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Jacob Collier performing at Ronnie Scotts (photograph from The Guardian)

Purcell School alumnus, Jacob Collier was interviewed by Jo Whiley on BBC Radio 2 last week.  You can hear the show here.  

Recently hailed by John Lewis in The Guardian as “jazz’s new messiah“, Jacob is making a huge name for himself. Since leaving School, his YouTube videos have gained him a huge online audience, with covers of classics such as Stevie Wonder’s ‘Isn’t She Lovely’, ‘Don’t you worry ’bout a thing’, and most recently Michael Jackson’s P.Y.T.  He is being mentored by Record Producer Quincy Jones, who describes Jacob as  “Beyond category. One of my favourite young artists on the planet – absolutely mind-blowing”.  You can see Jacob live at the EFG London Jazz Festival on 20th November, where he is performing a solo show. 

Jacob studied at The Purcell School until 2012 before going on to the Jazz course at the Royal Academy of Music. While at Purcell, he studied Jazz Piano with Simon Colam, Composition with Simon Speare and voice with Tom Marandola.