Continuing the series profiling Music Scholars at the University. This week, former BBC Young Jazz Musician semi-finalist , first-year trombonist reading Criminology, Jasper Rose.

I started playing the trombone ten years ago with the Richmond Music Trust, playing in their brass ensembles, concert band and jazz bands.  After a few years, I went to the Royal College of Music Junior Department which had an extremely exciting variety of ensembles.  Here, my passion for jazz grew under the tutorship of Mornington Lockett and I performed with their Symphony Orchestra, brass groups, choir and jazz groups (at Ronnie Scott’s and the 606 Club).  The brass group were lucky to be asked to play on one of the music boats for the Queen’s Jubilee Pageant which was fantastic, despite the torrential rain!  While at RCM some friends and I formed our own jazz combo and played private gigs in many places including the TUC Conference and the Albert Hall café.

At my secondary school I was given the opportunity to perform the Davide Trombone Concertino with the orchestra which was exhilarating.

In 2013 I was extremely fortunate to win the British Trombone Society Carol Jarvis Scholarship to study in the USA that summer on the Centrum Jazz Course which turned out to be an unforgettable and life-changing experience.  My tutors included Jiggs Wigham and Wycliffe Gordon and it really built my confidence in jazz improvisation.

After reaching the semi-finals of the BBC Young Jazz Musician 2014 I went on to record (alongside Alex Bone, winner of the BBCYJM), with Nile Rodgers and Rudimental, a remix of the Chic single Le Freak.  Then last summer, I was very happy to go on tour to Malta with the Stoneleigh Youth Orchestra as a guest player.

I now play with the National Youth Jazz Orchestra and have performed with them across the country in places like the Hull Jazz Festival, Oxford Playhouse, Portsmouth Guildhall, Southwark Cathedral and the Rose Theatre in Kingston.  I was also thrilled to record on their latest album “NYJO 50”.

Since starting at Kent I have been overwhelmed by the musical opportunities both as a performer and an audience member.  I have joined the Orchestra and the Big Band as well as the student-formed Bavarian oom-pah band which are all extremely exciting and filled with possibilities for the next three years.  I am hugely looking forward to all the concerts in the future, particularly playing in Canterbury Cathedral.

Read more in the series here.