Handel wrote two oratorios featuring trombones in his brass section; one is Saul [HWV 53], which I had the great pleasure of playing earlier this year at the Göttingen Händel Festival and the other is Israel in Egypt [HWV 54], which was the focus of Saturday night’s concert at the Southwell Music Festival.The Festival Baroque Sinfonia and Festival Voices joined forces under Marcus Farnsworth’s

After I played in the BBC Proms for the first time in September 2016 I wrote about the inspiring influence of being allowed to stay up late as a child to watch the Last Night of the Proms - broadcast live from the Royal Albert Hall. Later in life, as a postgraduate student at the Royal College of Music, the area around the Royal Albert Hall became very familiar. On occasion, I would have morning rehearsals

As I played the final phrase of my tenth performance of Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No.2 in F major [BWV 1047] (which took place last Saturday at Castle Ashby) I felt as I often do after playing that piece - that it would be great to play it again very soon. Playing Brandenburg 2 is a definite adrenaline rush and there’s something in the thrill of its survival that makes you

Solomon’s Knot gave three performances during a residency at the Ryedale Festival in Yorkshire. The festival has been described by the Guardian newspaper as ‘the jewel in Yorkshire’s cultural crown’ and browsing though their brochure, it was evident that this is an exceptional festival.The first concert of Solomon’s Knot’s residency took place at Ampleforth Abbey and it featured Bach cantatas

Following on from the most recent Orfeo at the Stour Music Festival, I Fagiolini gave a subsequent performance on Friday 5th July 2019 in the Sir Jack Lyons Concert Hall at the University of York, on the first day of the National Centre for Early Music's York Early Music Festival 2019.This Orfeo differed from any of I Fagiolini's earlier performances: with the addition of student singers from

It was a great pleasure to rejoin Robert Hollingworth's I Fagiolini for a performance of Monteverdi's Orfeo at the Stour Music Festival at All Saints Church near Boughton Aluph (near Ashford in Kent) on Friday 28th June 2019.The 2019 festival marks the departure of Stour Music's artistic director Mark Deller (countertenor). He will be succeeded by Robert Hollingworth who will direct future festivals,

Following on from our project in January in Salzburg’s Mozartwoche, Les Talens Lyriques revisited Mozart's Betulia Liberata [K.118/74c], under the direction of Christophe Rousset, for a performance in Paris on Saturday 22nd June 2019.The performance took place at La Seine Musicale, an impressive new venue - completed in 2017 - which is situated on an island on the River Seine between Boulogne-Billancourt

Handel’s Agrippina [HWV 6] was the focus for Christophe Rousset’s Les Talens Lyriques at the beginning of June 2019, with performances in the Klangvocal Festival in Dortmund on Saturday 8th June 2019 and in the Halle Händel Festspiele on Monday 10th June 2019. Rehearsals began in Paris and the group worked to familiarise itself with this long (circa 4-hour) and intricate opera. The ensemble rehearsed

There is no doubt that the Festspiel Orchester Göttingen (FOG), the resident orchestra at the Göttingen International Händel Festival, is very special to all of us who play in it. The overriding ethos within the orchestra is often nothing short of euphoric and the Göttingen International Händel Festival is musically, socially and culturally one of the highlights of my working year. I feel

I have visited Utrecht in the Netherlands before but this was the first time I had been involved in the Utrecht Early Music Festival: Festival Oude Muziek Utrecht - the largest early music festival in the world. The opening of the festival took place on Friday 24th August 2018 with four simultaneous concerts across Utrecht’s city centre.The overall title of the opening night was Het Bourgondische

The Teatru Manoel presented a concert on the occasion of the European Day of Early Music (Wednesday 21st March 2018) at the Basilica of St. Dominic in the European Capital of Culture 2018: Valletta. Valletta is on the island of Malta in the Maltese Archipelago. I have been very fortunate to visit on two previous occasions (January 2013 and January 2015). It was great to return two subsequent times

Lake District Summer Music’s 33rd festival season opened on Saturday the 29th July 2017 at Ulverston’s Coronation Hall with an "electrifying performance" of Bach’s B Minor Mass, performed by Solomon’s Knot.Get yourself to @corohall for 7:30pm tonight to hear Bach B minor Mass. @solomonsknot sounding phenomenal in rehearsal. Tickets on door pic.twitter.com/oC5VYM2yWN— LDSM Festival 2017

Following on from a residency at the Opera National du Lorrain in Nancy (2014), and a tour to Versailles and Vienna (2016), I joined Les Talens Lyriques for a third time; performing and recording Jean-Baptiste Lully's 'Alceste, ou Le triomphe d’Alcide' (1674) under the direction of Christophe Rousset.Lully's opera 'Alceste, ou Le triomphe d’Alcide' is a 'tragedy in music', with a

I was invited to join Vox Luminis for their performance of Purcell’s 'King Arthur' at Snape Maltings on Thursday 22nd of June 2017, as part of the Aldeburgh Festival. The festival is celebrating the 50th anniversary of music at Snape Maltings - one of the earliest examples of an ex-industrial building being repurposed as a performance space.I was delighted to perform with Vox Luminis. I was deputising

On Saturday the 28th of January 2017, I performed Bach’s Magnificat [BWV 243] and the Cantata: Ich hatte viel Bekümmernis [BWV 21] at St. Martin-in-the-Fields as part of the Brandenburg Choral Festival of London.Bach's Magnificat is, of course, very well-known and it pairs excellently with BWV 21. I played a very similar programme (although it was the E-flat Magnificat) at the Leipzig BachFest

Spiritato’s final 2016 performance of their ‘Guts & Glory’ programme opened the York Early Music Winter Festival on Thursday 8th of December 2016 at St. Margaret’s Church in York - home of the National Centre for Early Music (NCEM). The ensemble was led by the wonderful violinist Kinga Ujszaszi.The fun Guts and Glory project finished for 2016 in York last night. Thank you guys for all your

Festival Interceltique de Lorient (FIL) was one of the highlights of summer 2015. The festival jointly featured the Isle of Man and Cornwall as host nations - in what they call the ‘Année de la Cornouailles et de l’Île de Man’. The festival ran from the 7th to the 16th of August 2015 and it incorporated a staggering number of events and cultural delights from numerous Celtic nations. The festival

The Isle of Man's folk music festival 'Yn Chruinnaght' or 'The Gathering' took place between the 15th and the 19th of July 2015. There were events happening all around the Isle of Man, with a particular focus around the festival's home in Peel, on the West coast of the island.I had been invited to play with 'Chronicles' (the trumpet and organ duo featuring myself and David Kilgallon) in St. German's

Spiritato! gave a concert of a programme entitled ‘Sound the Trumpet’ on Friday 26th of June. The performance was part of the Stroud Green Festival in London which took place in Holy Trinity Church in Stroud Green. The programme itself included works by Purcell, Corbett, Fantini, Rebel, Matteis, Albrici and Franceschini. We had performed a similar programme to this earlier in the year at the Forge

I was involved, for a second year, in the International Händel Festival in Göttingen, Germany. I performed with Festspiel Orchester Göttingen (also known as FOG) in the Opera ‘Agrippina’ (HWV 6) and the Oratorio ‘Theodora’ (HWV 68).We gave six performances of Händel's 'Agrippina' in the Deutsches Theatre in Göttingen. It is a large-scale, three-act opera with a running time of around 5