Full Biography

Since 1993 Onyx Brass has been dominating the international brass chamber music world. Dubbed "easily the classiest brass ensemble in Britain" by BBC Music magazine, it has performed at festivals all over Europe and the USA to huge critical acclaim. The group was conceived by way of filling the huge gap in the market for a serious yet approachable brass chamber ensemble. From the Universities of Idaho and Washington state on the West Coast of the USA to the Bastad Chamber music festival in Sweden, from the Schleswig Holstein Festival in Germany to Baltimore, USA, Onyx continues to make new friends all over the world.

Of particular importance to Onyx is the commissioning of audience-friendly new music and, to this end, they have performed and recorded world premières of music by Jonathan Dove, Bob Chilcott, John Tavener, John McCabe, Tim Jackson and Michael Nyman. The next couple of years will see the group performing world premières by Richard Rodney-Bennett and Joe Duddell.

The group has just finished recording a third compact disc - contrasting with Trisagion and Pavans, Fantasias and Variations, Onyx’s first two, this disc pairs up Bach and Shostakovich fugues by key. Fugues are a musical form which greatly lend themselves to chamber music, since they are usually written in three or four distinct parts. The end result will hopefully be an exciting CD of superb music, expertly played. Fugues is due for release in February 2008.

Individual members of the group hold permanent principal positions in The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the Orchestra of English National Opera, the English Chamber Orchestra, and the Royal Ballet Sinfonia. Whilst the Onyx players rely heavily on these jobs, they do allow a certain flexibility for chamber music-making. Without this orchestral good will, getting together would be considerably tougher.

Since winning a concert in the Park Lane Group series in 1994, the group has gone on to win other competitions and scholarships. A particular highlight being the first brass chamber ensemble ever to be chosen for a John Tunnell Trust Tour in Scotland. The quintet performs regularly on BBC Radios 2 and 3. It has also played for Prime Minister Tony Blair and, before him, John Major.

Onyx Brass are also very active and experienced in the field of music education, having conducted workshops and master classes for a huge range of people. They have directed educational days at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, and the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama. In the USA, they have carried out masterclasses at a number of leading conservatoires including the Juilliard School in New York and the Boston Conservatory. In addition, the group returned to its roots at the National Youth Orchestra for a day to coach the talented young brass students for a cooperative concert held that evening. The group takes pleasure in developing ongoing relationships with secondary schools where a whole variety of work can be carried out, from straightforward coaching to recording and performing GCSE project music. In connection with this role, after three years, Onyx Brass have just relinquished their post as ensemble-in-residence at Radley College, Oxfordshire.

During 2000-01 they took part in a Making Music (formerly the National Federation of Music Societies) New Horizons educational tour around Britain, with specially commissioned music by Bob Chilcott called A Sporting Chance for brass quintet, school choir, actors and dancers. In 2002, with the assistance of ING Barings and Hackney Music Services, they took a similar project into schools within the London Borough of Hackney. Between the Summers of 2004 and 2005, Onyx again took A Sporting Chance to various festivals and societies around the UK, thanks to a grant from the Arts Council of Great Britain. Searching for funding for this incredibly worthwhile project is always ongoing so that primary school children up and down the country can benefit from the group’s joie-de-vivre as well as sharing a concert platform with them.

Work with choirs now also forms a vital part of Onyx’s work. In recent times the group has worked with the BBC Singers, the Brighton Festival Chorus, the Choir of St Brides, Fleet Street, and Laudate as well as superb amateur choirs including the choir of Selwyn College, Cambridge. The John Armitage Memorial (JAM) trust forms the backbone of this work, and also provides a platform for composers to submit works for inclusion in each year's series of concerts. Judith Bingham’s piece for JAM for 2006/7, My Heart Strangely Warmed, recently won a British Composers' Award.

The ensemble has its own website at www.onyxbrass.co.uk

Onyx Brass are Appointed Artists to South East Music Schemes 2007-2008

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