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BIOG MATERIAL
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At the heart of Darren's musical life is style, versatility, and community spirit.
He was appointed as Principal Trumpet of the National Symphony Orchestra Ireland in 2025 - this is the band formerly known as RTE National Symphony Orchestra.
Darren has played regularly with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe including at the Luzern Festival with Bernard Haitink, in South Korea with Sunwook Kim, and on their latest recordings of Beethoven Symphonies (dir. Yannick Nezet Seguin). He has performed the Brandenburg Concerto no.2 by Bach on baroque trumpet with the
London Handel Orchestra, and Monteverdi's Vespers 1610 with The Sixteen (dir. Harry Christophers) on cornetto. Darren has also toured the USA with Sir John Eliot Gardiner and the Monteverdi Choir, played at the BBC Proms with the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, and regularly performed with his friend (and Diapason d'Or winner)
Lambert Colson in Ensemble InAlto.
He started playing trumpet in his mum's high-school wind band when he was aged 5, and kept on playing thanks to his dad driving him to lessons at Kent Music School. He then learned with Tom Rainer, who used to be in the RTE National Symphony Orchestra himself. Darren completed his Masters in Music at the Royal Academy of Music, London and was awarded a DipRAM for his final recital performance. He was made an ARAM (Associate of the Royal Academy of Music) in 2024. Previously he had done his BMus at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. A few years after leaving RAM, Darren also completed a second Masters on the historical musical instrument Cornetto at the Brussels Royal Conservatory with Lambert Colson.
Darren was awarded the Patricia Prindl Prize for Outreach by the Worshipful Company of Musicians in London, 2017. He continues to deliver outreach sessions across Dublin for the Irish Baroque Orchestra, and teaches at the T.U.Dublin Conservatoire. He is also a guest teacher on The Brass Academy courses.
Darren played at Shakespeare's Globe Theatre in a production of Othello that
involved samba dancing with Sir Mark Rylance (The BFG, Bridge of Spies, Dunkirk),
and Andre Holland (Moonlight, The Eddy).
It was during this period of time that he learned to play the bagpipes (not professionally!) a choice that proved a winner when he was asked to play his best friend down the aisle on her wedding day in Scotland.
Extra Info / Background
For the exceptionally interested...
Ever since Darren started playing in his school trad jazz band, he realised there was more to music than playing dots on a page.
There was something about having to memorise jazz tunes and improvising on them that made a huge difference to him as a musician. He struggled to balance his slightly awkward and shy personality with being the front man in a jazz band, but every so often he forgot himself and just enjoyed the music. He noticed these were the performances that left audiences wildest, and coincidentally him and the other band members too. Luckily because this music required him to play without reading too carefully, he could easily get into that zone. Since discovering this, Darren's goal has always been to try and make the music sound like it wasn't written down.
Years later Darren is still enjoying the challenge and he is convinced that this concept overlaps (and even benefits) the many musical styles, eras, and instruments that he plays. It might seem strange but he finds his teenage jazzing experience most useful when he is having to ornament and improvise in baroque and renaissance music. Darren always remembers talking with one particular cornetto colleague who told him that William Byrd must have been like the Dizzy Gillespie of his day.
As a coping mechanism for nerves on stage, Darren sometimes finds it helpful to think of the composer humming their melodies to themselves. Then he'll try and play that melody as he hears the composer singing it. In particular, music like Mahler where there are so many directions on the music, can feel quite claustrophobic to read. So Darren always makes sure he listens to the Mahler Plays Mahler CD where players of the Vienna Philharmonic and NY Philharmonic talk about "Herr Mahler" as an nervously energetic man walking with an unsteady gait.
After studying with Tom Rainer, Darren went to the Guildhall School to do his BMus in trumpet performance (2008-12), and then a Masters degree at the Royal Academy of Music in London (2012-14) where he was awarded a DipRAM for the quality of his final recital. He also took advantage of the ERASMUS Scheme by studying in The Hague, and recently gained a second Masters Degree in cornetto and historical performance with Lambert Colson at the Royal Brussels Conservatoire.
Darren is a big fan of Wynton Marsalis' work, not just as a player but also for using music and influence as a social force for good. Darren is very aware of the opportunities afforded to him growing up, and realises that not everybody gets the same chances he did. He is very conscious that music has the possibility to help everybody, and he tries his best to not promote elitism or gate-keeping in the industry. This is why he is so proud to have been a part of the MultiStory Orchestra who use music as a force for positive social change. Check out their project called The Endz for an example of the great work they do.