Welcome to our new Ambassadors
We are delighted to welcome two new Ambassadors to LMF: saxophonist & broadcaster Jess Gillam MBE, and cellist Abel Selaocoe.
Our Ambassadors play a significant role, promoting our work and acting as inspiring role models for our young musicians. We areincredibly proud to be able to give our Scholars the chance to meet, perform alongside, and learn from such world-class musicians.
Jess Gillam will meet LMF Scholars at the Royal College of Music on 31 October, where she will be a special guest at our Awards Ceremony for new Scholars and Graduation Ceremony for those who completed their Scholarships in 2020 and 2021. This event will welcome 100 young musicians to a workshop with the National Youth Jazz Orchestra, and is sponsored by Chosen Music Ltd.
Abel Selaocoe performed at our sold out 10th Anniversary Concert at 22 Mansfield Street on Monday 20 September alongside a number of our current Ambassadors and Graduates of the Scholarship programme.
Jess Gillam MBE said: “I am delighted to be joining the London Music Fund as an Ambassador in its 10th anniversary year. Access to high quality music education in incredibly important to all children and young people, and I believe passionately that every child deserves such access. I am so excited to be working with these young musicians at the Royal College of Music later this month and look forward to meeting them all.”
Abel Selaocoe said: “Music education is phenomenally important to children and young people. I believe the London Music Fund’s mission is as important now as it was 10 years ago when the charity was launched: to ensure that no child is left behind because of their socioeconomic background. I am very excited to be joining this wonderful charity at such an important time in its development, and I am very much looking forward to meeting these amazing young musicians.”
London Music Fund CEO Chrissy Kinsella said: “Introducing our young musicians to inspiring role models is a crucial part of our programme, and I am so delighted to welcome Abel and Jess to our Ambassador family. They both bring huge passion, dedication and enormous talent with them, and I know that their involvement will have a significant and long-lasting impact on the young musicians they meet, and we are hugely excited about working with them both.”
Justine Simons OBE, Deputy Mayor for Culture & Creative Industries said: “Over the last 10 years, the London Music Fund has shown the power music has to change lives. As we rebuild from the pandemic, I am delighted the charity has so many talented Ambassadors who represent the diversity of the capital, playing key roles in inspiring the next generation of musicians, and it’s a pleasure to welcome Jess and Abel to the Fund.”
Jess Gillam MBE
Hailing from Ulverston in Cumbria, Jess Gillam is animating the music world with her outstanding talent and infectious personality. After performing at the Last Night of the Proms in 2018 and having her performance described as “the indisputable highlight” by BBC News, Jess continues to grow her international career as well as presenting on TV and Radio. Jess is passionate about inspiring and bringing joy to people through music and has continued to do so throughout the Coronavirus pandemic. In May 2020 Jess appeared as a special guest at the Royal Albert Hall’s VE Day 75 Commemoration and in July she returned for a performance as part of the ‘Royal Albert Home’ series. While in lock-down Jess launched her Virtual Scratch Orchestra, inviting musicians of any standard to come together to play music virtually with her. The orchestra played music by David Bowie and The Beatles as well as a Christmas special of Leroy Anderson’s ‘Sleigh Ride’. Over 2,000 people from around 30 different countries took part across the two projects, aged 2-94, playing a huge range of instruments.
Recent highlights (before the impacts of COVID-19) have included performances at the Last Night of the BBC Proms Japan, with the Minnesota Orchestra, and at the Lucerne Festival. This season Jess continues to perform throughout the UK and Europe in recital, as well as with Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Manchester Camerata, Hallé, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain.
Jess is one of European Concert Hall Organisation’s Rising Stars for season 2020-21. Jess is the first ever saxophonist to be signed to Decca Classics and recently released her second album, ‘TIME’, which shot to No.1 in the Official UK Classical Charts, as did her debut album ‘RISE’. Jess curated the album to mirror the arc of energy in a passing day and the constant orbit of our existence. The album includes music by Nyman, Björk, Brian Eno, Anna Meredith and Thom Yorke, as well as two new commissions from Luke Howard and Will Gregory.
Jess is featured on ‘Good Night Songs for Rebel Girls,’ an album released at the end of 2020, celebrating extraordinary women in music and created in partnership with Rebel Girls, the global multi-platform edutainment brand focused on inspiring and instilling confidence in a generation of girls around the world.
Jess is also a presenter on TV and Radio. She became the youngest ever presenter for BBC Radio 3 and hosts her own award-winning weekly show and podcast called ‘This Classical Life’. She has also been a guest presenter for BBC Radio 2 and co-hosted a miniseries for BBC Radio 4’s Today Programme. In 2019 Jess presented five BBC Proms live on television. She has been the recipient of a Classic BRIT Award, was the first ever saxophonist to reach the final of BBC Young Musician, and in 2019, performed live at the BAFTAs to millions of viewers at home. In 2020 Jess has been nominated for The Times Breakthrough Award.
A free spirit in style and character, Gillam is a passionate advocate for the power of music in society, often combining her concert engagements with educational and social projects. Jess was awarded an MBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list 2021 for Services to Music and is a patron of Awards for Young Musicians and trustee for the HarrisonParrott Foundation. Jess is a Vandoren UK Artist and became the youngest ever endorsee for Yanagisawa Saxophones aged just 13. She continues to promote her own concert series, bringing international talent to her hometown of Ulverston.
Abel Selaocoe
South African cellist Abel Selaocoe is a rapidly rising star who is redefining the parameters of the cello. He moves seamlessly across a plethora of genres and styles, from collaborations with world musicians and beatboxers, to concertos and solo performances. Selaocoe combines virtuosic performance with improvisation, singing and body percussion, and is devoted to composing works and curating programmes that highlight the links between Western and non-Western musical traditions, broadening the horizons of classical music to reach a more diverse audience.
In 2016, Selaocoe formed Chesaba – a trio specializing in music from the African continent, including many of his own compositions. He enjoys close collaborations with musicians from a medley of genres, including Bernhard Schimpelsberger, Tim Garland, Seckou Keita, Giovanni Sollima, Famoudou Don Moye and Gwilym Simcock. He has a close partnership with Manchester Collective, with whom he devised the hugely successful Sirocco programme which has been enjoyed both live and digitally by audiences since 2019. In 2020/21, Selaocoe performed at Kings Place, Norfolk & Norwich and Ryedale Festivals, and performed with ensembles including BBC Concert Orchestra at the EFG London Jazz Festival, Manchester Collective and Britten Sinfonia.
Selaocoe makes his solo BBC Proms debut in August 2021, curating a programme with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Chesaba and Gnawa Ensemble. Other highlights of the 2021/22 season include a tour with Manchester Collective and Chesaba of their new collaboration, The Oracle; debuts with St Paul Chamber Orchestra and at Stanford Live; and performances both solo and with Chesaba throughout the UK and Europe.
Abel Selaocoe is an exclusive recording artist with Warner Classics and his debut album ‘Hae Ke Kae’ on the subject of home and refuge will be released in autumn 2022.
Selaocoe completed his International Artist Diploma at the Royal Northern College of Music in July 2018. In May 2021, he was announced as an inaugural Power Up Music Creator participant in PRS Foundation’s new initiative to address anti-Black racism and racial disparities in the music sector and in July 2021, he received a Paul Hamlyn Foundation award for his compositional work.