‘The English Genius’ - Devon Baroque - Dartington Hall

28 September 2025, 16:00

Dartington Hall is a very special place to me; it is where I attended summer school (2007–12), met Jo (2012), proposed (2017), and got married (2018)! So, it was a pleasure to return to Dartington to play in Devon Baroque’s 25th anniversary concert, which took place in the Great Hall on Sunday 28 September 2025.

I was one of the soloists in the concert and I performed ‘Mr Handel’s Water Piece’ with Devon Baroque, which opened the concert in style. A curated ‘suite’ of music by Henry Purcell followed, in which I performed ‘St George’, from King Arthur (Z.628), with the soprano soloist Rebecca Ramsey and Katie McClaughry on second trumpet. Rebecca performed several pieces from Pausanius, The Fairy Queen and Dido and Aeneas. I also performed ‘Genius of England’ from Henry Purcell’s Don Quixote (Z.578). After a wonderful introduction from musical directors Persephone Gibbs (violin) and Andrew Wilson-Dickson (harpsichord), we performed the opening Symphony from Daniel Purcell’s Judgment of Paris.

The second half began with Gentle Morpheus, from Handel’s Elects, and continued with William Corbett’s Suite in D (Op. 3), which included two trumpets. Charles Avison’s Concerto Grosso in C minor (Op. 4, No. 8) followed thereafter, with ‘Let the bright Seraphim’ from Handel’s Samson as the grand finale. It was a wonderful concert and fitting celebration of Devon Baroque’s 25th anniversary, and I was delighted to have been invited as a soloist.

Jo and I made this into a short holiday, and had amazing weather for it. It was the first time that either of us had been back to Dartington since we got married there in 2018. We stayed in Chagford on Dartmoor on Friday night and managed to fit in a walk up Sharpitor on Dartmoor (between Princetown and Yelverton) on Saturday morning, and were surrounded by many Dartmoor ponies!

As we drove alongside the River Dart towards Dartington, we saw the back of the steam train heading towards Totnes. We overtook it and headed to the South Devon Railway station in Staverton to watch the train arrive. We got talking to the very friendly signalman, who explained that another train would be along in a few minutes, pulling the Pullman carriage ‘Lydia’, which once formed part of Winston Churchill’s funeral train. It was fitting that we managed to fit in a trip to the South Devon Railway en route to Dartington, as Saturday 27 September 2025, exactly 200 years after the official opening of the world's first public railway, the Stockton and Darlington Railway. Therefore, it felt like a good opportunity to utilise the ‘lighthearted’ version of my biography:

Russell Gilmour first became interested in period performance while working on a Victorian steam railway on the Isle of Man. Russell still has plenty of brass to polish as a specialist natural trumpet player, and also as an apprentice trumpet maker.

He has recently spent a lot of time on the Eurostar on route to perform with the Aurora Orchestra, Freiburg Baroque Orchestra, the Göttingen Händel Festival Orchestra, Vox Luminis, and Les Talens Lyriques (with whom he recently performed Bach’s Second Brandenburg Concerto).

Russell loves photography, Apple, hand engraving, thinking up puns, Adnams, and snookering his opponents (usually by fluke). He finally completed his book, ‘Just’ Natural Trumpet in 2024, which is just as well as he had been saying that it will be finished in ‘about a year’ since 2017. He’s now embarking on a new project to make a replica, in silver, of a highly ornate English natural trumpet.

Incidentally, this venue is a very special place for Russell. Dartington is where he attended summer school (2007–12), proposed (2017), and got married (2018)!

Russell Gilmour

writing on music, photography, engraving, travel and life as a freelance professional musician.

Russell Gilmour's innovative new book, 'Just' Natural Trumpet, is now available: please click here for more information.