David Quirke-Thornton – Chairman
Richard Hull – Music Director
After gaining a Degree in Music from Dartington College of Arts in 1991, Richard embarked on a trumpet teaching career, starting at his old school, Bedford Modern School. He began to work full time for Bedfordshire Music Service in 1995. He taught for various music services, and was involved in many different aspects of brass tuition and education for over 30 years, having also spent a year as Visiting Professor of Trumpet at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York.
Richard has played for and conducted a number of orchestras and bands throughout the East of England and is active as a pianist and accompanist. He has also performed as a soloist on the trumpet and piano, including performances of concertos by Grieg, Gregson, Arnold, Telemann and many others.
After two years at the helm of the Huntingdonshire Philharmonic Orchestra, Richard was appointed Musical Director of the Saffron Walden Symphony (formerly Uttlesforde) Orchestra in 2008. Since then he has led the development of the orchestra, taking on more challenging repertoire and introducing more contemporary works into programmes, including symphonies by Martinu, Tubin and Glass. He has also commissioned works by young composers and provided opportunities for young soloists including Yume Fujise, Ellie Fagg, Stephen Smithers and George Harliono.
In February 2025, Richard was asked to conduct a City of Rochester Symphony Orchestra concert at short notice following the sudden death of their conductor of many years, Peter Bassano. Having been associated with the orchestra as a trumpet player in the past and having taken several rehearsals over the years when Peter was unavailable, he was delighted to be asked to conduct them for the remainder of that season, and looks forward to a long and happy future with the CRSO.
Julian Milone – Concert Leader
After studying the violin and composition at the Royal College of Music, Julian joined the first violin section of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra at the tender age of twenty- one before becoming a member of the Philharmonia Orchestra in London in 1983, a position he continues to hold.
Away from the Philharmonia he plays in András Schiff’s hand-picked chamber orchestra, the Cappella Andrea Barca, in violin ensemble concerts with his group, ‘4 Violins & A Bass’, is Head of Strings at King’s Rochester and a professor for Kent Music.
His compositions and arrangements have been performed by orchestras and groups throughout the world, directed by conductors such as Vladimir Ashkenazy, David Robertson, Mikael Pletnev and Carl Davis. Recent arrangements have been recorded for EMI by Alison Balsom and the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra under Edward Gardner, and by cellist Natalie Clein with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and Vernon Handley.
Julian Milone’s work has appeared on the Australian documentary, ‘4’, based on Vivaldi’s ‘The Four Seasons’ and at the wedding of Prince Charles to Camilla Parker-Bowles, for which he arranged the music. His works have also been performed at US festivals by Gil Shaham and Cho-Liang Lin, in Amsterdam and Cape Town by Ivry Gitlis and Daniel Rowland and by Janine Jansen at her festival in Dubrovnik.