Jess Gillam

JESS GILLAM is an acclaimed saxophonist, renowned for her captivating performances, vibrant stage presence and magnetic personality. The Times has described her as ‘uniquely mercurial’, as ‘one of Britain’s most virtuosic instrumentalists’ and as an ‘inspiring personality’.

She became the youngest-ever soloist to perform at the Last Night of the Proms. Critics have praised her for her exquisite virtuosity and boundless expressiveness.

As a performer, Gillam is passionate about broadening the saxophone repertoire. Among her recent commissions is Glasslands by Anna Clyne, premiered with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra and subsequently performed with, among others, the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Danish Radio Symphony Orchestra, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Royal Scottish National Orchestra. She has also performed Dani Howard’s Saxophone Concerto, first heard with the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, as well as Stravaganza by Karl Jenkins at the BBC Proms.

Jess Gillam has been an Associate Artist at the Royal Albert Hall in London and is an Artistic Partner of Manchester Camerata. She regularly performs with some of the world’s leading orchestras, including the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin (DSO Berlin), the Iceland Symphony Orchestra, the Lahti Symphony Orchestra, the London Symphony Orchestra, the London Philharmonic Orchestra, the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra, the Munich Philharmonic and the Sydney Symphony Orchestra. In the USA, she has appeared as a soloist with the Cleveland Orchestra, the Houston Symphony, the Minnesota Orchestra and the Detroit Symphony Orchestra.

Jess Gillam also gives recitals across Europe, the USA and beyond. As a former ECHO Rising Star, she has performed at some of Europe’s most prestigious concert halls, including the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, the Wiener Konzerthaus, Konserthuset Stockholm and the Palau de la Música Catalana in Barcelona.

She has given recitals at music festivals in Bad Kissingen, Schleswig-Holstein, Aspen, the Lucerne Festival and the Heidelberg Spring Festival.

With her strong affinity for chamber music, Gillam founded her own eight-piece ensemble in 2020, exploring a broad range of genres and styles. Its repertoire includes works by Michael Nyman, Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach and Corelli, as well as Anna Meredith and Barbara Thompson, and music by Debussy, Nadia Boulanger and Björk. The ensemble performs throughout the UK and continental Europe, including at Wigmore Hall, the Wiener Konzerthaus, Latitude Festival, Bath Festival and Mozartfest Augsburg.

Alongside her performing career, Gillam is also active as a television and radio presenter. Her weekly programme This Classical Life on BBC Radio 3 is now in its seventh series and has received high praise from The Guardian. In 2020, the programme won an ARIA Award for Best Specialist Music Programme. As a guest presenter, Gillam has worked for BBC Radio 2, co-hosted a mini-series on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, and presented the BBC Proms and BBC Young Musician of the Year.

As an exclusive recording artist for Decca Classics, Jess Gillam is the first saxophonist ever to sign with the label. Both of her albums reached No. 1 in the Official UK Classical Chart, and her debut album Rise was included by The Times in its ‘Top 100 Albums of 2019’ list.

Her second album, TIME, was released in 2020 and received enthusiastic critical acclaim. Gramophone praised the flexibility and grace of her tone and phrasing.

In 2016, Jess Gillam became the first saxophonist to reach the final of the BBC Young Musician of the Year competition. She is a recipient of a Classic BRIT Award, was nominated for The Times Breakthrough Award, and in 2021 was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) for services to music in the Queen’s Birthday Honours.

Gillam runs her own concert series in her home town of Ulverston, Cumbria, in north-west England. She is a patron of Young Sounds UK, the Music in Secondary Schools Trust and the London Music Fund, as well as a member of the Council of the Royal Philharmonic Society.

She is a Vandoren UK Artist and, at the age of just 13, became the youngest-ever endorsee of Yanagisawa Saxophones.