Creating a legacy of new music
JAM is a creative, dynamic, forward-thinking arts organisation, with new music at its core.
Celebrating 20 years, JAM (John Armitage Memorial Trust) has commissioned an immense number of works from some of the most important composer in the UK, influencing the classical music repertoire in the UK and around the world.
JAM regularly collaborates with some of the most important composers, performers and other like-minded organisations; BBC Singers, London Mozart Players, Onyx Brass and BBC Radio 3.
JAM (John Armitage Memorial Trust) was launched in 2000 by Edward Armitage, Charles Cochrane and Timothy Jackson in memory of John Armitage, initially to enable, promote, commission and support new music in the UK.
JAM’s Call for Music, its commissioning and its March concert remain at the heart of our work. Since 2000, JAM has given performances of 130 new pieces of music, either submitted to or commissioned by the charity. The list of names that we have commissioned is a who’s who of British composers of our day: Jonathan Dove, Paul Patterson, John McCabe, Judith Bingham, Adam Gorb, Gabriel Jackson, Steve Martland, Tariq O’Regan, Paul Mealor, Philip Cashian, Rory Boyle, Julian Philips, Phillip Cooke, Giles Swayne, Thea Musgrave, Tom Harrold and Daniel Saleeb. Many of these pieces have been broadcast by the BBC, some have won awards such as the British Composer Awards and many have been performed across the UK and abroad, including the US, New Zealand, Canada and France.
Through JAM on the Marsh, JAM’s multi-art festival based on Kent’s Romney Marsh piloted in 2013, JAM has grown into a significant, broad multi-arts organisation. JAM on the Marsh works with leading lights in the fields of theatre, visual art, photography, poetry and education, with music still very much at its core. JAM on the Marsh brings arts opportunities and education to this deprived part of the UK, that would not otherwise happen.
JAM and JAM on the Marsh are well known and respected by composers, artists, venues, funders and media alike, especially for their collaborations within the UK and further afield, such as in the US and Canada.
Timeline of JAM Commissions
Paul Mealor: Piano Concerto
Daniel Saleeb: Soliloquy
Tom Harrold: Voices of Vimy
Thomas LaVoy: O Great Beyond
Paul Mealor: Now Sleeps the Crimson Petal