Geneva Concerts presents Septura Brass at the Smith Opera House on Saturday, October 18, 2025 at 7:30PM.
Septura Brass
Simon Cox, Founder
Matthew Knight, Executive & Artistic Director
“The standard is absolutely higher than brass playing has ever been before.”
Allison Balsom, BBC Radio 2
Septura was born out of a passion for the awe-inspiring sound of brass instruments. Our creation – the brass septet – is uniquely vibrant and versatile, and we aim to harness its intense emotional power to produce transformative musical experiences for our audiences. In short, we are pioneering a simple message: music sounds better on brass.
To fulfill our mission we have brought together the very best brass players in the UK – holding principal positions in the Royal Philharmonic, London Symphony, BBC Symphony and Philharmonia orchestras – and with their unparalleled skill and virtuosity we have forged a chamber group described as “dazzlingly polished” (BBC Music Magazine), and now firmly established as one of the best in the world.
Director Matthew Knight and Founder Simon Cox are two of the most preeminent and prolific arrangers for brass, and together they have created a diverse counterfactual canon: re-imagining great music of the past for brass, and addressing historical imbalances by putting a spotlight on under-represented composers. Looking to the future, we are commissioning leading composers such as Roxanna Panufnik to create a rich repertoire of original music for brass septet.
Simon Cox was Principal Trumpet of Aurora Orchestra, and regularly performed with many of the UK’s major orchestras. Following studies at King’s College London and the Royal Academy of Music, he spent three years in Finland as a member of the Helsinki Philharmonic. Throughout his time abroad he felt an increasing desire to perform chamber music, so he eventually returned to the UK to embark on a PhD at the Royal Academy of Music, investigating the field of brass chamber music and developing repertoire for the brass septet, a brand new classical configuration. Simon founded Septura in 2012 and ran the group with fellow Artistic Director Matthew Knight until 2024.
Matthew Knight was Co-Principal Trombone of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, where he also served as Chairman. He has performed with almost all of the UK orchestras, and including as a guest principal with orchestras including the London Philharmonic, London Symphony and Academy of St Martin in the Fields.
Septura Home Page
