London Brass

Upon the 1986 disbandment of the Philip Jones Brass Ensemble, the London Brass arose chiefly from that ensemble’s personnel. The group most frequently appears as a ten-piece unit yet modifies its instrumentation to suit particular scores, sometimes contracting to the standard brass quintet format.

One of its chief aims centers on advancing contemporary composition, which has resulted in commissions directed to Richard Rodney Bennett, John Lunn, Dominic Muldowney, Nigel Osborne, Michael Nyman, Mark-Anthony Turnage, Mike Gibbs, Django Bates, Paul Hart, Carla Bley, and Deidre Gribbin. Participants also embrace experimental scores such as Jay Arden’s Bayo’s Way, written for electronic tuba and ensemble; trombonist David Purser observed, “This is a piece we had written to showcase the extraordinary techniques that Oren Marshall has developed using guitar pedals and amplifier. It’s not an easy piece to listen to, but it has always been a great success with our audiences.”

Serving as ensemble in residence at the Royal College of Music in London, the musicians undertake an array of teaching and coaching responsibilities. They likewise lead master classes and additional educational programs beyond Britain, most regularly in Norway and Germany.

Several members rank among accomplished arrangers and have generated transcriptions of music by composers across nearly every epoch of Western tradition, among them J.S. Bach (Brandenburg Concerto No. 3), Witold Lutoslawski (Variations on a Theme by Paganini for piano duet), Brahms, Elgar, Ravel, and others whose output contained little or no original brass-ensemble writing. Particularly noteworthy examples include Chris Mowat’s arrangement of Edward Elgar’s Introduction and Allegro and Richard Bissill’s transcription of Franz Liszt’s famous Second Hungarian Rhapsody. (London Brass arrangements are issued by Brass Wind Publications.) In live programs these transcriptions stand alongside authentic brass repertoire both historic and recent. The ensemble also presents earlier music, above all late Renaissance and early Baroque works with choir, in which pieces by Schütz and Gabrieli occupy a regular place in yearly programming.

During the 2000/2001 season the London Brass roster consisted of Andy Crowley, Paul Beniston, John Barclay, and Ann McAneney on trumpet, Lindsay Shilling, Richard Edwards, and David Purser on trombones, Richard Bissill on horn, Oren Marshall on tuba, and David Stewart on bass trombone. Apart from ensemble commitments each member sustains a full schedule of solo engagements, orchestral posts, chamber-music activity, and faculty appointments at London conservatories. Among them are principal players from the English Chamber Orchestra, the London Sinfonietta, and three (horn, trumpet and trombone) from the London Philharmonic Orchestra, together with soloists drawn from several of London’s best-known jazz orchestras. Two or three months each year are devoted to touring, recording, and shared time together as London Brass.