Jess Gillam's World
Part 2
“The future of our industry”
- Nikki Neave (manager of Courtney Pine)
To start August, I travelled to Glasgow to watch my younger sister,
Patsy, perform with the National Children’s Orchestra with special guests
Nicola Benedetti and Wynton Marsalis. Their performance of Tchaikovsky’s Fifth
Symphony was incredible and to watch an orchestra consisting of people all aged
13 or under who had such a deep understanding of the music was quite
inspirational!
Nicola Benedetti gave a beautiful performance of The Lark Ascending by Vaughan Williams and I learned so much
from this performance. I sometimes struggle to focus solely on the actual music
in a piece rather than being hung up on technicalities or changing the musical
line to suit the instrument. Watching a virtuoso violinist made me appreciate
even more how important the musical line is in a piece – you can see every
movement with their bow and all movements are external, it is often difficult
to work out what saxophonists are doing as the hard work is internalised! As a
saxophone player, I find myself listening to many other saxophonists and to
music that involves saxophone but this concert proved to me that listening to
music that predates the saxophone can often be more useful – there is so much
to learn by listening to musicians and appreciating music as a whole.
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| National Children's Orchestra with Nicola Benedetti |
After watching this concert and hearing the pure tone and sheer
musicality of Wynton Marsalis and Nicola Benedetti, I really wanted to apply
this as much as possible to my playing. A couple of days after the concert I
went to the Windstruments Saxophone Summer School with Rob Buckland, Sally MacTaggart and Carl
Raven in Harrogate. I have been attending this summer school since the age of
12 and every year, I learn so much about the saxophone and music. Rob Buckland
was the perfect person to help me understand how to change both physically in
my playing as well as the psychological processes involved. Rob knows so
much about the saxophone and is also a fantastic general musician and listening
to him talk throughout the week about sound production has helped me greatly!
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| Harrogate massed saxophones |
There was also a chance to form quartets (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=498idzWJIYs)
and work as a massed saxophone ensemble and working with other saxophone
players to create a huge sound was something I enjoyed very much!
This month, I have also finalised all of the details for the next
concert in the concert series I organise in my home town of Ulverston, in the
Lake District. I am very excited to announce that John Harle – a master of
saxophone – will be performing in November. I will also perform as a special
guest. Tickets are now available and are selling quickly!
LINKS
John Harle Concert - Friday 13th November @ 7.30pm
Vandoren UK
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