Handel - Messiah - Worcester College, Oxford

I played first natural trumpet (with the excellent Will Russell on second) in Handel’s Messiah on Saturday 20th January 2018 in the ornate Chapel of Worcester College, Oxford. The performance was directed by Thomas Allery as part of the Epiphanytide Festival. It featured the magnificent Worcester College chapel choirs, the period instrument ensemble 1714* and soloists Rebecca Silverman (Soprano),
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Tudor Music - Tower of London - January 2018

I performed on the cornetto and natural trumpet for a murder mystery corporate function at the Tower of London on Thursday 11th January 2018.Performing firstly in the White Tower and later in the New Armouries, Sam Goble, Russell Gilmour, Nick Perry and Jamie Akers performed Tudor Music, wearing appropriate costume (provided), upon cornetti, natural trumpets, pipes, recorder, curtal, guitar, hurdy
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Handel - Messiah - Northampton Cathedral - Fiori Musicali

I played first natural trumpet for a performance entitled ‘Mr Handel’s Messiah’. The performance was given by Penelope Rapson and the choir and orchestra of Fiori Musicali and it took place in Northampton Cathedral on Friday 22nd of December 2017.The performance featured solo performances from: Malu Lin Swayne (Violin), Eloise Irving (Soprano), Robert Cross (Counter-tenor), Edmund Hastings (Tenor),
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Bach - Magnificat - Voces8

It was great to play with Voces8 again after the successful Messiah performance last year. On Wednesday 20th December 2017 the group performed Bach’s Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme [BWV 140], three carols, and Bach’s Magnificat in D [BWV 243], at Voces8’s home - the (surprisingly reverberant) Gresham Centre. The performance was ably conducted by Voces8's Artistic Director, Barnaby Smith. Final
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Bach - B Minor Mass - Solomon’s Knot - Nottingham & St. John’s Smith Square

Following memorable performances in December 2016 (Shoreditch Town Hall) and in July 2017 (Ulverston), Solomon’s Knot gave two subsequent performances of J. S. Bach’s B Minor Mass in December 2017; the first in Nottingham and the second at St. John’s Smith Square, London. The following video was filmed at Shoreditch Town Hall (December 2016) and published in advance of the ​Nottingham &
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Handel - Messiah - Brangwyn Hall, Swansea

Following a memorable Messiah performance in December 2014, I returned to Brangwyn Hall in Swansea on Sunday 17th of December 2017 to perform another rendition of this, Handel’s most renowned oratorio, with the Swansea Bach Choir - under the direction of Greg Hallam, with the orchestra Musica Poetica London. The impressive decorative panels adorning Brangwyn Hall, completed by the Belgian-born Sir
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Bach - Christmas Oratorio & Handel - Foundling Hospital Anthem - Barts Choir - Cadogan Hall

I began playing on Friday 15th of December 2017 at 10am at Holy Trinity Church (Prince Consort Road) with an intensive B Minor Mass rehearsal with Solomon’s Knot ahead of their performances in Nottingham (16th Dec) and at St. John’s Smith Square (18th Dec). After this rehearsal, I walked to Cadogan Hall and took part in an afternoon rehearsal and evening performance of Bach’s Christmas Oratorio
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Lully - Alceste - Les Talens Lyriques - Opéra Royal de Versailles

Just as a distinctive smell can immediately remind you of a time, of a place, or of people in your life - so too can receiving a finished copy of a CD that you were involved with. Listening back is always an exciting, sensory-rich moment, one that gives an opportunity to reminisce about the process of capturing that recording. It gives the ability to remember the music after some time away from it
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Telemann - Der Tag des Gerichts - Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century - Tour 142 - Concertgebouw, Amsterdam

Living a life as a touring musician, it is certainly a frequent occurrence to wake up and wonder exactly where you are. Sometimes it takes just a few moments to realise, as you recall your movements of the previous day. On other occasions a blandly corporate hotel room (while offering predictability and consistency) gives little indication of whether you are in London, Paris, Vancouver or Sydney. Even
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Handel - Messiah - Snape Maltings

I played first trumpet with the Suffolk Baroque Players for Aldeburgh Music Club Choir’s performance of Handel’s Messiah, which was conducted by Edmond Fivet CBE. The concert took place on Saturday 18th of November 2017 in the wonderful venue of Snape Maltings at 7pm. The soloists were Zöe Bonner (Soprano), Amy Lyddon (Mezzo-Soprano), Christopher Bowen (Tenor) and Alex Ashworth (Bass). I performed
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Vivaldi - Gloria - Dunedin Consort - Edinburgh

Incredibly, it has been eight years since I last visited Edinburgh. Back in July 2009, I visited the University of Edinburgh, the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland (Glasgow) and the Musical Instrument Museums Edinburgh (located at the Reid Concert Hall and St Cecilia's Hall). I visited these places as part of the ‘BRaSS’ (Brass Research and Scholarship in Scotland) Conference and spent much of the
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Handel - Zadok the Priest, Dettingen Te Deum, Music for the Royal Fireworks, Messiah (Part 3) - Chichester

After a memorable concert in November 2016 (when Will Russell and I performed Vivaldi’s ‘Concerto for two trumpets in C’) in St. George’s Church in Chichester, we were invited by Andrew Naylor - musical director of Chichester Voices - to return for their 2017 concert, entitled ‘Messiah with Fireworks’. We returned to Chichester on Saturday 4th of November with several additions to our trumpet
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Haydn, Mozart & Beethoven - Cadogan Hall - Musicians of London

London’s Cadogan Hall was the venue for a concert given by the choir of Goldsmiths Choral Union and the period instrument orchestra Musicians of London. The concert took place on Tuesday 31st of October 2017 and it featured Haydn’s Te Deum, Mozart’s Vespers [K.339] and Beethoven’s Mass in C. The large forces of Goldsmiths Choral Union did an excellent job with these pieces, ably led by their
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“Musical Battles, and the Trumpet, Naturally” - Devon Baroque - Dartington

I performed with Devon Baroque in the Great Hall at Dartington on Sunday 29th October 2017 for a concert entitled “Musical Battles, and the Trumpet, Naturally”. I performed Torelli’s ‘Concerto in D for trumpet and strings’ [G1] and as one of the four featured soloists in Bach’s ‘Brandenburg Concerto No.2 in F Major’ [BWV 1047]. Tromba - Russell Gilmour Flauto - Olwen Foulkes Hautbois
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Spiritato - Guts & Glory - Wiltshire Music Centre

Spiritato gave a performance of their ‘Guts & Glory’ programme at the Wiltshire Music Centre in Bradford on Avon on Saturday 21st of October 2017. They gave a brilliant performance of this programme (which was preceded by a thought-provoking pre-concert talk) and they suitably impressed the enthusiastic and inquisitive audience. This marked the fifth and final performance (as it
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Sectional - Junior Guildhall

I led a Wind, Brass and Percussion sectional rehearsal at the Junior Guildhall on Saturday 14th of October 2017. The sectional rehearsal focused on Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto in E Minor (Op.64) and De Falla’s Three Cornered Hat (Ballet). I began the sectional with tutti forces, and asked the students about Mendelssohn and the history of the Violin Concerto in E Minor. I asked the trombones
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Tudor Music - Hampton Court Palace - Corporate Event

I performed Tudor music on the Cornetto as part of a high-profile corporate function in the Great Hall, at Hampton Court Palace on the evening of Wednesday 11th October 2017. The Great Hall at Hampton Court Palace features a highly decorated hammer-beam ceiling with King Henry VIII’s fine tapestries of 'The Story of Abraham' hung all around the room. The group of musicians wore Tudor regalia bearing
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Royal Society of Musicians

After the B Minor Mass performance in Suffolk, I returned home on Sunday 1st of October 2017 via David Staff’s workshop with a beautifully-restored natural trumpet, finished with a new cord of an alternating dark blue and red pattern on the binding [- the previous all-red binding had been added by Graham Nicholson on my first visit to The Hague in January 2011]. Upon arriving at home I had just enough
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Bach - B Minor Mass - Roman River Music

Saturday saw glorious autumnal sunshine, so I took the opportunity to explore the hamlet of Flatford in the Stour Valley. I walked around the countryside that is synonymous with John Constable; it was Flatford where Constable painted his ‘Scene on a Navigable River’. After an enjoyable walk, I drove the few remaining miles to Stoke by Nayland (also in the Stour Valley, in Suffolk) where I would
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Vivaldi - Gloria - St. Martin-in-the-Fields - The English Baroque Choir

I performed Vivaldi’s Gloria with the Brandenburg Baroque Soloists at St. Martin-in-the-Fields on Thursday 28th of September 2017. The first half of the concert featured Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, led by violinist Persephone Gibbs. In the second half of the concert Jeremy Jackman conducted the English Baroque Choir and Brandenburg Baroque Soloists in Vivaldi’s Gloria. The soloists were Natasha Day
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Russell Gilmour
Russell Gilmour Blog
writing on music, photography, engraving, travel and life as a freelance professional musician.