King’s Alumna Alex Clarke has Won the ‘The Rising Star Award’
King’s alumna Alex Clarke has won the ‘The Rising Star Award’ in the 2019 British Jazz Awards.
The talented Jazz saxophonist and former King’s pupil landed the top prize in what is regarded as one of the blue-ribbon categories for British jazz aficionados. Among the top award winners this year was the legendary Courtney Pine, so Alex is in very good company.
Alex, 19, began by playing the piano in the King’s Junior Division as a tiny tot, moving onto the flute, the saxophone at the age of 14, then later also the clarinet. She said: “I was playing in the King’s Wind Band on a weekend retreat and I heard their Jazz Band and just thought, that’s what I want to do.”
In later years at King’s, Alex was a feature at a host of school events playing at dinner dances, celebrations and concerts and she paid tribute to her early teachers. “It has to start with Alison Lea in the Junior School; she was simply inspirational, but then Dan Whieldon and Kevin Dearden took me under their wing as well Andy Scott who teaches at the Royal Northern College of Music.”
After gaining an A* A B in her A Levels, Alex progressed to the Birmingham Conservatoire in 2018 but left after a year and is now combining work as a Music Assistant at Warwick School and gigging up and down the country. She said: “I learned a lot at Birmingham, but the course was too theoretical and not enough about the music I love and want to make a part of my life.”
Alex added: “I’m all about playing melodically and, though I appreciate contemporary jazz, I am most in my element playing straight-ahead jazz standards“.
She added: “I aim to play authentically and respect the heritage of jazz so it is no surprise that I love playing music by the greats such as Tubby Hayes, Duke Ellington and Charlie Parker.”
Alex is loving her life at the moment, something that can be heard in the exuberance of her playing, and says the combination of working in a school with enthusiastic committed children and then playing up and down the country in the evenings and weekends is ideal for an emerging artist.
“I should practise more, but I think most musicians say that. That said I think any time I spend with a saxophone in my mouth is time well spent, whether it’s working with my students, playing at events and concerts or practising.”
She added: “Sometimes I will practise for three hours a day but other times it’s just half an hour, but I feel I am doing all I can to improve and develop and, importantly, I am enjoying every second.” As for the future, Alex who writes her own compositions alongside playing the familiar, said: “’ I love what I do, and just aim to keep developing my career as a professional musician. It’s great honour to win the award.”
