I played principal trumpet with the Monteverdi Choir and English Baroque Soloists for a grand gala concert at St. James’s Palace in London on Thursday 17 September 2026.

I performed Handel’s Zadok the Priest (HWV 258) from the Coronation Anthems under the direction of Christophe Rousset. In fact, this incredible gala concert featured five conductors: Christophe Rousset, Jakob Lehmann, Jonathan Sells, Sir Mark Elder, and Mark Padmore.

The programme began with Christophe Rousset directing the choir in an extract from Johann Sebastian Bach’s Singet dem Herrn ein neues Lied (BWV 225). It continued with Christophe directing George Frideric Handel’s ‘Endless pleasure, endless love’ from Semele (HWV 58) which featured the soprano soloist Robyn Allegra Parton. This triptych of works directed by Rousset culminated in Handel’s ‘Where’er you walk’ from Semele, which featured the tenor soloist Nick Pritchard.

Master of Ceremonies Tom Holland (from The Rest is History podcast) introduced each of the pieces in turn and explained that this well-known choir and orchestra can perform in a versatile range of styles, and that it occasionally appears under some musical pseudonyms, including as the Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique (ORR), which focuses on music from the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

Thereafter, Jakob Lehmann took the helm to direct the choir through Gioachino Rossini’s Toast pour le nouvel an (QR vii/50–61); this showcased the impeccable control and finesse of the Monteverdi Choir in this very different style.

Jonathan Sells was the next director to take to the stage, and the choir sang a wonderfully controlled rendition of Bruckner’s Locus iste.

Christophe Rousset returned to the stage to direct ‘To Thee, Thou Glorious Son of Worth’ from Handel’s Theodora (HWV 68), which featured the soloists Robyn Allegra Parton and Dame Sarah Connolly. The Monteverdi Choir and Orchestra will be performing Theodora with Christophe Rousset directing in November 2026 in South America (Buenos Aires, Montevideo, Lima, and São Paulo), as well as in Salle Gaveau in Paris, Sala Sinopoli Santa Cecilia in Rome, the Sohmen Concert Hall at the Schwarzman Centre in Oxford, and at St Martin-in-the-Fields in London (I will be joining them for the final four more local concerts). Christophe also directed Lasciate i monti from Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo, which followed.

Next, Sir Mark Elder conducted Elgar’s ‘As torrents in summer’. Between 2006 and 2010, I had the great pleasure of singing Elgar’s The Kingdom (Op. 51) and The Dream of Gerontius (Op. 38) with Sir Mark Elder and the Hallé Choir and Orchestra while I was a student at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester. It brought back wonderful memories of him, his wit, and his ability to make the sound of the choir spine-tingling. I hoped the opportunity would arise for me to speak to him about the recording with Bryn Terfel, Alice Coote, and Paul Groves as soloists, which we recorded from 17–19 July 2008 at the Bridgewater Hall, but the opportunity didn’t arise and I was too star-struck to initiate it! I found my score while tidying a bookshelf the other day, and I flicked through it to find that I had notated several of Sir Mark Elder’s witty, apt, or amusing comments in the margin!

The performance culminated with a rendition of Handel’s Zadok the Priest (HWV 258) from the Coronation Anthems under the direction of Christophe Rousset—with whom I have just been recording with in Paris (literally yesterday)! It was a rousing way to end this magnificent gala concert in the lavish surroundings of the Queen Anne Room at St. James’s Palace in London. I was aware that I was playing only a metre or two away from an exceptionally musically distinguished front row comprising Sir Mark Elder, Dame Sarah Connolly, Robyn Allegra Parton, Nick Pritchard, Jakob Lehmann, Jonathan Sells, and Mark Padmore; it was only a little unnerving in this room, with its thick, sound-absorbent burgundy carpet and numerous people, where it was quite difficult to play the trumpet! However, it was a great thrill and I think we (namely Russell Gilmour, William Russell, Sam Kinrade on trumpets, and Ben Fullbrook on timpani) did a good job! The evening continued with performances from the Monteverdi apprentices, directed by Mark Padmore. This was certainly a memorable day at this remarkable venue.