I performed in two concerts at the Southwell Music Festival in its tenth anniversary season in August 2024. My first performance at the festival was on Sunday 25 August 2024: I performed in a (sold-out) concert with the Festival Voices which featured Mozart’s Requiem [K. 626] along with a new commission by Cheryl Frances-Hoad entitled With What Sudden Joy. This piece for solo soprano (Alison Rose),

Only 24 hours after arriving home from our performance of 'Mozart and Friends' at the Mozartfest in Würzburg, I travelled, once again by Eurostar, to Brussels to join Les Talens Lyriques for their next project.I have visited Namur in Belgium on numerous occasions to rehearse (often with Vox Luminis), but I had never before performed in Namur: it was great to rectify that situation, on Tuesday 28th

I first visited Malta in January 2013, stepping in at very short notice to perform Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 2 [BWV 1047] in the Valletta Baroque Festival. (Incidentally, one of the violinists in that orchestra recalled that I could ‘jump in’ at short notice on that notorious piece, and she put my name forward to record that iconic concerto at very short notice as part of the Ansbach Bach

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,

As part of their 30th anniversary season Les Talens Lyriques performed an all-Bach programme in three cities in the week beginning 21st November 2022. The first performance took place at Salle Gaveau in Paris (21st), the second at the Théâtre d'Orléans (23rd), and the third at the Casino de Montbenon as part of the Bach Festival in Lausanne (25th). The programme featured Bach’s Orchestral Suite

After yesterday’s recording of Bach’s Easter Oratorio [BWV 249] and Der Himmel Lacht! Die Erde jubilieret [BWV 31], and last week’s recording of the B Minor Mass [BWV 232], I was invited back to Oxford to perform Christ lag in Todes Banden [BWV 4]. I play the Cornetto for a video recording at the chapel of New College, Oxford as part of Oxford Bach Soloists’ Easter festival. I played the Cornetto

Following last week’s B Minor Mass [BWV 232] video recording, I returned to Oxford to play first trumpet for another video recording with the Oxford Bach Soloists; this time we recorded Bach’s Easter Oratorio [BWV 249] and Der Himmel Lacht! Die Erde jubilieret [BWV 31], two of Bach’s exemplary works with trumpets. The recording took place on Friday 12th March 2021 at Christ Church Cathedral -

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

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

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

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

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

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