TWO talented young Cumbrian musicians played leading roles at an acclaimed classical concert in St Peter's Chapel, Oxford.

Joe Davies, who hails from the Eden Valley and lives in Kendal, conducted the city-based The Ripieno Players, while teenage saxophonist Jess Gillam, of Ulverston, took on the daunting solo part in Villa-Lobos's Fantasia. Both received glowing praise in concert reviews.

Twenty-year-old Joe, who has an impressive list of musical achievements to his name, is a third-year music undergraduate and choral scholar at St Peter's College. He has served as conductor of the Oxford University Chorus and the Oxford University Symphonic Band, and he is also director of music at Wesley Memorial Chapel.

Joe, originally from near Appleby, the founder and managing director of the Eden Valley Opera Company, which aims to bring together students from conservatoires and universities across the country to stage operas of professional quality.

He is conducting Handel's Acis and Galatea on July 27 at Penrith Methodist Church. In his final year at Oxford, Joe has been awarded the Paul and Fiona Geddes Award for music excellence, and he is to begin a Master of Music in conducting at Birmingham Conservatoire this summer.

Jess Gillam, meanwhile, made history at the age of 17 as the first saxophonist to win the woodwind final of BBC Young Musician of the Year, in 2016.

Nineteen-year-old Jess studies with Rob Buckland at the Royal Northern College of Music, Manchester, and is mentored by John Harle. A patron for Awards for Young Musicians, she promotes her own series of concerts, bringing international talent to her home town of Ulverston.

In summer 2017 Jess made her BBC Proms debut at the Royal Albert Hall, London, where she performed as soloist with both the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Jessica Cottis, and the BBC Concert Orchestra, conducted by Keith Lockhart.