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BIOGRAPHY Jill Kemp is firmly establishing herself as one of the finest wind players of her generation, recently winning the Royal Over-Seas League Wind and Brass Competition, the first recorder player to do so in its 57 year history. As an IBLA Foundation Grand Prizewinner, in April 2009 she gave her Carnegie Hall debut to critical acclaim. Jill has given well over a hundred recitals throughout Europe and the USA, at venues including the Queen Elizabeth Hall, Turner Sims Concert Hall, Blackheath Halls, Leeds International Concert Season, Auckland Castle, Radford University and Harrogate International Festival. She has twice performed in the Erin Arts Centre, Isle of Man and the Latour de France International Festival, Perpignan. Concerto performances include Christchurch Priory, Tatton Hall, Sherborne Abbey, Civit Hills Theatre and David Bedford’s Recorder Concerto with St Paul’s Sinfonia. In December 2005 Jill was hailed as “one of the top recorder players in the world” following her performance of four concerti with Red Priest, standing in for Piers Adams at 12 hours notice. The winner of numerous awards and competitions, Jill has broadcast on Classic FM, the BBC and American and Italian television. She has received support from the Concert Promoters’ Network, the Making Music Scheme and the Sir John Barbirolli Memorial Foundation and in 2008 won the Pablo de Sarasate and Most Distinguished Musician Awards at the IBLA Grand Prize in Italy. Jill received a scholarship to the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and, following her studies there and at Goldsmiths College, University of London, she graduated with a first class honours degree and the ‘Outstanding Student Award’ in 2001. Her principal teachers were Michala Petri and Piers Adams and she studied performance practice with Colin Lawson. In demand as a teacher and workshop leader, Jill has given Masterclasses at Dartington International Summer School and many venues throughout the UK and America, as well as online for Canadian company MyMasterclass.com. She gives regular concerts and workshops for the Concordia Foundation. In 2004 Jill launched Recorder Revolution, an interactive concert experience which enables recorder players of all abilities to gain access to high quality playing and has already involved over 3000 young people. Jill is dedicated to raising the profile of her instrument and proving it to be a serious concert instrument worthy to stand alongside any other. Her repertoire spans six centuries and she has a particular passion for contemporary music, regularly performing commissions and world premieres. She has also developed a unique repertoire of her own transcriptions of a wide variety of music, allowing the recorder to be heard in new and fresh ways. |