Thursday 26 June 2025), I began listening to a recording of Harold in Italy on repeat. I had also been permitted a day off the project, due to a longstanding commitment to perform at Stour Music Festival with Solomon’s Knot (tied into our earlier performance at the Leipzig Bach Festival), so I listened to it on repeat in the car in order to attempt to prove that I hadn’t fallen behind by missing a day of rehearsals!

Even though we would be using the sheet music in the performance, listening was a vital part of my preparation (I think I am an auditory learner). I was not alone in finding the Berlioz quite tricky to learn. Others in the orchestra had to have a prolonged look at the music, and according the story told in Charlotte Richie’s script, the conductor at the premiere had to shout ‘last chord’ in one of the movements because players were lost, and 50-odd bars were omitted! Gladly, this was not the case for us on Sunday!

In the first half of our concert on Sunday 29 June 2025, I knew the first and last movements of the Berlioz (the only two with trumpets in) like the back of my hand—even though it was not performed from memory. It was a great thrill to play it with a full (and I must say very tight) brass section, comprising two trumpets (Russell Gilmour and Imogen Whitehead), two cornets (Holly Clark and Will Thomas), four horns (Annemarie Federle, Joel Ashford, George Strivens and Hannah Williams), three trombones (Matthew Gee, Huw Evans and Guy Berry) and tuba (Stuart Beard). 

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Moving on to the interval, I wondered how the Mendelssohn would fare against such an epic first half. However, I think it stood entirely on its own two feet; it was thrilling, intense, and joyful. 

‘So in the second half, the Mendelssohn was played from memory, an Aurora speciality, the score taken at terrific tempos and with the players standing up and interacting. It was hard to resist, especially when the players then dispersed into the hall to encore the Italian symphony’s breakneck final movement saltarello.’ Martin Kettle, The Guardian, ‘Aurora Orchestra/Collon/Power review – Italian immersion with introspective Berlioz and extrovert Mendelssohn, 30 June 2025

After an amazing concert, this project drew to a close the following day, on Monday 30 June 2025, with three school workshops, led by Jessica Maryon Davies, which involved three tailored and interactive performances of Mendelssohn’s Symphony No. 4 at the London Academy of Excellence in Tottenham.

In other much more banal news I had 3D-printed two natural trumpets stands and Imogen and I used them for the performances. You might think that this sounds fairly boring and trivial, and to be honest you are probably right, but being able to silently swap trumpets without one’s finger-holed or natural trumpet getting stuck on a stand designed for a modern trumpet was a ‘game changer’. The 3D printer has already proved itself indispensable in my trumpet-making workshop as well. I designed the natural trumpet stands myself and will use them again in the near future—if not before, then at least when we revisit Mendelssohn’s ‘Italian’ symphony with the Aurora Orchestra towards the end of this year, which I’m really looking forward to!