Meet Robin Totterdell

You’ve been playing the trumpet since the age of seven – how did you first take it up?

My mum is a music teacher and the trumpet was one of the instruments she played and taught. My sister and I both started on piano and violin at quite a young age, but I’d always wanted to play the trumpet. The sound, even the look of the trumpet, had something special about it and I knew that was the instrument for me.

Are there any tips you’d give to young players starting out on a brass instrument?

Practise! Don’t force it, play like you’d sing. Listen to as many different types of music as you can. Join as many different groups as you can, and, most importantly, have fun.

As a professional musician, you get to play lots of different types of music, all across the world. Are there any moments from your time with the Philharmonia that particularly stand out?

The Japan tour in January 2020 was a special one for me, just before I joined the Orchestra. Japan is my favourite place to tour, it’s an amazing country and I’ve always had a great time there. We did a two-week tour of The Rite of Spring and The Firebird every other night, then the last concert was a piece by Esa-Pekka Salonen, who was conducting, followed by Mahler’s Ninth Symphony. I was offered the job on-stage after the concert.

Brass music is often associated with the Christmas period. What’s your favourite thing about performing in concerts like these ones?    

It’s a completely different challenge to playing in the orchestra, where we sit safely at the back and often have long periods without playing much. The smaller group brings more intimacy and connection with the audience, which can be less tangible for us at the back of the stage. Many of us will have grown up playing Christmas Carols outdoors in the freezing cold at this time of year, so playing some Christmas tunes in these settings is a treat!

Which is your favourite piece from our Philharmonia Brass at Christmas concerts and why?

There are so many great tunes! It’s a really nice mix of repertoire; a brass dectet lends itself as naturally to Bach as it does to film scores and Christmas Carols. I’m particularly looking forward to a couple of new arrangements: A Christmas Medley, arranged by Julian Milone, a violinist with the Philharmonia, and The Twelve Days of Christmas, arranged by our horn player for the concerts, Chris Gough.