A WORLD-class trumpeter who teaches at Rugby School will perform at the Royal Wedding this weekend – and has teamed up with an award-winning chorister pupil to record a special musical wedding gift for HRH Prince Harry and Meghan Markle.
The School’s Head of Brass, David Blackadder, has been invited to perform at the Windsor Castle ceremony on Saturday (May 19).
And 14-year-old pupil Ischia Gooda, who won the BBC Chorister of the Year award last November, performed Geoffrey Burgon’s Nunc Dimittis alongside David in the School’s Chapel.
A video of the performance will be sent to Kensington Palace next week as a gift for the happy couple.
David is a principal player in the Ancient Academy of Music and a professor at the Birmingham Conservatoire. He is also recognised as the world’s best player of the natural trumpet – a slimmer, valveless version of a traditional trumpet – and has performed with the likes of Sir Simon Rattle and Kiri Te Kanawa.
In 1993 David formed the ground-breaking group Blackadder Brass, which became the resident educational ensemble at Symphony Hall in Birmingham.
He said it was an absolute pleasure to make the recording for Harry and Meghan and is very much looking forward to performing at the ceremony.
He said: “Ischia has the most wonderful controlled voice for someone of her age and gives this piece the most angelic quality with her incredibly beautiful sound.
“I’m so thrilled to have been asked to play at the Royal Wedding. It’s such an honour and a privilege to be part of an incredibly momentous event and I’m looking forward to it enormously. My career has taken me around the globe performing for many important occasions but this one will be a truly special I’m sure.”
Ischia, who joined Rugby School as a Music Scholar in 2016 and is a member of the School’s many choirs, was announced as the triumphant choirgirl in the Young Chorister of the Year competition in a special programme broadcast on Radio 2 last year.
See above to watch the video of David and Ischia performing Nunc Dimittis.
