It’s with great sadness that we announce that Brian unfortunately is leaving the group. He has been with Onyx Brass since 1999 and we will all miss his melifluous tone and consummate musicianship. There are so many special memories and moments that could be noted down of his time with the group and his being…
Onyx Brass turns 20 this year, and the party has already started! During the first half of the year, we’re celebrating with other young people in a series of family concerts and evening concerts withMusic in the Round, who specialise in providing informal performances by great musicians. That suits us down to the ground, and…
Over the Summer, we recorded a piece by our good friend and colleague Torbjorn Hultmark. It is called A song of Guadeloupe and is very beautifully written indeed. We will certainly be featuring it in future OB programmes. Here is A link to the recording. https://soundcloud.com/torbjorn-hultmark/hultmark-a-song-of-guadelupe More of Torbjorn’s music can be heard on his…
With its scrupulous attention to balance, timbre and nuance of phrasing, it is reminiscent of the Philip Jones quintet in its prime, where total integration of five musical personalities becomes an ensemble that is much more than the sum of its parts….five stars.
BBC Music Magazine
…just like the ones I used to know. If there’s anything that sounds like Christmas to me, it’s probably a brass band playing carols. We’re always quite busy around this time of year – we’ve already played two concerts with choirs (Laudate and Eltham Choral Society), and we’ve got a very busy day coming up…
Onyx Brass come alive as responsive individuals most readily in the Shostakovich. The G major fugue is supremely virtuoso, the E minor resplendent and dramatic, the D major questing and deft. And then comes the urgency of the G sharp minor, the multi-layered A flat and the orchestrally-inspired struggle of the D minor (marked resonancesof the Fifth Symphony in its new guise) – all delivered with a liberated and characterful imagination…The real achievement, however, is the Shostakovich, already downloaded on my iPod as some of the most thrilling chamber brass-playing of its kind.
Gramophone on Fugue, Sept 2008
Bravo the Onyx!
Philip Jones
