DAVID BLACKADDER
David Blackadder studied at the Royal College of Music with Michael Laird.
After a season as guest principal trumpet with Scottish Opera he joined the English Baroque Soloists and Orchestre Revolutionaire et Romantique as principal trumpet under Sir John Eliot Gardiner and also became principal trumpet with the Academy of Ancient Music with Christopher Hogwood.
During this time he performed extensively at major concert venues throughout the world and took part in numerous recordings for CD, radio, TV and video.
In 1993 he founded the groundbreaking group Blackadder Brass which quickly became the resident educational ensemble at Symphony Hall in Birmingham, playing to over 40,000 children there in its first three years and going on to perform at major venues throughout the UK. He is a professor at Birmingham Conservatoire and The Royal Northern College of Music and has taught natural trumpet at The Royal College Music.
David is currently principal trumpet with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and is renowned as a soloist having performed and recorded many of the great trumpet masterpieces.
His recordings of Handel arias with singers such as Reneé Fleming, Kiri Te Kanawa and Elin Manahan-Thomas have received particular critical acclaim and he has also recorded Bach's second Brandenburg Concerto three times, most notably with Trevor Pinnock, in a recording that received the best Baroque instrumental award at the 2008 Gramophone Awards.
David's most recent projects have been the formation of a new group "The London Trumpet Choir" and as a music consultant, mentor and player on the latest album of Royal music to be released by Alison Balsom.
ALAN GOUT
Alan Gout read music at Oxford. After a short time at the R.C.M. and a stint as a pub pianist he joined the original D'Oyly Carte opera as a trombonist. This versatility soon led to work in the West-End theatre, arranging and composing at the National Theatre and musical direction for the Royal Shakespeare Company.
He combined musical direction for children's TV programmes with collaborating on music workshops for schools. He has conducted ballet with London City Ballet and English National Ballet, all the while gaining a reputation as an expert arranger and composer of original light music, especially in the educational field.
He teaches at Drama Centre, London and at Dartington International Summer School and is musical Director of the Berkeley Square Society Band.
