"Impressive skill and character"
The Times
"Jessie put her whole body and soul into performing.”
Wanaka concert society, New Zealand
London based Irish clarinettist Jessie Grimes has a varied and eclectic career. With a clarinet in hand she is equally at home giving a chamber music recital as improvising with toddlers. When the clarinet is in its case she makes do with a microphone, presenting family concerts for major orchestras across the UK and Ireland, and dabbling in radio and podcasts.
Alongside 2021 RPS Enterprise Award recipients the Jacquin Trio, she has won competitions including the Royal Overseas League and St Martin-in-the-Fields Chamber Music Competitions. As a soloist she has performed at venues including the Purcell Room, St Martin in the Fields and St John’s Smith Square.
Jessie has always loved being part of a giant orchestral sound. She’s been principal clarinet of the Wexford Festival Opera Orchestra since 2014, trialled as co-principal clarinet with the RTE Concert Orchestra and has also enjoyed guesting with UK and Irish symphony, chamber, radio and session orchestras.
Passionate about sharing music, she teaches at the Royal College of Music Junior Department, has been a contributor to BBC Radio 3 and has presented live on BBC television. Over lockdown 2020 she launched Jessie's Homemade Garden Jam, a live-streamed chamber music and gardening show which garnered thousands of views and some passionate and loyal fans both online and over the fence! In 2021 it won a prestigious RPS Trailblazer Award and was featured on Classic FM and in Grow Your Own Magazine.
She is keen to ensure music is available to everyone, and leads education projects for the City of London Sinfonia, National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Ulster Orchestra, and Sinfonia Viva among others. She is a core member of the award-winning London Rhymes project, writing songs with parents and toddlers in challenging circumstances. They were commissioned to compose and refresh the KS1 primary curriculum for Sing Up, have albums on Spotify/YouTube and a live touring show.
Jessie graduated with an MMus from the RCM in 2011 whilst living with Aisling Manning and learning the art of building triple decker sandwiches from her talented husband Philip. As well as garnering top sandwich skills, she was awarded the WCOM Silver Medal for Outstanding Musical Achievement as well as RCM Rising Star and Senior Woodwind Prizes
When she’s not clarinetting or presenting, Jessie loves swimming in the sea, planting seeds to watch them grow and getting lost up mountains with her adventurous wife.