February will be a busy month. Starting with recording a new project with the Gonzaga Band, ‘Venice 1629’, a year in the musical life of my favourite city!

Then we perform this programme at the Birmingham International Recorder and Early Music Festival on February 17th: http://www.bcu.ac.uk/conservatoire/events-calendar/gonzaga-band-venice-1629

On Feb 19th I’m giving the premiere of my new project: ‘A Modal Triptych’, three-part canons by Johan Walter (1542), Tim Roberts (2006) and Martyn Harry (2018) – all performed by ‘just one cornetto’ with the aid of live electronics: http://www.bcu.ac.uk/conservatoire/events-calendar/late-night-loops-a-modal-triptych

I’m looking forward to some fruitful new collaborations this year, not least in the field of new music for old instruments. I have often been asked for advice on writing for the cornett, and so I have uploaded some ideas on a new page ‘The Contemporary Cornett’.

One of my most exciting collaborations in recent years has been with Prof Martyn Harry, composer at Oxford University (and Fellow at my former College, St Anne’s). HMSC recorded his 60-minute suite At His Majesty’s Pleasure in 2012: you can listen to extracts via the SFZ Music website here.

I have just joined the Research Department at Birmingham Conservatoire, after six happy and productive years at Newcastle University. So I thought it was time to revamp my website as a place to share news and information about my performing activities and research projects. It’s still under construction at the moment, and I’ll be adding plenty more content in the coming weeks, including audio and video files, so please do visit again soon!