I know, I know, it’s been nearly a year, so in an effort not to disappear from the blogosphere altogether, here’s a little thought:
Next week I have to go to Hexham Abbey in Northumberland to shoot Songs of Praise, followed by a brass quintet recital in Cardiff the day after. Without going into too much […]

I was moderately surprised this morning to read about the trials of my old mate Bill Cooper, trumpet player extraordinaire and key member of England’s Barmy Army, currently stationed in Brisbane for the first Ashes test. Bill was chucked out of the Gabba ground just after lunch on Day 1 having been warned by the […]

I am…

In Copenhagen.
Tired.
Hung over.
Full of cold.
In need of doing some laundry. Have been wandering around the area for half an hour in search of a launderette which I’m sure wasn’t where the hotel receptionist told me it was. Maybe I was just too tired, hung over and full of cold to comprehend.

I’m on tour with […]

Forgive me for I have sinned. It has been THREE MONTHS since my last post!
Many things have happened since then which were certainly blogworthy, but for one reason or another I didn’t get around to writing and the moment passed. The main reason for this is a project I have been working on, more of […]

From the current Private Eye:
The other week (Tessa) Jowell (British Culture Secretary) accompanied Condoleezza Rice (US Secretary of State, and an accomplished pianist) to a concert by the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, after which there was a dinner…
..Ms Jowell asked one of the Philharmonic’s principal players: “Are you paid for playing in the orchestra?”

Is this […]

As I start to think about a redesign for this site, the first and most obvious question is: what is it for? I always intended to produce a site advertising my services as a performer, arranger, conductor and teacher, but up to now the only element of jamestopp.com has been this blog, and its purpose […]

During the tea break at a session for Songs Of Praise yesterday, a member of the choir collars me and says, “We were just favourably comparing you to the horns we were working with last week.”
“Oh thanks”, I replied, “who were you working with last week?”
“It was the English Symphony Orchestra, we were doing Beethoven […]

Last night I went to my former place of employment to see a stunning performance of Shostakovich 7 by the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra under Mariss Jansons. While there I met one of my former colleagues who told me about an amusing incident she had witnessed a few weeks before, when the Vienna Phil were in […]

Olly Green, 4th horn in the Philharmonia Orchestra, died very suddenly a few days ago. He was only 28.
I can’t claim to have known him beyond having met him a couple of times, but the horn playing world is a small one and I know that his loss will be deeply felt within it, and […]

Guardian Unlimited | Arts news | £33m tax bill could close orchestras

British orchestras face a £33m tax bill that, if collected, could “kill them all off in one fell swoop” according to one orchestra insider. “The problem is so gigantic that literally everyone would go bust,” said another symphony orchestra source.
The liability for the tax […]