Jessica Garner                             

Born in 1982, Jessica began playing the cello aged 9. She went on to study cello with Gordon Pringle at Trinity College of Music Junior Department before being awarded a place at the Royal Academy of Music where she studied with Lionel Handy and Philip Sheppard. She has a wealth of solo, orchestral and chamber music performance experience, having performed under the batons of great conductors such as Jan Pascal Tortellier, Tadaaki Ottaka and Sir Colin Davis, as well as various forays into the world of commercial music, including a UK tour with Sir Elton John and playing with various bands. Currently working as a free-lance musician and cello teacher based in London, she is a member of the recently formed Dea Quartet, with whom she performs a wide array of different musical styles. Also very committed to teaching, she coaches and teaches young cellists in West Sussex, conducts young string players and is cello professor at Portsmouth Grammar School, Hampshire. She regularly gives solo recitals in and around London and the south of England.