How youngest Proms soloist plans to inspire new generation

AT 11, she set her heart on playing at the Royal Albert Hall after seeing it in a picture. Last year, less than a decade later, she made her first appearance at a BBC Prom.

Tonight, saxophonist Jess Gillam, 20, will become the youngest soloist to play at the Last Night of the Proms and Proms in the Park, as she embarks on a mission to convince a new generation that classical music is for them.

Gillam will perform Scaramouche, by Darius Milhaud, with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Sir Andrew Davis: the first time a saxophonist has soloed in the Last Night since 1995.

She is thought to be the youngest performer ever to take to the stage at the Last Night and Proms in the Park. Experts consulted by The Daily Telegraph believe she may be the youngest soloist in the concert’s 124-year history. She will dash to the Royal Albert Hall and Hyde Park in trainers.

Gillam told The Telegraph, she was “very excited but inevitably quite nervous”, adding: “It’s such a huge occasion and genuinely an honour. It’s a big responsibility.”

Gillam, who studies at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester, is keen for her success to encourage a love of classical music in her peers, saying: “I’m always trying to reach out to a wider and younger demographic.”

Asked about the stuffy reputation of classical concerts, where faux pas such as clapping between movements infuriates some, Gillam said: “Music is an integral part of humanity, it’s so instinctive. If you feel like clapping between a movement because it’s a spontaneous feeling? Absolutely, why not?”

Last Night of the Proms will be broadcast on BBC Two from 7.15pm.