The Medieval Manuscript the 'Chronicles of Mann and Sudreys' mentions various locations, including the Isle of Man, Wales, Scotland, Ireland and even places as far away as Norway and Brittany.
Russell Gilmour (trumpet) and David Kilgallon (organ) use melodies from these countries and they merge and fuse these ideas together with their own to create unique compositions for trumpet and organ. The idea behind their musical collaboration is to explore traditional music from these countries and to adapt the music, interpret it and explore it. Chronicles' musical format is slightly unusual in that it combines trumpet and organ - not the instruments you may initially associate with folk music - but it is an approach that has sparked a lot of interest.
Their limited edition EP "Prologue" is a sample of things to come, as the production of a full album is underway. The full album will be Chronicles' musical impression of the Isle of Man's influences and rich history - as documented in the Chronicles of Mann.
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writing on music, photography, travel and life as a freelance professional musician.
OAE Education - Lee Valley VeloPark
%PM, %Europe/London %b %2022, %RI 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.
London, Modern Trumpet, OAEducation
Incidentally, it was exactly 10 years ago today that my Royal College of Music graduation ceremony took place.
The velodrome performance featured hundreds of young musicians from the London borough of Newham, who played and sang with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and a house band comprising musicians from Newham Music. Most of the music had been composed by the young musicians themselves, and an excellent arrangement had been produced to bring the whole musical occasion together. Raph Clarkson directed and brought all the aspects together, which included everything from Handel's Zadok the Priest (played a third lower than usual) and dhol drumming! It was certainly interesting to play in this boomy acoustic look, and it was fabulous that the event celebrated music from many different cultures.
I was proud to see the names of two celebrated Manx cyclists on the wall of the velodrome: Mark Cavendish and Peter Kennaugh. The former was a childhood friend (he even played a brass instrument for a time) and the latter was in my sixth form tutor group!
After the early afternoon performance, I travelled on the Elizabeth line for the first time (it only opened a month or so ago) and I travelled on to Shakespeare's Globe to shadow the evening performance of King Lear, starting Kathryn Hunter. I will be playing in this show twice next week. It had been a long day: I left home at 05:45 and got back home at 01:00.
I was proud to see the names of two celebrated Manx cyclists on the wall of the velodrome: Mark Cavendish and Peter Kennaugh. The former was a childhood friend (he even played a brass instrument for a time) and the latter was in my sixth form tutor group!
After the early afternoon performance, I travelled on the Elizabeth line for the first time (it only opened a month or so ago) and I travelled on to Shakespeare's Globe to shadow the evening performance of King Lear, starting Kathryn Hunter. I will be playing in this show twice next week. It had been a long day: I left home at 05:45 and got back home at 01:00.