ABOUT
'Like Jools Holland
meets Monty Don!'
~ Luke, Next Door Neighbour
Jessie’s Homemade Garden Jam is a live chamber-music concert series presented from our tiny South London vegetable garden. We showcase some of the UK’s finest musicians, alongside garden-themed games and a good dollop of audience participation. A neighbour described it as “Monty Don meets Jools Holland” and that just about sums it up!
The first concert happened almost by accident in summer 2020. I offered to use our vegetable garden as a venue for a live-streamed chamber performance, as we couldn’t play inside due to covid restrictions. It inevitably rained, but the ensuing concert – interjected with enthusiastic vegetable facts by me, and my wife Emma turning the camera away from the players to focus on flowers and bees – was an instant hit.
What followed was a series of 8 episodes and one Christmas special, and a loyal following of fans, both online and over the fence!
JESSIE GRIMES
As well as the Garden Jam host, Jessie is a professional clarinettist, presenter and workshop leader.
Jessie and her clarinet make up one-third of the Jacquin Trio, an audacious classical chamber ensemble, dedicated to exploring, expanding and celebrating music for the inimitable combination of clarinet, viola/violin and piano. They are the only group to have won both the Royal Overseas League and St Martin in-the-Fields Competitions.
As an orchestral player she has guested with UK orchestras (BBCCO, ROH, CLS) and regularly works in her home country of Ireland at chamber festivals, was principal clarinet of the Wexford Festival Opera Orchestra for five years, and recently trialled as co-principal of RTE Concert Orchestra.
Jessie is passionate about making classical music accessible for all and particularly enjoys working with young children, people with SEND and adults with dementia. She leads creative workshops for the RPO, CLS, Ulster Orchestra and Sinfonia Viva, and presents all concerts for the Ulster Orchestra’s Relaxed Performance series for adults and children with SEND.
As a presenter she was named a 2019 BBC Next Generation Voice and has been writing and recording short segments for Essential Classics and has presented a BBC Ten Pieces Live programme in Northern Ireland.
Jessie is delighted to chat all things music, mindfulness and gardening and has been a guest on BBC Radio 3’s In Tune, Jess Gillam’s ‘This Classical Life’ and ‘Three in a Bar’ and ‘As It Comes’ podcasts.
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