Elias Simojoki is playing trumpet solo in Hummel’s Trumpet Concerto at the Solent Symphony Orchestra’s concert on Saturday 8 March in Portsmouth Cathedral.
What are you looking forward to when playing in this concert?
It’s nice to get a lot of solo experience, and this piece is a staple piece in the repertoire – it’s a great privilege to play it, really. It is a good feeling to come back to my roots and to show how far I’ve come already: I’ve been around Hampshire playing for years and now I’m in London. I’m slightly nervous about the concert, but in a good way. It’s the first time I’ve played the piece with an orchestra.
As regards the piece itself, the most noticeable bit is the third movement, which is famously technically difficult on the trumpet: it has a fast, flashy rondo. It’s quite iconic really, a staple piece, and one of the first ever pieces written a valved or keyed trumpet. It’s really chromatic, composed simply to show off the fact that the player can now play more than simply an arpeggio.
When did that innovation to the trumpet occur?
Around Haydn’s time: Haydn was the first composer to write for a keyed trumpet. His concerto was the first, then Hummel quickly followed it up with his own concerto. So, before then, it was all natural trumpet things by people such as Bach and Mozart.
Tell me about the Portsmouth Music Festival Concerto Prize that you won in 2024.
I played the 2nd and 3rd movements from Hummel. And I’m playing the whole piece now with the orchestra.
Tell me more about the piece itself.
It’s filled with lovely call and response, particularly between the violins and trumpet. The second movement is one of the loveliest pieces ever written: it has a couple of lovely oboe solos. There’s a bit of interplay between oboe and trumpet, which are quite similar sounding, but they have their own shining qualities.
I think that a lot of the time when the trumpet is playing, it’s quite an understated accompaniment. Then on a couple of occasions the orchestra gets to shine for a minute or so, when I’m not playing, which is really nice.
What stage of your career are you at?
I’m a first year trumpet student at the Royal College of Music in London, in the stage where the world’s my oyster – I don’t know what I’m going to do. Of course career-wise one has to plan to do whatever pays the bills. But my current goal is potentially to specialise in the Baroque (or the “natural”) trumpet. There’s a lot of work, fewer players, and I just really love doing it – there are glorious trumpet parts written for it.
Example of pieces that I love playing with the natural trumpet are Handel’s Messiah or Bach’s Christmas Oratorio. I’m not capable of playing some of these pieces yes – some of the hardest stuff in the repertoire, but these will be great to master.
What were the influences on you intending to take up this career?
The reason I started playing was that I saw my uncle play: I decided I wanted to do it and I now play on his old trumpet, which is really nice. When I got to sixth form I did the Hampshire specialist music course, and was taught by Julian Poore. He’s the head of brass. He plays in the Chamber Orchestra of Europe. He was really inspiring and I made a lot of progress under him, and decided that I didn’t want to do anything else.
About Elias
Elias started playing the trumpet aged 7, taught by Dave Smith whom he stayed with for 8 years. He joined Gosport and Fareham Youth Training Band at age 9, before progressing to the Gosport and Fareham Youth Orchestra, where he played until the summer of 2024. At age 11 he joined the National Children’s Orchestra, with whom he was a member until the Covid-19 pandemic cut his experience short in 2020.
Following this, he joined Hampshire County Youth Orchestra in 2021, where he played principal trumpet from 2022-2024. From 2023-2024 he was accepted as a member of the National Youth Orchestra, with whom he was fortunate enough to play in world-renowned venues such as The Barbican, The Royal Festival Hall, The Bridgewater Hall and The Royal Albert Hall.
From 2021-2024 he was taught by Julian Poore, and from 2022-2024 he studied at Peter Symonds College on the Hampshire Specialist Music Course, gaining valuable solo and chamber opportunities.
In the summer of 2024, he performed the Arutiunian Trumpet Concerto with Winchester Symphony Orchestra. He is currently studying at the Royal College of Music with a full scholarship, and is taught by Kate Moore and Niall Keatley, and baroque trumpet by Paul Sharp. In his spare time, Elias enjoys playing football and keeping fit.
