A SAXOPHONE player from Ulverston is one of three to have made it to the finals of the BBC Young Musician 2016.

Jess Gillam, 17, beat off competition through the category and semi finals to make it this far.

Jess has been playing saxophone for ten years, left Ulverston Victoria High School’s sixth form college in December in order to focus on her music career. This year she will begin studying full-time at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester.


As well as performing at concerts and festivals all over the country, Jess puts on shows in her home town and has attracted international names such as Courtney Pine, Snake Davis, Tommy Smith and the Apollo Saxophone Quartet.

The other finalists are cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason and French Horn player Ben Goldscheider.

The Final of BBC Young Musician 2016 will take place on Sunday 15 May at the Barbican, London. It will be recorded for broadcast the same day at 7pm on BBC Four, presented by Clemency Burton-Hill, Alison Balsom and Josie D’Arby.

It will also be broadcast on BBC Radio 3 at 7:30pm, presented by Sarah Walker and including commentary from violinist Jennifer Pike (winner of BBC Young Musician in 2002).

Jess, Ben and Sheku will each perform a concerto of their choice, accompanied by the BBC Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Mark Wigglesworth.  Plus, the 2014 winner, pianist Martin James Bartlett, will return to perform the first movement of Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto no.3 – before the winner of BBC Young Musician 2016 is announced.

The Finalists will perform:

Jess Gillam: Michael Nyman’s Where the Bee Dances

Ben Goldscheider: Richard Strauss’s Horn Concerto no. 2

Sheku Kanneh-Mason: Shostakovich’s Cello Concerto no. 1

The expert panel of judges will be chaired by Dobrinka Tabakova, who has sat across all five category finals and the semi-final. Alongside her on the judging panel will be saxophonist Amy Dickson, French Horn player Alec Frank-Gemmill, cellist Jamie Walton, and Director of the BBC Proms, David Pickard.

The Semi-Final of BBC Young Musician 2016 was broadcast this evening [Saturday 7 May] on BBC Four. The 2016 Semi-Finalists were: pianist Jackie Campbell (15), saxophonist Jess Gillam (17), percussionist Andrew Woolcock (16), French Horn player Ben Goldscheider (18) and cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason (17).

Now in its 38th year, BBC Young Musician is a part of the BBC’s ongoing commitment to supporting and providing a platform for new and emerging talent.