Crispian Steele-Perkins is a trumpet soloist who is world-renowned for the quality of his performances and wide-ranging musical experience. On graduating from the Guildhall School of Music, Crispian spent his early career playing with the English National Opera and Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. He then spent 15 years working in recording, TV and film studios, developing a body of work which is universally recognizable today, from Handel to James Bond themes and pop classics.
His interest in collecting and restoring antique trumpets led him to begin performing on them – you may have heard Crispian’s playing introducing the BBC’s ‘The Antiques Roadshow’. His unique performances and recordings on genuine historic instruments led Continuo Magazine to describe him as ‘the world’s leading player of the Baroque trumpet’.
Playing alongside some of the world’s greatest singers, Crispian’s purity of tone and artistic subtlety has received critical acclaim for more than three decades. Recordings of Handel’s ‘Let the Bright Seraphim’ with Dame Kiri te Kanawa and ‘Eternal sourceof Light Divine’ with James Bowman are familiar to many. More recently his recordings and performances with Emma Kirkby, Lynne Dawson, Carolyn Sampson, Bryn Terfel, Sir John Tomlinson, Elin Manahan-Thomas and Lesley Garrett have firmly established his reputation. His work in the studios has included more than 80 film, TV scores and commercials, appearing alongside Sir Cliff Richard, Sir Bob Geldof, Sir Harry Secombe, Kate Bush, Elaine Page, Chris Rhea, Lulu and as Lead Trumpet for Led Zeppelin ! His many Solo recordings extend from Purcell to Glenn Miller and his largest “live” audience was 133,000 at the Edinburgh International Festival.