WHEN the 120th BBC Proms programme gets under way at the Royal Albert Hall on July 17, a former Warrington school girl will be among the hundreds of musicians taking part.
But while most of the musicians will be experienced professionals at the peak of their careers, 22-year-old former Culcheth High School pupil Chelsea Carmichael will still be a third year student at London’s Trinity Conservatoire of Music and Dance, studying jazz saxophone.
She will be in one of the saxophone chairs in the Guy Barker Big Band which will be paying tribute to the swing era on August 11.
Whether she will get a chance to solo isn’t known because rehearsals don’t start until August 8 – but if she gets an invitation she certainly won’t turn it down!
Outside of college she has already formed her own quartet, which performed at this year’s London Jazz Festival and co-leads six-piece band Yesa Sikyi with trumpet student Lily Carassik from Lancaster.
They will be playing at the Manchester Jazz Festival on August 4 and at the Lancaster Jazz Festival on September 20.
This band has just recorded its first album, consisting of original works by members of the band, which will be released shortly.
Chelsea’s musical journey started when she asked her dad, Winston, if he would buy her a violin.
Dad was a bit worried by the prospect of someone learning to play the violin in the house and suggested the piano – and Chelsea agreed. But as her piano lessons progressed she found herself drawn towards jazz and took up the saxophone as well. Now the tenor sax is her main instrument, although she also plays flute and still plays piano, particularly for composing.
She played in the Culcheth High School swing band and, at 15, successfully auditioned for the highly respected Wigan Youth Jazz Orchestra, touring with them in this country and abroad until going to university.
Now she has been signed up for the National Youth Jazz Orchestra.
Chelsea is well aware she is entering a tough, highly competitive world by deciding to be a jazz musician.
She said: “Most people my age don’t listen to jazz. Our audiences are very mixed, with both young people and old. We think this is good.
“We love the music. It’s exciting to be playing in front of appreciative audiences in London and we have great fun. But we also have a responsibility to keen jazz progressing and to make it more accessible to a wider audience. We do this by introducing elements of more popular genres such as soul and rock, into our music.
“This is quite strange, because most of them were derived from jazz in the first place.”
Unlike most of her generation, Chelsea’s musical heroes are unlikely to be in the charts and are more likely to have passed on. She cites her main influences as tenor sax legends Dexter Gordon (1923-1990) and Eddie “Lockjaw” Davis (1922-1986).
She is making waves on the London jazz scene right now – but has an ambition to bring a band to Culcheth.
“It would be great to play in my home village,” she said.
Pictures show Chelsea, in the foreground, with other members of the group Yesa Sikyi
