Sligo International Summer School and Jazz Festival 21-26 July 2020

Our 2017 Summer School Faculty

This year’s faculty is our biggest ever. With a jazz fusion theme on this year’s summer school and festival billing, we have broadened our horizons and added some really amazing musicians from around the world, including LA-based drummer Virgil Donati and Russian bassist Anton Davidyants. Multi-award-winning UK-based composer, rapper, saxophonist Soweto Kinch is our artist in residence and is joined in the saxophone section for the first time by Belfast based US saxophonist Meilana Gillard, amongst others. We have Billy Cobham’s keyboardist Steve Hamilton and fellow Scot pianist and arranger Malcolm Edmonstone, who was responsible for those lovely arrangements from last year’s wonderful Liane Carroll concert. All three of our fabulous female vocal tutors from the past two years of SJP are returning this year: Liane Carroll, Sara Colman and Emilia Martensson. We bring back a trombone tutor for the first time in a few years, in the form of WDR Big Band (Köln) player Shannon Barnett. Mike Walker and Sandro Gibellini both return on guitar, while regular summer school faculty members, percussionist Paul Clarvis, double bassist John Goldsby and a whole host of Irish tutors from north and south complete the 23-strong line up: Linley Hamilton, David Lyttle, Stephen Davis, Mike Nielsen, Cathal Roche, Ciaran Wilde, Matthew Halpin and Kieran Quinn. Our Youth Academy in association with Music Generation Sligo continues to flourish under the tutelage of Kieran Quinn, Cathal Roche and Ciaran Wilde.