Guildhall School presents alumna Jess Gillam MBE with Fellowship
Guildhall School has presented saxophonist and alumna Jess Gillam MBE with a Fellowship, the School’s highest accolade.
Jess Gillam made history ten years ago as the first saxophonist to reach the finals of the BBC Young Musician of the Year, and only five years later she was awarded an MBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list in for services to music.
Jess has established herself as an acclaimed and sought after performer, becoming the youngest ever soloist to feature at the Last Night of the Proms in 2018. She has appeared across the UK, Europe, US and beyond, with ensembles including: the BBC orchestras; the Baltimore, Danish Radio, Gothenburg, Iceland, Lahti, London and Sydney symphony orchestras; the London, Royal Liverpool, Munich and Royal Stockholm philharmonic orchestras; the Houston and Detroit symphonies; the Minnesota and Cleveland orchestras; and the Festival Orchestra of Lincoln Centre, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, and NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester, among others. A former ECHO Rising Star, Jess has performed at Europe’s most prestigious concert halls, including Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, Wiener Konzerthaus, Konzerthuset Stockholm and Barcelona’s Palau de le Musica.
Jess is a passionate advocate for new music for the saxophone and has commissioned, premiered and recorded works by composers including Anna Clyne, Dani Howard and Karl Jenkins. Jess is the first and only saxophonist to be signed to her label Decca Classics, with her first two albums Rise and TIME reaching number one in the UK Classical Music Charts. The second of these was recorded with her band, the Jess Gillam Ensemble, with whom she has also collaborated on a new series of EPs titled PRISM, released last year, and performed throughout the UK and Europe at venues and festivals including Wigmore Hall, Latitude Festival, Mozartfest Augsburg and Bath Festival.
As a celebrated broadcaster, Jess presents the award-winning weekly show, This Classical Life, on BBC Radio 3, now in its seventh season, and has also presented on 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. Jess also held the position of Associate Artist of the Royal Albert Hall until 2025 and was an Artistic Partner of Manchester Camerata.
From 2019-2020, Jess studied at Guildhall School on our Master of Performance programme with John Harle, with whom she appeared in a special performance with the Guildhall Saxophone Ensemble in Milton Court Concert Hall, during which the Fellowship was conferred.
