'Massively exciting' - Jess Gillam on the endless possibilities of the saxophone

Her remarkable success probably also has a lot to do with her particular instrument, which still provokes a certain degree of fascination in classical music circles. “I think a lot of people naturally think I’m going to play jazz,” Gillam agrees. “So much of the saxophone’s history and roots are there, after all.” In fact, the sax always been something of an outsider. Belgian Adolphe Sax invented it in the 1840s as a missing link between an orchestra’s woodwind and brass instruments, but – with a few noble exceptions among composers – it’s never been fully embraced in the classical world. “People expect it to be loud, too,” Gillam continues. “It was designed so that its sound could travel long distances outdoors in military and marching bands, but it has such a tender side too, a kind of whispering sound.”

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Gillam says there’s a close parallel between the saxophone’s genre-straddling personality and her own musical passions. “The way I listen to and love music isn’t defined so much by style. I was lucky to fall in love with an instrument that allows me to travel between contemporary music, classical, Baroque and many other styles. I think everyone in an audience has a million different pieces of music that they’ve heard throughout their lives, and they’re inspired by five, ten, 15 different styles. For me, to represent that on stage feels natural.”

It’s a genre-disregarding approach that’s borne out by Gillam’s concerts, as well as by her growing collection of CD releases, which joyfully bring together Dowland and David Bowie, Shostakovich and Kate Bush, Telemann and Björk. The saxophone, she says, offers her the freedom to weave between styles, without, say, the centuries-long history of the violin or piano. “Our equivalent of the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto hasn’t yet been written – that’s going to be composed next week. And it’s massively exciting to feel it’s a modern instrument that represents the way we approach music in the modern day. The saxophone has its roots in ancient history – in the whistle or the shawm, for example – but it can growl and scream in contemporary music too. It can travel between styles.”

Gillam’s three SCO concerts each feature three recent pieces for her instrument, and it’s no coincidence that those pieces do a lot of the instrument’s style-hopping, as well as offering somewhat unconventional perspectives on a classical concerto. Just take Manchester-born Dave Heath’s rhythmic, roof-raising tribute to Scotland, The Celtic. Or take the fresh and new Saxophone Concerto by fast-emerging composer Dani Howard, written specifically for Gillam, and premiered just last year.

“It’s fascinating working with different composers and seeing their different approaches,” Gillam smiles. “Dani and I had quite a few conversations, and I played to her and sent her some pieces I love, then she just went away and wrote the Concerto. It’s such an exciting moment when the score lands, and you think: what have they done?” What Howard had done was create a musical portrait of Adolphe Sax himself, full of drama, colour and joy.

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Gillam closes her Scottish concerts with another much-loved piece, and another with strong personal connections: the raucous, galvanising RANT! by saxophonist, composer and general force of nature John Harle, who also happens to be Gillam’s former teacher. “He gave me the absolute basis of my technique,” she says. “I was 15 or 16 when I started lessons with him, and he basically took me back to square one, and rebuilt my saxophone playing from there. He knows all my flaws and all my strengths, and he plays on all of them in this piece. And he also drew on music from my home county of Cumbria, which is really special.”

Despite her self-confessed suitcase home, Gillam remains very much a product of England’s northwest. “The more time I spend not living in Cumbria, the more I realise how Cumbrian I am, and how lucky I was to grow up there,” she explains. “It’s such a special part of the world, with such a strong sense of community. I set up my own concert series when I was 12, and people actually came along.” Her parents still run a tearoom in her home town of Ulverston; Gillam traces its history back to the end of the 19th century. “As a young kid, I wasn’t very open or confident, but then waitressing in the café from the age of ten, you just had to chat to everybody. It was the perfect start to being able to set off own my own path.”

It goes a long way, too, towards explaining Gillam’s evident joy in sharing her music with listeners. And it might also explain why she was snapped up for radio at a young age. “The BBC saw I liked talking when I was competing in BBC Young Musician in 2016, and they asked if I’d like to make a podcast. I must have been about 18. That turned into a pilot for a Radio 3 show.” Her series – This Classical Life, in which she speaks to musicians about their careers and passions – has been running since 2019. “If I’d known how much work was going to be involved, I’d maybe have said I should focus on my playing. But I’m so grateful to have the two now, because it’s two vehicles for the same thing. One’s a saxophone, and one’s a microphone, but it’s all about storytelling.”

Jess Gillam plays music by Dave Heath, Dani Howard and John Harle with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra at Holy Trinity Church, St Andrews, 11 March; Queen’s Hall, Edinburgh, 12 March and City Halls, Glasgow, 13 March, see www.sco.org.uk. This feature was produced in association with the SCO

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