Presented by the Royal Academy of Music
London Metropolitan Brass was formed in 2016 from brass students at the Royal Academy of Music for an Academy engagement. The members recognised the rare rapport present in such a fledgling ensemble and committed to developing into a busy and progressive brass chamber group. The group has been selected to represent the Academy for several recitals and external engagements and are coached by the Academy’s prestigious team of professors. This connection with the Academy is one that the quintet highly value, and they are delighted to have been selected as the Chamber Fellows for 2018-19. In 2017, the quintet won the Worshipful Company of Musicians Brass Ensembles Prize, and as a result were made Yeoman of the Company. Through the Company they have continued their outreach work in schools and music centres up and down the country.
They have given recitals at St Martin-in-the-Fields, Southwark Cathedral, Colston Hall, St Clement Danes, and as part of the Buxton Festival, Cromer Music Evenings, Petworth Festival, and the Royal Academy of Music’s Tuesday Lunchtime series. London Metropolitan Brass have appeared twice on BBC Radio 3 In Tune, including a live broadcast from The Wallace Collection and presented by Sean Rafferty.
The ensemble has always been ambitious in its programming, juxtaposing contemporary works with more traditional brass music to create attractive recitals. The members are also active in transcribing and arranging new repertoire. Future plans include commissioning new works for brass quintet.
Outside of the ensemble, members of London Metropolitan Brass work with professional orchestras including the BBC Symphony Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Academy of St Martin-in-the-Fields, London Philharmonic Orchestra, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Philharmonia Orchestra, and Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, as well as other ensembles such as the European Brass Ensemble and Brecon Baroque. Members of the quintet are grateful to have received valuable support from funds and scholarships including the Countess of Munster Musical Trust, the Drake Calleja Trust, the Craxton Memorial Trust, the Sir Elton John Scholarship, the Ian Fleming Award from Help Musicians UK, the EMI Music Sound Foundation Award, the Lary Adler Award, the Mark Elliot Scholarship and the Winifred Agnes Disney Award.