I played first trumpet in Handel’s Coronation Anthems in Southwell Minster on Sunday 27th August 2023. The performance was part of Southwell Music Festival, and it was conducted by the festival's founder and artistic director, Marcus Farnsworth. The performance also featured a Concerto Grosso by Handel, and his Dixit Domimus, after the interval.Our section comprised Russell Gilmour, Will Russell,

I performed with Christophe Rousset, Marina Viotti, and Les Talens Lyriques on Friday 25th August 2023 in the courtyard of the Château Louis XI in La Côte-Saint-André as part of the 2023 Berlioz Festival. Our programme, Hommage à Pauline Viardot, was a live version of the album we made in 2021, with some new additions to the programme by Gluck and other composers. The programme now included

Five years ago, I performed Delalande’s Te Deum with Vox Luminis in the Utrecht Early Music Festival. We performed the Te Deum four times, and four audiences walked between four different venues in Utrecht to hear four different programmes. We also used four trumpets, although only two parts were notated by the composer: I wrote trumpet parts for the occasion to ensure a good realisation

Just a few days after performing Bach’s B Minor Mass with Vox Luminis at Wigmore Hall in London, I travelled to Belgium (via the Eurostar) to record Heinrich Schütz’s Weihnachtshistorie (‘Christmas Story’) [SWV 345] with Vox Luminis in Gedinne, in the tranquil Belgian countryside near the French border.I played the second clarino part, alongside Rudolf Lörinc, and a small continuo team comprising

I travelled to Malonne, near Namur, in Belgium the morning after our performance with Les Talens Lyriques at La Seine Musicale. I was in Belgium to rehearse Bach’s B Minor Mass with the choir and orchestra of Vox Luminis at their rehearsal headquarters in Wallonia.We subsequently travelled to London and performed Bach’s B Minor Mass at Wigmore Hall. Robert Hughill described a performance with

It was great to revisit the programme, 'Mozart and Friends', that Les Talens Lyriques, under Christophe Rousset and with the baritone Benjamin Appl, most recently performed in April 2023 in Krakow. This time, 27th June 2023, we performed at La Seine Musicale in Paris (Boulogne-Billancourt).After the exciting Louise Bertin Fausto project last week, it was wonderful to play some well-known repertoire,

Fresh from a tour of Spain with the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra, I continued this action-packed month with a recording and performance—thought to be a modern premiere—of Louise Bertin’s Fausto (1831) with Les Talens Lyriques and Christophe Rousset. The performance took place on Tuesday 20th June 2023 at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris, and the recording took place in La Seine Musicale

After a wonderful Handel Festival in Göttingen, I returned home for just a few days before returning to Germany with a case full of cornetti and trumpets. I joined the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra, under the conductor René Jacobs, for their rehearsals and performances of Christoph Willibald Gluck’s Orfeo Ed Euriduce in June 2023. We began with rehearsals in the beautiful city of Freiburg, in

It was a great pleasure to play with the Festspiel Orchester Göttingen (FOG) as part of the Göttingen Handel Festival 2023, under their new artistic director, George Petrou. I played first trumpet, with Gareth Hoddinott on second, Maarten van der Valk on timpani, and the horn players Stephan Katte and Claudia Pallaver.This year I arrived in Göttingen on 14th May 2023 and departed on 29th May 2023. The

I played cornett with His Majestys Sagbutts and Cornetts and the St Cecilia Players for a performance of Monteverdi’s Vespers at The Oratory on Brompton Road in London on Wednesday 10th May 2023. The performance was directed by Charles Cole and featured the exceptional singers of the Schola Cantorum of the London Oratory School and the tenor soloists Peter Davoren and Mark Dobell. We performed

I played cornetto (in 465 Hz) in Bach's motet O Jesu Christ, meins Lebens Licht [BWV 118] for a recording with Andrew Parrott and the Taverner Consort and Players, which took place at SJE Arts in Oxford on Tuesday 9th May 2023. The recording will be released very soon to celebrate the 50th anniversary of this esteemed ensemble. Andrew Parrott & his incredible team, including 4 brilliant

If you were to ask me to describe my ideal day it would start with a leisurely morning and a nice breakfast, it would also involve exploring, a good walk, a mid-afternoon chill, (Face)time with family, and it would include some lovely music and fine company. This was exactly my day in Kraków on Easter Sunday: I performed at the Karol Szymanowski Philharmonic as part of the Misteria Paschalia festival:

Union Chapel in Highbury (London) was the venue for a performance of Handel's Messiah on Sunday 2nd April 2023. The Eclectic Voices choir joined forces with the City Bach Collective, led by Hazel Brooks, and the wonderful Scott Stroman directed the whole ensemble. I played first trumpet with Will Russell on second, and Lewis Blee on timpani. It was an uplifting performance, with great enthusiasm

I played first trumpet in Bach’s B minor mass at St. James’ Piccadilly in London on Saturday 1st April 2023. The Petros Singers and Garter Ensemble, conducted by Richard Bannan, performed Bach’s most celebrated mass in this historic London church.Russell Gilmour, William Russell and Adam Wood played the trumpet parts; unfortunately the timpanist collapsed at the beginning of the performance

I enjoyed an action-packed week with the Aurora Orchestra and their conductor, Nicholas Collon, in the week beginning 20th March 2023. We performed Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony from memory six times in several different venues and settings in England and Germany. It was a pleasure to revisit this symphony, having memorised it for performances, including at the BBC Proms, in 2022.After two days of rehearsals

I played first (vented) trumpet at A=440 Hz in a performance of Handel's Messiah at Forest School in Walthamstow (London) on Saturday 11th March 2023. A good colleague and friend, Dave Clewlow (who also teaches at the school) played second trumpet and Keith Price played timpani. Students from the secondary and prep school joined forces with a community choir to sing this well-known oratorio by

I played principal trumpet with Les Talens Lyriques under the direction of Christophe Rousset for three all-Schubert performances at the Théâtre du Châtelet. The project took place between 18th January and 31st January 2023. Our first performance took place on Friday 27th January 2023 and it featured Franz Schubert’s Symphony No. 6 in C major (D 589), Symphony No. 2 in B-flat minor (D 125),

I played natural trumpet and cornetto with the Gabrieli Consort & Players, directed by Paul McCreesh, in a performance at Westminster Cathedral which took place on Tuesday 10th January 2023.The performance at Westminster Cathedral was the last in a run of eight concerts; I was deputising for this performance only, and the other members of the ensemble had performed in the cathedrals or minsters

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