I recently had the pleasure of playing first trumpet in Mozart’s La Clemenza di Tito (K.621) with Les Talens Lyriques at The Grange Festival in Northington, Hampshire. The two concert performances, directed from the fortepiano by Christophe Rousset, took place on Tuesday 9 and Wednesday 10 June 2026 at The Grange.I was delighted to visit The Grange as I had heard about this historic venue in reference

On Thursday 4 June 2026, I played first trumpet at St Andrew Holborn, London, in a performance featuring the choir of the law firm Macfarlanes. They performed Handel’s Foundling Hospital Anthem (HWV 268), together with selections from Messiah (HWV 56), accompanied by a chamber orchestra.The Foundling Hospital Anthem is also known by its longer title, Blessed Are

I travelled from the Göttingen Händel Festival to Malonne in Belgium on 26 May 2026, during a spell of particularly warm weather, to play first trumpet in Vox Luminis’ rehearsals ahead of a concert on Thursday 28 May 2026 at the Saint-Denis Festival in Paris. The programme featured Handel’s Ode for St Cecelia’s Day (HWV 74) and Bach’s Magnificat in D (BWV 243). Vox Luminis were joined

It was a great pleasure to return to Göttingen for the 2026 International Handel Festival, which celebrated the 20th anniversary of the festival orchestra, Festspiel Orchester Göttingen (FOG). It was an honour to play first trumpet throughout the whole festival, comprising a Gala Concert, five performances of Handel’s last opera (1741), Deidamia (HWV 42), and two performances of Messiah (HWV 56). The

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

This is the final article in my series about my Arts Council England ‘Developing Your Creative Practice’ (DYCP) project entitled ‘learning to make a (hallmarked) silver natural trumpet in order to build skills, preserve specialist knowledge, rejuvenate a highly endangered craft, and develop as a musician and instrument maker’. This long title was inspired by the premise of Johann Joachim Quantz’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

It was while I was studying at the Royal Northern College of Music that I first became interested in playing the natural trumpet. I seem to be attracted to learning new (often difficult) skills, and my approach with the trumpet was to pick the most difficult music I could possibly find, namely J. S. Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 2 in F major (BWV 1047), and gradually learn to play it. I was ready

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

I performed Purcell’s King Arthur with Vox Luminis at the Palau de la Música in València on Tuesday 17 February 2026. This is a programme that we have performed several times, and it was great to revisit it—this time with a narration in Spanish by Àngel Figols. After a welcome quiet start to the year (predominantly spent in the UK and in my trumpet-making workshop) it was great to get back

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),

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

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

Exactly one week after performing Mendelssohn’s Symphony No. 4 (from memory) with the Aurora Orchestra at Snape Maltings, I returned to this magnificent venue to perform Handel’s Messiah (HWV 56) with the Aldeburgh Music Club and Suffolk Baroque Players, under the direction of Tom Appleton. Aldeburgh Music Club, founded by Benjamin Britten in 1952, brought this festive work back to Snape Saturday