ABOUT JESS BULL ANDERSON

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 To cultivate this mind-body-soul connection, Jess practices the Alexander Technique, Neuro-linguistic programming, and yoga to maintain a balanced state of being. This allows her to achieve a sense of harmony and peace in throughout her body and soul, which is reflected in both her music and art. 

 

Jess's creative talent was recognised from a young age, having received numerous awards for her exceptional artwork, musical ability, and poetry. She held the prestigious art scholarship in combination with a specially-designed music award for her at King's High School Warwick for five years, studying trombone under Simon Hogg, before pursuing her passion for music further at the Chetham's School of Music in Manchester, and later studying with scholarship at the Royal Academy of Music in London. At Chetham's she studied Art, Music, and Music Technology, developing her trombone playing under the esteemed teaching of Phil Goodwin and Robert Burtenshaw, and her artistry under Alison Boothroyd; at the Royal Academy of Music, she studied trombone with Jim Manyard, Matt Gee, and Ian Bousfield, Alexander Technique under Dorothea Magonet, and the Feldenkrais Method under Robert Sholl.

 

Currently, Jess studies at the renowned Royal College of Music in London, studying trombone under the tutelage of Rupert Whitehead, Becky Smith, and Amos Miller, and Alexander Technique with Peter Buckoke and Judith Kleinman. While specialising in classical trombone, Jess is a versatile musician who loves to create music across a wide variety of genres - she's recently recorded her first free improvisation album with trumpeters Sam Eastmond, Celeste Cantor-Stephens, and Andy Watts, she performs with Broadside Hacks, a folk collection and record label, and she is sponsored by Sir Roger Vickers in the National Youth Jazz Orchestra having playing with incredible musical artists including Bob Mintzer, Lisa Simone, and Hermento Pascoal. 

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Jess explores and develops the connections between her diverse creative outlets with freedom and passion.  Deeply fascinated with the true emotional impact her authentic integration of art, music, and words can bring, she is in the process of designing various projects that explore this space. 

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Jess's artwork has been exhibited at various venues throughout the UK, including the Southbank Centre in London, where her work ‘NOTHING IS PERMANENT’ was met with great admiration and positive acclaim as part of a collaborative project with mezzo-soprano Mia Serracino and violinist, collaborative artist, and composer Daniel Pioro.  Her recent commission 'JOY SURROUNDS SUNLIGHT' has been developed into a fabric design by the renowned Joel and Son's, which holds a Royal Warrant from HRH Queen Elizabeth II. She currently studies Fine Art with the inspirational Jaany Ravenscroft-Hull. 

 

She has performed at major venues and events across the UK, including the Barbican, Birmingham Symphony Hall, Ronnie Scott's, Bridgewater Hall, EFG London Jazz Festival, Wilderness Festival, Green Man Festival, and has played and been interviewed on BBC Radio 3's 'In Tune'. 

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Jess is occasionally seen performing as one half of the Solace Duo with harpist Hannah Runting, where their programme, 'PSYCHOMACHIA', was performed as part of the Royal Academy of Music's Student's Create festival and explored their shared experiences of disability. This project involved projections of Jess's artwork to create an 'innovating and modern' immersive performance. The pair began collaborating together following a free improvisation project at Ikelectik, and devising workshops together with the Multi-Story Orchestra. Recent performances include  Liz Earle's LiveTwice charity concert, being called a 'fresh and refreshing sound world' for classical music, and  EMPOWER at Toulouse Lautrec as part of  a celebration of women in music, performing 'A SINGLE THREAD' composed by Hannah and developed from Jess's artwork 'THE BEAUTY OF BALANCE'.

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Jess has an innate drive to connect to her surrounding community and to inspire younger generations of musicians and artists. She has a fundamental belief that it's essential for others to have the opportunity to connect with the arts, with an ultimate aim of impacting and enriching other's lives through positive connection. She has taught music and art for over eight years, and currently teaches at HMDT (formerly known as Hackney Music Developmental Trust) as a brass, musicianship, and theory teacher, as well as a chamber ensemble coach, and works with Camden Music as an Orchestral and Big Band section coach. She worked for Godolphin and Latimer Prep School and continues to work on occasion for Godolphin and Latimer.

 

Within the Royal College of Music, she has worked extensively with their Sparks department, including with the English Touring Opera as part of their Turtle Song project working with those affected by dementia and with the organisation Gender and the Large and Shiny Instruments with their work addressing gender imbalances in instrumentalists. She is active in giving outreach workshops through the Widening Participation department of the Royal Academy of Music, where she now works on a freelancer basis, and she has training in Musical Leadership through Spitalfields Music and Music Therapy from Nordoff–Robbins. While studying at the Royal Academy of Music, Jess worked with the Open Academy department as a facilitator of collaborative improvisation sessions at the Royal London Hospital. In 2021, Jess was appointed as the Artist in Residence at Newson Health in Stratford-upon-Avon, where her art has had a profound and positive impact on the local community. 

 

In 2022, Jess experienced severe memory loss due to chronic migraine, which unapologetically forced her to completely pause everything in her life. She lost the ability to do so much which she had previously taken for granted, including her art and music making. It was incredibly humbling to go from spending most of her waking hours painting to completely forgetting the names of colours and unable to work out what a paintbrush should be used for, to go from intuitively playing the trombone to forgetting how to read music and unable to conceptualise sound as anything other than atonal.

 

Gradually over time, Jess recovered from her memory loss, and as she recovered, she developed a profound gratitude and appreciation of the smallest moments in life. Awakening from her memory loss, a period of complete creative silence in her life, the months that followed became a time of deep self-reflection, allowing her to re-evaluate her connection to her creativity and her sense of self. 

 

Reconnecting to life after her effective ego death, Jess has never lost the feeling of having absolute emotion in the present and appreciates the monumental value of the shift she has gone through. She has learnt how to fully embrace vulnerability, knowing that even in the darkest moments, there is always something to be grateful for. In rediscovering her artistic voice, she truly realised the importance of beauty and creativity, and how creating is an integral part of her identity. 

 

Her work is now immensely personal, emotional, and deeply inspiring, and reflects the profound shifts she has experienced in her life. Jess is excited to continue sharing her creativity with the world and creating work that inspires connection, healing, and personal growth.

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Read more about Jess's experiences in an interview here.