Bones Apart: The British Trombone Quartet Rewriting the Rules of Brass
Bones Apart is a British trombone quartet that has spent decades proving that four trombones can do almost anything. Based in London and active since the early 1990s, the ensemble has built a reputation for programming that ranges fearlessly across centuries — from Renaissance dance music and Baroque suites to jazz standards, contemporary commissions, and theatrical arrangements of orchestral showpieces.
The quartet emerged at a time when the trombone was still largely associated with orchestral sections and jazz big bands, and Bones Apart set out to change that perception. They approached the trombone quartet format with the same seriousness that a string quartet brings to chamber music, commissioning new works, arranging existing repertoire with care and imagination, and touring extensively to build audiences who might never have considered attending a brass recital.
Their programming instincts are evident from their video repertoire alone — pieces like Watkins Ale and the Agincourt Song sit alongside Ellington's Such Sweet Thunder, Cole Porter's Too Darn Hot, and Mendelssohn's A Midsummer Night's Dream suite. This breadth is not eclecticism for its own sake but a genuine belief that the trombone, in four-part harmony, is an instrument of extraordinary expressive range.
Bones Apart has given numerous world premieres and worked closely with composers to develop a body of original trombone quartet literature. Their recordings and live performances have been praised for the warmth and blend of their sound, the precision of their ensemble playing, and the accessibility they bring to repertoire that might otherwise remain academic.
In a musical landscape where all-female chamber ensembles remain relatively rare in the brass world, Bones Apart has consistently led by example — demonstrating through decades of serious, joyful, and adventurous performance that the trombone quartet deserves a permanent place on the concert stage.
