News
Spring/ Summer Season Announced!
February 2024
After a successful 2023 season featuring a BBC Proms Debut, Aaron Akugbo kicks off his 2024 Spring/ Summer Season in Jersey with a recital with good friend and accompanist, Zeynep Özsuca. You can check out his full 2024 season with more dates still to be added!
Spring/ Summer Season 2024
27th February | Jersey Arts Centre - recital with Zeynep Özsuca
3rd March | | Artists for a better planet - Haydn Trumpet Concerto
13th April | Tomasi Concerto with the National Youth Orchestra of Scotland
14th May | Chipping Campden Music Festival - recital with Ryan Corbett
17th May | RCS lunchtime series - recital with Ryan Corbett
17th June | Ryedale Festival - recital with Milo Harper
2024 Diary
Make it stand out
Aaron Akugbo to make BBC Proms Debut
Prom 61: Chineke! performs Beethoven’s Fourth Symphony
Friday 1st September 2023 - 19:30
Royal Albert Hall - London
Aaron will be making his BBC Proms solo debut playing the Haydn Trumpet Concerto this summer with the Chineke! Orchestra.
About this event
Europe’s first majority Black and ethnically diverse orchestra returns to the Proms with Beethoven’s joyful Fourth Symphony and Haydn’s exuberant Trumpet Concerto. On a mission to champion change and celebrate diversity in classical music, Chineke! also showcases music by pioneering Black British composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor and his American namesake, Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson. Plus, there’s an opportunity to hear Valerie Coleman’s pandemic anthem, Seven O’Clock Shout.
Broadcast on BBC TV
Lucerne Festival Debut 2022: Aaron Akugbo
Meet Nigerian-Scottish trumpetist Aaron Akugbo who will give his Lucerne Festival solo debut on 30. August 2022. In this short clip, Aaron introduces us to the diverse program he will perform together with pianist Zeynep Özsuca. He is joined by the other members of Connaught Brass (Harry Plant, Robyn Blair, Chris Brewster, and Aled Meredith-Barrett) as they perform "Adoration" by Florence Price.
Aaron Akugbo to make Lucerne Festival Solo Debut
Tuesday 30th August - 12.15pm
It’s not his first appearance at Lucerne Festival – and it won’t be his last this summer. Born in 1998, Aaron Akugbo previously introduced himself here in 2021 with the Connaught Brass Ensemble, and since he is also principal trumpet of the Chineke! Orchestra, he will be heard once again in the closing concert on 11 September. But this son of a Nigerian father and a Scottish mother makes his major debut as a soloist with this concert. His program is finely balanced in terms of diversity. Two female composers are featured: the African American, late Romantic Florence Price and the British contemporary Sally Beamish. The Baroque master Telemann is juxtaposed with a world premiere by Black artist Joy Guidry, and the Broadway ballad My Funny Valentine meets a sonata by the Viennese Karl Pilss inspired by Richard Strauss. Aaron Akugbo attended masterclasses by Reinhold Friedrich and Tine Thing Helseth, was awarded a special prize in the 2019 Girolamo Fantini Trumpet Competition, and made his debut at London’s Royal Festival Hall in 2020 performing Haydn’s Trumpet Concerto.
Aaron Akugbo trumpet
Zeynep Özsuca piano
Sally Beamish (*1956)
Trinculo for trumpet and piano
Georg Philipp Telemann (1681–1767)
Methodic Sonata in B minor, TWV 41:h3
Joy Guidry
They know what they’ve done to us for trumpet and electronics (world premiere)
Commissioned by I&I Foundation
Florence Price (1887–1953)
Remembrance
Sympathy
Resignation
Adoration
Richard Rodgers (1902–1979)
My Funny Valentine
George Enescu (1881–1955)
Légende for trumpet and piano
Peter Maxwell Davies (1934–2016)
Farewell to Stromness
Karl Pilss (1902–1979)
Trumpet Sonata
This concert has no intermission.
MUSIC FOR ORGAN AND TRUMPET: AARON AKUGBO AND JOHN KITCHEN
Wednesday 18th May - 9.30pm
Aaron will performing at the Bath Festival on Wednesday 18th May.
The Bath Festival celebrates music and books in a beautiful city, returning from the 13 – 21st May across various venues in Bath. With over 130+ events, the eclectic range of book and music events on offer means there is truly something for everyone! So excited to be part of The Bath Festival 2022 and can’t wait to performing for the people of Bath
Aaron Akugbo, Trumpet
John Kitchen, Organ
Tomasi: Sainte Semaine a Cuzco
Damase: Trois prières
Messiaen: Apparition de l’Eglise éternelle
Telemann: Methodische Sonate
Callaerts: Toccata in E minor
Friedman: Solus
Cecilia McDowall: Celebration
Florence Price: Adoration
Bach: Trumpet & Organ Concerto D major BWV 972
Aaron Azunda Akugbo performs Haydn with the National Youth Orchestra of Scotland under the baton of Alice Farnham
Friday 04.08.22
Aaron Azunda Akugbo performs Haydn Trumpet Concerto with the National Youth Orchestra of Scotland - NYOS under the baton of Alice Farnham (10 April)
Aaron Azunda Akugbo's recital at The Lammermuir Festival available to listen to online
Friday 01.21.22
Aaron Azunda Akugbo's recital at The Lammermuir Festival from last summer is available to listen online. Recorded live and featuring works by Florence Price, JS Bach & Torelli.
Aaron Akugbo Makes Lammermuir Festival Debut
Friday 09.17.21
Rising star in British music, Edinburgh-born Aaron Akugbo makes his Lammermuir Festival debut this weekend. He and John Kitchen will perform in Crichton’s lovely mediaeval church with a rich mix of Baroque and 20th century music including a romantic piece by pioneering African-American composer Florence Price.
Aaron makes his solo debut with the Chineke! Orchestra
December 2020
A Man Who Dreamed: Chineke! Orchestra with Aaron Akugbo at the Royal Festival Hall
Performing the Haydn Trumpet Concerto in E Flat Major, Aaron Akugbo made his solo debut with Chineke! Orchestra in December 2020 at the Royal Festival Hall. Aaron is a longstanding member of the Chineke! Orchestra and holds the seat of Principal trumpet.
© Chris Christodoulou
Bach Track Review by Timothy Robson 15th December 2020
Trumpeter Aaron Akugbo was a refined soloist in Haydn's Trumpet Concerto in E flat major. His sound was sweet, often lyrical, with the ability to play both legato and to manage the treacherous multi-octave leaps that Haydn sets as challenges to the soloist. The second movement was especially fine, with Akugbo's phrasing of the lyrical solo line. The third movement's acrobatics were played with perfect clarity and intonation. By the third movement Akugbo seemed relaxed and enjoying himself. Bovell and Chineke! were sensitive accompanists. Since there was no live audience for the concert, the orchestral players themselves applauded, cheered, and stomped their feet.
Aaron Akugbo signs for Sulivan Sweetland Ltd Management
In January 2021, Aaron Akugbo signed to Sulivan Sweetland Ltd, now formerly known as Maestro Arts.
2021 Live
Lucerne Festival Debut Series
07.09.21 - 12.15 (CET)
Lucerne Festival
Lucerne - Switzerland
Connaught Brass