AMONG the fantastic line-up for the BBC Proms at the Royal Albert Hall this summer will be two of the region's rising stars - saxophone sensation, Jess Gillam and acclaimed soprano, Alexa Mason.

The enormously gifted Ulverston born and bred sax player will share the stage with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in the BBC Ten Pieces Prom, playing the Song of Home from Island Songs by Peter Sculthorpe.

This year’s Ten Pieces Presents Prom will showcase a range of works from Respighi’s jubilant Pines of Rome to an excerpt from Ravi Shankar’s Symphony and will take place on July 23.

Jess is a great ambassador for the saxophone, and first picked up the instrument at the age of seven at the Barracudas Carnival Arts Centre at Barrow.

Since her amazing performance dressed in her David Bowie tribute jacket in the finals of the illustrious BBC Young Musician of the Year 2016, Jess's busy schedule has included studying at the Royal Manchester College of Music, performing at the Royal Festival Hall with the BBC Concert Orchestra and live performances on BBC Radio Four's Woman’s Hour and BBC Radio Three In Tune.

She made her first Lakeland Sinfonia Concert Society appearance in December 2016, with a jaw-dropping performance of Dave Heath's concerto for soprano saxophone, The Celtic.

Kendal-born Alexa is one of the region's best known and highly regarded singing talents, a one time member of Kendal Young Singers and winner of the 2004 Keldwyth Award.

Originally from Gatebeck, she's been living in London for a number of years and makes her Proms debut singing in Passages, a work by Philip Glass and Ravi Shankar, on August 15.

A terrific talent, Alexa trained at Glasgow's RSMAD, and the Alexander Gibson Opera School.

Last year she was in English National Opera's acclaimed and Olivier award winning production of Philip Glass' Akhnaten, and in November she'll sing in the world premier opera, for ENO, Nico Muhly's Marnie, singing alongside Lesley Garrett.

Alexa has sung a variety of roles in the last two years, including Humperdinck's Hansel and Gretel, singing Gretel, and also Clorinda in Rossini's La Cerentola, for High Time Opera. She has also sung some Wagnerian roles with Fulham Opera.

Her performing career started early - at the age of five she was on the stage with Kendal and District Gilbert and Sullivan Society, singing alongside her dad, Tony Mason.

Arguably, the world’s greatest classical music festival, the Proms is highly thought of for its broad programming, which embraces the core repertoire, new music and popular orchestral concerts.

Ten Pieces is the BBC’s biggest ever commitment to music education and aims to open up the world of classical music to seven-14 years-olds across the UK and inspire them to develop their own creative responses to the music.

Ten Pieces joins the BBC Music Day celebrations on June 15 and invites schools across the UK to host their own Ten Pieces Assemblies. With around 50,000 pupils already signed up to take part, the Ten Pieces Assemblies give schools the opportunity to encourage their pupils to get creative with classical music, celebrate their school’s musical life and showcase their Ten Pieces journey. Schools can find out more and sign up to take part in a Ten Pieces Assembly on the Ten Pieces website, where schools’ assemblies will be showcased from Music Day.