While my B-flat trumpet lay dormant in the trumpet cupboard at home, its sound could be heard on BBC Radio 4's Easter Sunday service which aired on Sunday 12th April 2020. The Covid-19 pandemic has prevented any equivalent services from taking place this year. Andrew Earis (Director of Music at St. Martin-in-the-Fields) produced a BBC radio programme which featured some of the music from the 2013 service

It is always great to perform at one of the most famous churches in London, St. Martin-in-the-Fields, on the northeast corner of Trafalgar Square.On this occasion, Thursday 13th February 2020, I played Vivaldi’s Gloria [RV 589] on the piccolo trumpet with the Brandenburg Sinfonia under the direction of Andrew Earis (Director of Music at St. Martin-in-the-Fields).In preparation for this performance,

I had the pleasure of mentoring for ‘Future Talent’ at the Royal Northern College of Music (RNCM) on Sunday 9th February 2020. The extreme weather of Storm Ciara made some of the travel arrangements a bit of a challenge. Fortunately my route to and from Manchester was largely unaffected but there was more debris on the roads than normal, and at one point I had to ford a deeply-flooded road on the

Bob Porter conducted Handel's Messiah in a candlelit St. Martin-in-the-Fields on Monday 30th December 2019 at 18:30. The concert was part of the Brandenburg Choral Festival of London and it featured the Brandenburg Sinfonia and Brandenburg Festival Chorus. I played second trumpet, Paul Archibald played first trumpet and Tristan Fry played timpani.Ours was the first of two concerts this evening. The

I performed in the Brandenburg Traditional Christmas Concert at St. James's Sussex Gardens (Paddington) at 2pm on Tuesday 3rd December 2019. Bob Porter conducted the Brandenburg Singers who were accompanied by Rupert Jeffcoat on the organ.The performance began with Once in Royal David's City, followed by: See Amid the Winter's Snow, In the Bleak Midwinter (Darke), The Shepherd's Farewell, Angels from

I performed the Last Post and Rouse in the Eucharist for Remembrance Sunday at St. Martin-in-the-Fields on the morning of Sunday 10th November 2019. I also played Malcolm Archer's 'In War, Resolution' (2010) and Ralph Vaughan Williams' motet 'Lord, Thou hast been our refuge' (1921) with the Choir of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, directed by Tom Williams and accompanied by Andrew Earis on the organ. I had

I performed Andrew Lloyd Webber's Requiem with the Eagle Choir at St Mary's Church in Buckden, Cambridgeshire on Saturday 9th November 2019. The concert raised funds for the Royal British Legion and it featured fantastic solos from Eve McGrath (soprano), Fraser Morgan (treble) and Rhys Bowden (tenor). Harry Bagnall conducted and had arranged the piece to suit the smaller orchestral forces of organ,

I performed three works with obligato trumpet parts in a candlelit concert at St. Martin-in-the-Fields on Friday 8th November 2019. I had been asked to perform on the piccolo trumpet, so I played Handel's Let the Bright Seraphim from Samson [HWV 57] and Henry Purcell's Overture from the Indian Queen [Z. 630] on a piccolo trumpet in A by Scherzer, and Bach's 'Jauchzet Gott in allen Landen' [BWV 51]

I came back from Snape Maltings with two deviations from my normal route. The first was a stopover at the Lodge to continue to learn to make trumpets (I began making my first trumpet bell yesterday) with David Staff. After staying at the Lodge, the next waypoint on my route home was a village near Thaxted in the Essex countryside - where I performed, on Thursday 20th June 2019, with the Brandenburg

I performed a programme of baroque music (on modern instruments) with the Brandenburg Sinfonia at St. Martin-in-the-Fields on Saturday 1st June 2019. I played third trumpet in the section with (fellow Manx man) Sam Kinrade and Ellie Lovegrove on 1st and 2nd, respectively. The programme began with Handel’s Dettingen Te Deum [HWV 283] and continued after the interval with Bach’s Orchestral Suite

Following the OAEducation's workshops and performances in Plymouth last week, the group gave two consecutive performances in two different Boroughs of London (Merton and Wandsworth) on Thursday 9th of May 2019.The story included many young performers from Cricket Green School in Merton (next to the picturesque 18th-century Mitcham Sunday and National School, as pictured above) and Greenmead Primary

On Saturday 30th March 2019 I traveled to St. Peter’s Church on Leigham Court Road in Streatham to perform Mozart’s Krönungsmesse (Coronation Mass) [K.317] and Vesperae Solennes de Confessore [K.339] with the Brandenburg Sinfonia and Streatham Choral. The well-attended concert, entitled Mozart Masterpieces, featured Ave Verum Corpus [K. 618], Vesperae Solennes de Confessore, Exultate Jubilate

Inspired by the Medieval manuscript the Chronicles of Mann, two Manx-born musicians Russell Gilmour (trumpet) and David Kilgallon (organ) performed in the duo ‘Chronicles’ at St. Paul’s Church in Ramsey on the Isle of Man on Friday 28th December 2018.The Chronicles of Mann mentions various locations including: the Isle of Man, Wales, Scotland, Ireland and even places as far away as Norway and

On Sunday 2nd December 2018 I deputised on first trumpet with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment for the first joint rehearsal day of Glydnebourne’s Community Opera, ‘Agreed’. This opera was composed and conducted by Howard Moody, and his daughter Anna Moody had written the libretto. 'Agreed' is directed by Simon Iorio and will be performed at Glyndebourne in the near future. For further

Situated on the south bank of the River Thames (just 230 metres away from the site of the original) is the modern reconstruction of the Globe theatre. The name of the theatre (reconstructed in 1997) comes from the original theatre, which was built in 1599, and rebuilt in 1614 after a fire, on Maiden Lane (now Park Street) in Southwark. The original Globe theatre was initially owned by Richard Burbage

At 4pm on Thursday 9th of August 2018, I performed at The Charterhouse in London for the funeral service of Nicolas Christopher Henry Browne-Wilkinson (b. 30th March 1930- d.25th July 2018). Julian Perkins played preliminary music on the organ by Bach and Handel, before the Introit ‘Psalm 23’ by Charles Hylton Stewart was sung by the choir. The choir consisted of Augusta Hebbert (soprano), Tom

I performed for a Confirmation Service at the German Church (Christuskirche) in Knightsbridge (London) at 11am on Sunday 24th of June 2018. The bilingual service was led by Pastor Georg Amann and it featured: Jeremiah Clarke’s Prince of Denmark’s March, an arrangement of Henry Purcell’s Fairest Isle from King Arthur and John Stanley’s Trumpet Voluntary. The music was played by Russell Gilmour

I performed with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment (OAEducation) as part of their residency in King’s Lynn in the week beginning on Monday 18th of June 2018. This educational project has been touring the country for quite some time, but this particular branch of the project took place at the Corn Exchange in King’s Lynn with a performance based around music from Purcell’s Fairy Queen

I performed in an educational concert with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment on Wednesday 6th June 2018 at Conway Hall in London. The project was based around Purcell’s Fairy Queen and it featured music composed by James Redwood. The additional music had been specially composed to allow for musical interaction with the Key Stage 2 students. The students sang and played instruments with the

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