Equally at home commissioning new music as performing the classic repertory, Onyx Brass recently celebrated its 30th Anniversary. Onyx continues to be the leading force in the promotion of the brass quintet as a medium for serious chamber music, combining “staggering virtuosity” (Sarah Walker, BBC Radio 3) with the illuminating and articulate style that has become the group’s trademark.

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Onyx's extensive discography (currently 16 albums) is regularly featured on BBC Radio 3, and has received great critical acclaim, Gramophone hailing “some of the most thrilling chamber brass-playing of its kind”and Record Review describing the ensemble as a “wonderful, virtuosic brass quintet”.

© Thomas Bowles

New music and education are at the heart of Onyx Brass' remit. The group has commissioned and premiered over 200 new works from such eminent composers as David Sawer, Thea Musgrave, Michael Nyman, Joe Duddell, John Tavener, Judith Bingham, John McCabe, Tarik O’Regan, Cheryl Frances Hoad, Gabriel Jackson, Giles Swayne, Steve Martland, Jonathan Dove, Paul Mealor, Rory Boyle, Guy Barker and Emily Hall. Onyx has led workshops and masterclasses from primary schools through to the Juilliard School in New York, and has held several residencies (including 15 years at Imperial College, London). 

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Work with singers also forms a central part of Onyx's work, often under the auspices of the John Armitage Memorial Trust, with whom Onyx has been affiliated since its inception.

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Onyx Brass has toured extensively throughout the UK, and has also performed regularly at festivals and concert halls in the USA, Ireland, France, Sweden, Germany, Portugal, Switzerland, Nigeria, Bermuda and Borneo, to unanimous critical acclaim.