DECCA Credit is Robin Clewley Photography

©Photo: Robin Clewley Photography

©Photo: Robin Clewley

©Photo: Robin Clewley Photography

©Photo: Robin Clewley

Jess Gillam

Saxophone / Presenter

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“The now noticeably changed sonority can be seen in Darius Milhaud’s “Scaramouche” op. 165c for alto saxophone and orchestra — especially in the slow middle movement, Modéré. Soloist Jess Gillam plays it exquisitely. Everything about her tone is pure sound, ideal weight and phrasing, clarity.”
(Süddeutsche Zeitung, February 2022)

Hailing from Ulverston in Cumbria, Jess Gillam is animating the music world with her outstanding talent and infectious personality. She has been forging her own adventurous path since she shot to fame becoming the first saxophonist to reach the finals of BBC Young Musician and the youngest ever soloist to perform at the Last Night of the Proms. Passionate about inspiring and bringing joy to people through music, Jess invites audiences on journeys of musical discovery through her electrifying performances and eclectic programming.

As well as performing around the world, Jess is a presenter on TV and Radio. She became the youngest ever presenter for BBC Radio 3 with the launch of her own weekly show, This Classical Life. The show is in its third year now and in 2020 won the prestigious ARIA Award for Best Specialist Music Show. In July 2021 Jess presented a special live edition of This Classical Life at the Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall. She has also been a guest presenter for BBC Radio 2 and co-hosted a miniseries for BBC Radio 4’s Today Programme. Keen to explore the creative output of her home county, Jess presented a series of Cumbrian Chats on BBC Radio Cumbria. TV presenting includes the BBC Proms and BBC Young Musician.

Jess is the first ever saxophonist to be signed exclusively to Decca Classics and both of her albums reached No.1 in the UK Classical Music Charts. Her debut album was listed in The Times Top 100 albums of 2019. She has been the recipient of a Classic BRIT Award, has been nominated for The Times Breakthrough Award and was awarded an MBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list 2021 for Services to Music.

A free spirit in style and character, Jess is an advocate for the power of music in society. She is passionate about inspiring and bringing joy to people through music and during lockdown, she formed her ‘Virtual Scratch Orchestra’, inviting musicians of any standard to come together to play music virtually with her. The orchestra played music by David Bowie and The Beatles as well as a Christmas special of Leroy Anderson’s Sleigh Ride. Over 2,000 people from around 30 different countries took part across the two projects, aged 2 – 94, playing a huge range of instruments. Jess is a patron for Awards for Young Musicians and London Music Fund and enjoys working and performing with young musicians.

Her infectious enthusiasm and passion for classical and non-classical music lights up every stage and she has performed in prestigious concert halls and with world-class orchestras around the globe including the NDR Hannover, Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, Iceland Symphony Orchestra, Minnesota Symphony Orchestra, Munich Philharmonic, Lahti Symphony Orchestra and the UK’s leading orchestras. She also enjoys touring with her newly formed Jess Gillam Ensemble bringing together a group of brilliant musicians who share her bold, uplifting and open-minded approach. Jess has performed live at the BAFTAs to millions of viewers at home.

Jess is currently Artist in Residence at the Wigmore Hall, a European Concert Hall Organisation (ECHO) Rising Star which sees her performing at many of the top concert halls across Europe and she continues to promote her own concert series, bringing international talent to her hometown of Ulverston.

Jess is a Vandoren UK Artist and became the youngest ever endorsee for Yanagisawa Saxophones aged just 13.

HarrisonParrott represents Jess Gillam for worldwide general management.

Nyman "Where the Bee Dances" with the London Mozart Players © London Mozart Players

Fantasia pour Saxophone by Villa-Lobos © RPO

RANT! by John Harle © RPO

Jess Gillam - Dappled Light (RAK Studios Version) © Jess Gillam

Jess Gillam - Iturralde: Pequeña Czarda - Pequeña Czarda (Arr. Harle) © Jess Gillam

Jess Gillam - Milhaud: Scaramouche - 3. Brazileira © Jess Gillam

Jess Gillam - Love Story – Theme (Arr. Campbell) © Jess Gillam

Jess Gillam interview on BBC Proms Extra © BBC

'NCO: Our Week with Jess Gillam' © NCOGB

Jess Gillam - The making of 'TIME' © Jess Gillam

“She is a performer who can hypnotise a room with the beauty of her sound and her musical sensitivity.”

(Bernard Hughes, The Arts Desk, September 2020)

“This Classical Life leaves you with a list of discoveries, and a sense of having glimpsed the inside workings of an art. I smiled right through it.”

(Richard Bratby, The Spectator, January 2020)

“Not just one of Britain’s most virtuosic instrumentalists, but also an unstuffy, inspiring personality.”

(The Times, October 2019)

“Vibrant and assured, her playing showed exquisite control of colour, volume and timbre.”

Evening Standard (Last Night of the Proms, September 2018)

“…Pedro Iturralde’s Pequeña Czarda, the ‘Brazileira’ from Milhaud’s Scaramouche and the traditional Russian song ‘Dark eyes’ contain by-now trademark Gillam isms – lively characterisation combined with technical brilliance.”

GRAMOPHONE (RISE review, April 2019)

“…she’s great, fantastically virtuosic when required but always with the music at heart, and she is unbelievably shapely, sensitive and tender in slower numbers – deeply affecting in fact…but make no mistake: Jess herself is ★★★★★”

Classical Source (RISE review, April 2019)

“Britain’s next top musician – delete the ‘next’, she is a star already!”

(AZ Badener Tagblatt, September 2018)

“Her sound left the concert hall shaking…it is effortlessly powerful, unmistakably rhythmical, light but with immense sonority.”

(AZ Badener Tagblatt, September 2018)

“Jess Gillam….. lighting up the hall with her seemingly effortless virtuosity and limitless expressiveness. Gillam is all set for stardom: to listen is to love her.”

(Artsdesk, August 2018)

“Saxophonist Jess Gillam steals the show.” /“She may only be 20 years old, but saxophonist Jess Gillam was the indisputable highlight of the Last Night of the Proms.”

(BBC News, September 2018)

“Jess Gillam…whirled through Milhaud’s Scaramouche, her outfit as dazzling as her fingerwork.”

(The Times, September 2018)

“A champion of the saxophone in the classical sphere”

BBC Music Magazine

“Life affirming musician”

BBC, Clemency Burton-Hill

“A true inspiration… she frankly rocks”

Huffington Post Entertainment

“Jess already has her place in the saxophone hall of fame”

John Harle