Biography



Jonathan Sage is a freelance clarinettist based in York. He enjoys a varied career as soloist, orchestral/chamber musician, and teacher, and is equally at home with standard and contemporary repertoire.

As a concerto soloist, Jonathan has played with Orchestras including the London Mozart Players, York Sinfonia, Cambridge Youth Orchestra and the Hessle Sinfonia. A highlight of his concerto career came at the Dartington International Festival when, at less than 24 hours notice, he stepped in for distinguished clarinettist Alan Hacker to play the Mozart Clarinet Concerto (on Hacker’s basset clarinet) with the Dartington Festival Orchestra under conductor Diego Masson.

In November 2009, Jonathan performed to a capacity audience at Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival (HCMF) - the UK’s largest contemporary music festival - and has also given performances at the Ergodos MMX and Off-Grid Festivals in Dublin, the York Spring Festival, the ICMC Conference, the Late Music Festival, the Dartington International Festival, the International Conference on Music Since Nineteen-hundred 2007, the York Microtonal Fayre and the University of York Concert Series. He works with groups including the Bewegung Ensemble, the Jorvik Ensemble, the Ergodos Orchestra and Harmonium, and has performed alongside musicians including Jane Manning, Alan Hacker, Simon Rowland-Jones, Sarah Francis, John Cameron and Stephen De Pledge. Jonathan has also played in many orchestras, including the New Mozart Orchestra, I Maestri, and the York Guildhall Orchestra.

In November 2008, Jonathan embarked on his first international tour, playing a programme of contemporary clarinet music in venues across Ireland. This included pieces by Stockhausen, Eliot Carter and William O. Smith, as well as new works by Irish composers Jonathan Nangle and Garrett Sholdice, supported with funds from the Irish Arts Council.

Jonathan is also active in exploring the use of the clarinet in non-Western musical traditions. He has performed with Gamelan Sekar Petak, Leeds Gamelan and the Gong Agenda Gamelan Trio. He has also widely performed Balinese Gamelan, Shakuhachi and Nyatiti transcriptions by American clarinettist/composer Evan Ziporyn.

Educated at the University of York, England, Jonathan graduated with a BA (honours) in music in 2006. He then undertook a postgraduate degree in Music Performance under Bill Brooks and graduated in July 2008 with distinction, his playing being described thus:

"...the musicianship and intelligence brought to the performance was exceptional, the technique and realization well-nigh flawless." – Professor Bill Brooks

His teachers include Alan Hacker OBE, Lesley Schatzberger and Margaret Archibald and he has participated in master-classes with Alan Hacker, Sir Harrison Birtwistle, Lesley Schatzberger, Matthew Hunt and Guy Eshed.

Jonathan is also committed to music education, having given lectures on contemporary clarinet techniques at Trinity College Dublin, the Northern School of Contemporary Dance and Dundalk Institute of Technology. He has given demonstrations and workshops at a many of schools and also participated in the London Mozart Players’ ‘Orchestra in a Village’ project aimed at expanding music in the community.

Aside from his playing work, Jonathan teaches in a number of schools in the York area including Queen Margaret's, an independent girls school.