Jess Gillam - Welcome to my world!
“One of the best young saxophonists in the UK”
-Snake Davis
Hello everybody, I am delighted to
have been asked to write a blog for June Emerson Wind Music about music from a
young person's perspective! I am a 17 year old saxophonist from Ulverston in
Cumbria and I study at the Junior Royal Northern College of Music in
Manchester. Each month, I will write a little about performances and musical events
I have been involved with and my life as a young musician.
July has been an exciting month and
I have had some musical experiences I will never forget. One of these was
performing a solo recital at SaxOpen (the World Saxophone Congress) in
Strasbourg. I was the youngest of 2,600 delegates and performing to a room of
saxophonists was a challenging task. Usually, I know that most of the audience
will be unaware of details about saxophone technique and simply want to hear
good music, but when performing to a room of people who know everything about
the saxophone, it is quite nerve-wracking! However, I think emotions that music
can convey and the power that music has is the most important thing to capture
in a performance, so I tried to play just as I would if I was in front of a
typical concert audience.
My recital consisted of world premières
of commissions from leading saxophonists: Barbara Thompson, Rob Buckland and
John Harle, as well as one of my own compositions. All the pieces were written
for saxophone with backing tracks. The whole experience of commissioning new
works and working with the composers was very interesting and I really enjoyed
performing the premières. My concert was on Day Two of the Congress which was
the perfect time as I felt truly inspired by some of the performances I had
seen the night before. Barbara Thompson's Concerto
for Three Saxophones was performed with the Strasbourg Symphony Orchestra
and soloists Rob Buckland, Francesco Cafiso
and Michael Alizon each performed a movement. The third movement
was performed by Rob Buckland on soprano saxophone - the connection he had with
the music was very apparent and the rapport with the orchestra made the
music come alive and really sing. It was a remarkable performance and a
fantastic composition - I felt proud to have pieces written for me by Barbara
and Rob and lucky to know them both and be taught by Rob.
The Congress was the perfect place
to meet saxophonists from around the world and to catch up with others. I met
Mr Yanagisawa and, as I am a Yanagisawa Artist, I was very pleased to be able to
meet him and thank him. I also met Hidemasa Sato who made part of the new
Alto WO that I play, and it was lovely to be able to thank him for his
skilled craftsmanship.
After returning home from the
Congress, I performed with the National Youth Jazz Collective
Creative Leadership Ensemble at the Benslow Music Centre and then
started planning and practising repertoire for what promises to be a very
busy Autumn!
Follow Jess Gillam on Facebook
Follow @jessgillamsax on Twitter
LINKS
Yanagisawa Saxophones UK
Vandoren UK
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