Jess Gillam
Jess Gillam is a celebrated saxophonist and presenter. With her electrifying performances, vibrant stage presence and magnetic personality, the ‘uniquely mercurial’ (The Times) Jess has been invited to play on the world’s major stages since becoming the youngest ever soloist to perform at the Last Night of the Proms and was hailed for her ‘effortless virtuosity and limitless expressiveness’ (Arts Desk). Equally at home behind the microphone, Jess’ award-winning weekly show, This Classical Life, on BBC Radio 3 is now in its seventh season.
Jess is passionate about broadening the repertoire for the saxophone, especially in the classical sphere and this season, she the premieres of various works including Glasslands by Anna Clyne with the Festival Orchestra of the Lincoln Center, Baltimore Symphony Orchestras, Danish Radio Symphony Orchestra, BBC National Orchestra of Wales and the Royal Scottish National Orchestra. Other new works include Dani Howard’s Saxophone Concerto with Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra and Karl Jenkins’s Stravaganza for the BBC Proms. Jess held the position of Associate Artist of the Royal Albert Hall and Artistic Partner of Manchester Camerata.
Jess regularly performs with some of the world’s top orchestras and highlights of her concerto appearances have included performances with the BBC, DSO Berlin, Gothenburg, Iceland, Lahti, London, NDR Elbphilharmonie and Sydney Symphony Orchestras as well as the London, Royal Liverpool and Munich Philharmonics, among others. Further afield, concerto highlights in the US have included the Houston Symphony, Minnesota Orchestra and Detroit Symphony.
On the recital stage, Jess Gillam is seen performing across Europe, the US and beyond. As a former ECHO Rising Star , Gillam has appeared throughout Europe’s most prestigious concert halls, including Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, Wiener Konzerthaus, Konzerthuset Stockholm and Barcelona’s Palau de le Musica. She has also performed recitals at the Kissinger Sommer, Schleswig-Holstein, Lucerne and Heidelberger Frühling music festivals. Jess is Artist in Residence at Ryedale Festival in 2025. Following her Carnegie Hall debut in the 2022/23 season and recitals at the Aspen Music Festival and Boston Celebrity Series, this season sees performances as part of the Princeton University Concerts series, Schubert Club International Artist series in Minnesota and with the Cleveland Orchestra.
Jess loves collaboration and in 2020, she formed her band, the Jess Gillam Ensemble. Their bold, uplifting and open-minded approach is rooted in classical music but takes inspiration from different musical worlds. Jess’s carefully crafted shows offer an expansive and explosive exploration of a massive range of music - from the groove of Michael Nyman, CPE Bach and Corelli to barnstorming tunes by the Danish String Quartet, Anna Meredith and Barbara Thompson to the soaring beauty of music by Debussy, Nadia Boulanger and Björk. The ensemble has performed throughout the UK and Europe to multiple sold-out audiences at venues and festivals including the Wigmore Hall, Latitude Festival, Mozartfest Augsburg, Wiener Konzerthaus and Bath Festival.
Alongside her performance work, Jess is a regular TV and Radio presenter. Her weekly show on BBC Radio 3, This Classical Life, is in its seventh season and has garnered high praise from The Guardian who wrote: 'There are many more established presenters who lack Gillam’s warmth and impressive ability’. In 2020, This Classical Life was awarded the ARIA Award for Best Specialist Music Show. 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 at the BBC Proms and BBC Young Musician of the Year.
As an exclusive recording artist with Decca Classics, Jess Gillam is the first and only saxophonist to be signed to the major label. Both her albums have reached No. 1 in the UK Classical Music Charts and her debut album, Rise, was listed in The Times’ Top 100 albums of 2019. Her second album, TIME, was released to critical acclaim in 2020; ‘Gillam’s agile soprano saxophone soars impressively… before gliding gracefully in and around a hive of textural activity that builds up to a frenetic ending’ (Gramophone on her recording of Michael Nyman Where the Bee Dances). 2025 sees the release of a series of EPs recorded at Real World Studios entitled PRISM.
In 2016, Jess Gillam made history after becoming the first saxophonist to reach the Finals of BBC Young Musician of the Year. She has been the recipient of a Classic BRIT Award, a The Times Breakthrough Award nominee and was awarded an MBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list 2021 for Services to Music. Returning to her roots in Ulverston in Cumbria, Jess continues to promote her own concert series in her hometown, inviting internationally renowned artists, a series she founded at age 12. She is a patron for Young Sounds UK, Music in Secondary Schools Trust, the London Music Fund and is a member of the Council of the Royal Philharmonic Society.
Jess is a Vandoren UK Artist and became the youngest ever endorsee for Yanagisawa Saxophones aged just 13.
