I first started working with AAM soon after leaving the Royal College of Music in 1988 and, after more than 30 years as a principal player, I’m glad to say that the orchestra is still thriving and going from strength to strength.
My roots lie in the brass band movement following in the footsteps of my grandfather who was a bandmaster in the North East. He wouldn’t have understood or known much about historical performance but I still have some of his handwritten manuscripts of Handel arias which he would no doubt have played and taught himself on the Euphonium. One in particular I remember was Where’er you walk from Semele. From playing slow melodies like that as a youngster, I learned how to sing through the instrument and play in a lyrical style. Much of my career on the baroque trumpet has been influenced by this as the trumpets of the 17th and 18th centuries were striving to achieve the very same kind of lyricism, copying the great singers of the day in arias such as The Trumpet shall Sound and Eternal Source of Light Divine. The main difference is of course the lack of modern day valves on the natural trumpet so the singing style has to be coaxed from it with creative articulations and lip control instead. The fact it is also much longer than its modern counterpart means that it is a constant challenge that is forever intriguing and stimulating.
Outside of AAM, alongside playing as principal trumpet for other major early music groups (The English Baroque Soloists, Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment) in both the UK and abroad, I am also co-principal trumpet of The City of London Sinfonia. I have worked extensively with many of the UK’s leading symphony orchestras and opera companies, appearing as a soloist on many occasions and have played on numerous soundtracks for film and TV. I am currently a professor at the Guildhall School of Music and the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire and have taught at both the Royal College of Music and Royal Northern College of Music as well as being Head of Brass at Rugby School from 2015 to 2021.
Some highlights of my professional musical journey include founding ‘Blackadder Brass’ in 1994, which was the first ever educational ensemble in residence at Symphony Hall in Birmingham, playing to over 40,000 children there in its first three years. The group went on to perform at major venues throughout the UK and I have now resurrected the group as Blackadder Baroque Brass, hoping to once again bring brass music to a wider audience. In 2009 I created a concert programme with my great friend and colleague Ben Hoffnung entitled ‘Divine Music for Trumpets and Voices’. It was performed in St Martin-in-the-Fields and the Mansion House as part of the Lord Mayor’s Appeal and also in the chapel of Marlborough School in the presence of HRH Queen Camilla. Perhaps my greatest claim to fame is of course playing at the Royal Wedding in 2018 as Meghan Markle walked down the aisle to a live global TV audience of 1.9 billion viewers.
As we embark on the 50th anniversary season for AAM I’m looking forward to being part of what promises to be a fantastic programme of concerts and I look forward to many more years of working for such a special orchestra.
David Blackadder, November 2023
