Her Ensemble: The Three Dancers with Jess Gillam and Laura van der Heijden

Her Ensemble is a free-form group described by Gramophone as ‘forward-thinking’ and by Classical Music magazine as ‘a group on their own terms’. Her Ensemble merges classical and contemporary sound worlds with genre-fluid programming and an unapologetically fresh perspective. From performing 11th-century folk tunes in clubs, to large-scale orchestral works in traditional concert venues, each performance becomes a storytelling experience rooted in shared emotion and history. ‘In the hands of Her Ensemble this world suddenly becomes more accessible, more inclusive … incredibly liberating.’ Simon Godley, God Is In The TV. 

Since forming, the free-form group has released an EP of overlooked music with Sony Classical, recorded for Netflix and independent films featured at the BFI Festival, as well as creating its own string library with Dan Keen for Spitfire Audio.  

Recent performance highlights include collaborating with Billie Marten and reimagining her songs for orchestra for a sold-out Barbican show, headlining its first tour with Through The Noise, collaborating with pole dancer Cami Arboles and selling out the Vienna Musikverein. 

Her Ensemble has also been featured on BBC Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour, Pink News and Clash Magazine, as well as gaining recognition as Classic FM’s ‘Young Classical Stars’. 

The group has also given masterclasses at Chetham’s School of Music, the Royal College of Music and Leeds Conservatoire. 

Laura van der Heijden is recognised as one of the leading cellists of her generation. Recipient of the 2025 Royal Philharmonic Society Instrumentalist Award, she continues to captivate audiences and critics alike with her deeply perceptive interpretations and engaging, imaginative programming.

Highlights of this season include concertos with BBC National Orchestra of Wales and the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra; recitals at the Cello Biënnale Amsterdam and Wigmore Hall with pianist Jâms Coleman; collaborative projects at the Seriös Festival in Helsinki; and a chamber project with Alina Ibragimova and Ben Goldscheider at the Pierre Boulez Saal in Berlin.

She gave the world premiere of Cheryl Frances-Hoad’s Earth, Sea, Air in 2023 with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, performing it at last year’s BBC Proms. The work also features on her latest album, along with Bridge’s Oration and Walton’s Cello Concerto. An increasingly prominent voice on the classical music scene, she has recently appeared on Jess Gillam’s show This Classical Life and Tom Service’s Saturday Morning (both BBC Radio 3), as well as being the cover artist on The Strad.

Highlights of recent seasons include an ‘Artist in Focus’ at Kings Place and concerto appearances with the London Philharmonic, Aurora and Scottish Chamber orchestras, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and play/directing Britten Sinfonia. She also appeared at the Barbican with the BBC Symphony Orchestra as part of its George Walker ‘Total Immersion’ project.

She is a keen chamber musician and plays with the critically acclaimed Kaleidoscope Chamber Collective, as well as with leading musicians including Timothy Ridout, Antje Weithaas, Max Baillie, Misha Mullov-Abbado, Hélène Clément and the Doric, Redon and Brodsky quartets.

She first came to prominence when she won the BBC Young Musician competition in2012 aged 15, and is a graduate of Cambridge University; she currently studies with Antje Weithaas in Berlin.

Laura van der Heijden plays a late 17th-century cello by Francesco Ruggieri of Cremona, on generous loan from a private collection.

Jess Gillam is celebrated as a leading figure of the saxophone. She has been invited to play on the world’s major stages since becoming the youngest ever soloist to perform at the Last Night of the Proms. Equally at home behind the microphone, she is the youngest ever presenter on BBC Radio 3 with her award-winning weekly show, This Classical Life. 

She is passionate about broadening the repertoire for the saxophone and this season’s premieres include Anna Clyne’s Glasslands with BBC National Orchestra of Wales and Dani Howard’s Saxophone Concerto with the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra. 

Highlights of her concerto appearances have included concerts with the BBC, Gothenburg, Houston, Iceland, Lahti, London and Sydney Symphony orchestras, the London, Munich and Royal Liverpool Philharmonic orchestras and the Minnesota Orchestra, among others. 

On the recital stage, Jess Gillam has performed across Europe, the US and beyond. As an ECHO Rising Star in the 2022/23 season, she appeared at some of Europe’s most prestigious concert halls. She has also given recitals at the Kissinger Sommer, Schleswig-Holstein and Heidelberger Frühling festivals. Following her Carnegie Hall debut in the 2022/23 season and recitals at the Aspen Festival and Boston Celebrity Series, she returns to the US this season. 

Collaboration is central to her music-making and she formed the Jess Gillam Ensemble in 2019 in order to take inspiration from different musical worlds. 

She has an exclusive recording contract with Decca Classics and her albums Rise and Time have both reached No 1 in the UK Classical Music Charts. 

In 2016 Jess Gillam became the first saxophonist to reach the finals of BBC Young Musician. She has been the recipient of a Classic BRIT Award and was awarded an MBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list in 2021. Returning to her roots in Ulverston in Cumbria, she continues to promote her own concert series in her hometown, which she founded aged 12. 

Junyan Chen won Second Prize at the 2024 Leeds International Piano Competition, where she also won the chamber music prize and Alexandra Dariescu award for a work by a woman composer. In the competition final she performed Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No 4 with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic and Domingo Hindoyan. She has also played this work with Edward Gardner and the Royal Academy of Music Symphony Orchestra, in a concert that was livestreamed on Classic FM. 

Recent and forthcoming solo engagements include concerts in Munich, London (Wigmore Hall), Leeds, Harrogate and Liverpool. Earlier this spring, she collaborated with the Manchester Collective in a project including a world premiere by Héloïse Werner with performances in Manchester, Leeds and London. She has a keen interest in contemporary music and has collaborated with Hans Abrahamsen, whose Piano Concerto she performed with the Manson Ensemble at the Royal Academy of Music. In addition, she took part in Eleanor Alberga's music festival Arcadia in 2022, recording and performing Dancing with the Shadows and On a Bat's Back I Do Fly. She has also worked with Mark-Anthony Turnage and Dominic Muldowney. 

Junyan Chen's debut solo album, It's Time, features works by Fazil Say, Unsuk Chin, Sofia Gubaidulina and Eleanor Alberga. Released in 2022 by Linn Records, it explores cultural identity through different musical genres and art forms, including Turkish folk ballad, jazz, Russian poetry and African dance. 

Following her time at the Shanghai Conservatoire, Junyan Chen moved to London and continued her studies at the Royal Academy of Music. She currently holds a fellowship with the RAM, having recently graduated with first class BMus and MA degrees as a Bicentenary Scholar. 

Julian Nichols is a Canadian-born choreographer, dancer, and founder of Bodies in Action, a London-based contemporary dance company. Hailing from Toronto, his practice centres on challenging normative ideas across various contexts, with a focus on physicality, thematic exploration and narrative.

He founded Bodies in Action in 2021 to create dance that represents all identities equally. Since its inception, the company has grown rapidly, receiving support from Arts Council England, Canada Council for the Arts, and The National Lottery Community Fund. The company’s programming includes performances, workshops, panel discussions and participatory events.

At the heart of Julian Nichols’s leadership is a strong belief in co-creation and shared ownership of artistic work. Whether through projects such as It's My Birthday! or international commissions such as GUARDIANS: Connecting Dance and Preservation (part of the Creative Europe – supported Green Streets initiative), he and Bodies in Action continue to carve out bold, transformative spaces for expression, activism and celebration.