Take a look at the concert hall schedules, artist management rosters and magazines of the modern classical music industry, and one thing perhaps more than any other is conspicuous by its absence: brass chamber music. Septura is here to change all of that, demonstrating through skilful arranging and virtuosic playing that brass ensembles deserve their place at the high table of chamber music as much as any other instrument.

Classical music performance today is focused almost entirely on a canon of repertoire, formed by the collective output of those composers who over time have been deemed worthy of inclusion. Unfortunately for us as brass players, we had to stand by at key points in musical history and watch as string quartets, pianists and singers joined the club, building vast repertoires by every significant composer from Haydn onwards, whilst we were banished from the concert hall to the bandstand. It’s not hugely surprising: until the 19th century most brass instruments couldn’t even play the simplest of melodies in all but the highest (and most technically demanding) registers, and so as a great artist, why would you choose them to express your innermost feelings?

But now things have changed. Technology has given brass the ability to play as expressively and virtuosically as any other instrument (just listen to the lyricism of Alison Balsom or the technical mastery of Håkan Hardenberger). There are other encouraging signs if you know where to look: major composers have written extensively for the orchestral brass section, and occasionally penned concertos or chamber works for brass. So surely these positives can be exploited to create a significant body of repertoire for brass ensemble, bringing us into the fold once and for all?

With Septura we are doing just that. We have considered what the ideal combination of instruments should be for this type of music, based on the inherent strengths and weakness of our instruments. If you ask people what they enjoy about orchestral brass playing, the most common answer is simply ‘the sound.’ The choir of 3 trumpets, 3 trombones and tuba favoured by most composers within the orchestra creates a uniquely expressive, blended tone, but with the use of mutes a huge amount of colours are available. Size also matters: with a larger group of seven players rather than four or five, we can play a wide variety of music, and all get the chance to give our lips a much-needed rest now and then. To find our ideal medium therefore, we need look no further than the orchestral brass section (or brass septet).

This is the conclusion we came to several years ago, and since then we have been hard at work creating repertoire for this brand new configuration. We’re trying in our own way to rewrite history through transcription, imagining that the great composers of the past had written for brass ensemble, and are increasingly commissioning new works, to build a sustained future for the septet. All of this repertoire is being recorded for a series of albums for Naxos Records, taking in the full swathe of musical history from Palestrina to Prokofiev and beyond. We haven’t shied away from challenges. Our versions of Shostakovich’s Quartet No 8 and Elgar’s Serenade for Strings have taken audiences by surprise, but we think they genuinely shine a new light on these masterpieces. Our scope is widening too: our latest recording features Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker (our first orchestral adaptation) – and not just the famous suite, but all of the incredible and lesser-known music from Act 1, narrated by the inimitable Sir Derek Jacobi.

We believe our work demonstrates that brass ensembles are worthy of inclusion in the programming of major concert halls and festivals. And perhaps the classical music industry is beginning to agree: we’ll give the first UK outing of our One Equal Music programme at the Wigmore Hall in a couple of weeks, exploring the historical marginalisation of female composers and brass musicians in works by Maddalena Casulana, Orlando Lassus, Clara Schumann and Felix Mendelssohn. Not convinced? Then come and see one of our concerts or get hold of a recording and decide for yourself.

Septura perform live at the Wigmore Hall on February 27 at 7.30pm: https://wigmore-hall.org.uk/