In 2016, Jess Gillam made history as the first saxophonist to win the woodwind final of the BBC Young Musician of the Year competition. She made her BBC Proms debut in 2017 and returns in 2018 as one of the soloists in the Last Night of the Proms. Gillam hosts the BBC Young Musician weekly podcast, and recently became Decca Classics’s first saxophone player. She is a student at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester and is mentored by saxophonist and composer John Harle. The US debut of this charismatic young artist includes an engaging mix of music originally composed for saxophone and arrangements, with composers ranging from the Baroque period to Michael Nyman and John Harle, via Milhaud, Britten, and Bartok.

Program:

PEDRO ITURRALDE (b. 1929)
Pequeña Czarda

BENJAMIN BRITTEN (1913-76)
Temporal Variations

MAURICE RAVEL (1875-1937)
Pièce en forme de Habanera

RUDY WIEDOEFT (1893-1940)
Valse Vanité

MICHAEL NYMAN (b. 1944)
“If” (from The Diary of Anne Frank)

DARIUS MILHAUD (1892-1974)
Scaramouche

INTERMISSION

ALESSANDO MARCELLO (1673-1747)
Oboe Concerto in D minor, S.Z799

JOHN WILLIAMS (b. 1932)
Escapades from Catch Me If You Can

BÉLA BARTÓK (1881-1945)
Romanian Folk Dances, Sz. 56

JOHN HARLE (b. 1956)
Rant