Girton Jazz is a unique programme amongst Cambridge Colleges that gives students an incredible opportunity to develop skills and abilities in jazz music performance through workshops, masterclasses, jam sessions and hearing today's top jazz stars in our sellout series of concerts. Adding to our already flourishing musical life, Girton Jazz makes Girton College the place to be for students who want to enjoy and develop in playing jazz, whether they study music or not.
Termly workshops and concerts are at the forefront of this scheme. Each led by renowned jazz musicians from the UK and beyond, the workshops allow students enviable access to an artist who will work with them for an afternoon to hone skills and inspire them towards further development in jazz performance and study. Workshops are open to students of appropriate ability, whatever your academic focus may be.
At the evening concerts, visiting artists perform with other professionals for Girton members and the general public. In the historic setting of Girton’s Old Hall, these concerts are a wonderful opportunity to hear our visiting musicians give their all to their art.
a superb, top-level jazz concert series and workshops in a super 120-seater performance space… more or less the ideal setting for hearing and seeing jazz in close-up.
– UK Jazz News
Our Jazz Musician in Residence, James Pearson (see below) leads regular masterclasses for students identified as having particular ability and potential in jazz - allowing a consistent path of learning from session to session so that the musicians are able to work with someone familiar with their development. Our Artistic Director Tim Boniface also works one to one with students, and also with ensembles, identifying ways in which they can continue to grow as musicians.
Finally, our jam sessions bring a professional jazz rhythm section into College, with whom students can jam in a supportive, encouraging and informal setting to the benefit of the audience in our atmospheric 'Deep Schlub' - an underground bar made to be a jazz club!
Girton College is the perfect setting for any students - studying music or not - to develop as jazz players, to enjoy performances from world class musicians, and to appreciate the impact great music can have on our lives.
Tim Boniface
Artistic Director, Girton Jazz
Tim is the Artistic Director of Girton Jazz - a jazz saxophonist, pianist, composer and teacher, and Chaplain at Girton College. As Artistic Director of Girton Jazz, his work involves organising the concerts, workshops, masterclasses and jam sessions, offering teaching and often playing in the concerts alongside the guest musicians. Tim works regularly with many of the very best jazz musicians on the scene as both a bandleader and sideman, is a performance coach with the Cambridge University Centre for Music Performance and a sessional tutor with the University Faculty of Music. His most recent album Psalter: Themes for Peace was released on CD with Audio-B in July 2025 to critical acclaim and launched at Girton College as part of the Girton Jazz concert series.
"In the UK, the idea to give jazz a special place, a welcome, even a home, requires a rare combination of circumstances and people who want to make it happen. Tim Boniface – these things are not left to chance... Here’s hoping Girton Jazz becomes one of those ideas that catches on."
– Sebastian Scotney (UK Jazz News)
James Pearson
Jazz Musician-in-Residence, Girton College; Artistic Director and House Pianist, Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club
James is the Artistic Director of Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club and jazz Musician-In-Residence at Girton College. James is a highly sought after pianist at the heart of the UK jazz scene and has performed both classical and jazz music to the highest standards all over the world. Amongst his many collaborations, James has worked with Wynton Marsalis, Johnny Griffin, Robbie Williams, Gregory Porter, the John Wilson Orchestra, BBC Concert Orchestra, and countless others, and his piano playing can be heard on over 50 albums. He works alongside Tim Boniface to bring in the finest jazz musicians and performers to run workshops with the students and perform in the sell-out jazz concert series, has also coached Girton’s pianists in both classical and jazz performances, and performed at various major College events.
"Pearson is in shattering form… the harmony of Messian mixed with the rhythmic pulse of George Shearing."
– The Sunday Times
There is no doubt that Girton is the place to be for jazz in Cambridge! For more information on Girton Jazz please contact jazz@girton.cam.ac.uk
Upcoming concerts
Alex Garnett
15 May 2026
Alex Garnett has been one of the leading saxophonists in the UK and Mainland Europe for over three decades, being instantly recognized by his dark, husky sound. A versatile musician and first call sideman, he has enjoyed success as both a jazz artist, composer and arranger, and an in demand session, studio and commercial saxophonist, having racked up countless recording credits along the way.
A ubiquitous performer with many of Europe’s leading bands from underground to pop, he’s a regular sideman of choice for many visiting American artists when touring in Europe, lead horn player of the Ronnie Scott’s All Stars, and has performed in over 30 countries worldwide appearing at such venues as the Blue Note, Birdland, as well as the Perugia, North Sea, Vittoria, Montreax, and Oslo Jazz Festivals to name but a few, with varied and diverse artists across the spectrum such as Sir John Dankworth, Wynton Marsalis, Pete King, Humphrey Littleton, Scott Hamilton, Van Morrison, Evan Parker and The Rolling Stones, as well as with his contemporaries Gareth Lockrane, Seamus Blake, Phil Robson, Michael Janisch, Joel Frahm, and more.
Iain McKenzie
6 November 2026
Straight from the ‘Cool School’ of Chet Baker, Nat King Cole, Frank Sinatra and Mel Tormé, McKenzie is one of the most in demand jazz and big band singers in the UK. Principle vocalist for the Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Orchestra and residence singer for the London Dance Orchestra at the Ritz in London’s Piccadilly, Iain also tours with the BBC Big Band – The Music of James Bond and is a senior vocal lecturer with the British and Irish Institute of Modern Music.
Iain will run a workshop in the afternoon with Girton students before a concert with a band of some of the UK’s finest players, including James Pearson – Girton’s Jazz Musician in Residence – on piano.
Past visiting artists
Byron Wallen (b. 1969) was raised in a musical family and as a child studied classical piano, euphonium, trumpet, flute and drums. In the mid-1980s, the trumpet became Wallen’s primary instrument of choice.
Wallen’s first major work, Tarot Suite (1994), was inspired by a love of mythology and symbolism, which reflected the archetypal journey of human life through an interdisciplinary pan-continental approach.
Wallen’s study of cognitive psychology has aided his transition towards conceptualising music as a medium for healing. Wallen raises awareness and invokes change by unlocking boundaries through the nature and science of sound.
Widely recognised as a seminal figure in Jazz, Wallen is an acclaimed writer and producer whose original scores have been commissioned by the Science Museum, PRS, The BBC, Jerwood Foundation, Southbank
Centre, National Theatre, Arts Council, FIFA and Sage Gateshead. He has also composed soundscapes for Universal Pictures, Warner Bros, and Game of Thrones.
Wallen’s current PRS commission ‘Anthem for Woolwich’ forges new links between schools, venues, musicians and residents to strengthen the resilience and promote the cohesion of the community.
Wallen has received the BBC Jazz Innovation award (2003) and has been nominated several times for the MOBO award. In 2017 he received the coveted Paul Hamlyn Composition Award. In 2020, his band Four Corners was nominated for the best band category at the Parliamentary Jazz Awards, and in 2021, the band was nominated for the best album for their 'Portrait' album.
Photo credit: Ula Tarasiewicz.
Acclaimed jazz and soul vocalist, Polly Gibbons, is a true star of the UK scene. Suffolk-born Polly was also based in the US for a number of years, recording three albums with LA based Resonance Records before returning to the UK to release her album of original songs, 'As It Is'.
"Polly Gibbons is unmistakably a class act" (The Guardian);
"A truly exceptional talent... a voice of such sizzling intensity and raw emotion you could fry an egg on it."
Polly is a long-time collaborator with pianist and Girton Jazz Musician-inResidence, James Pearson, who joined her alongside other members of her band.
Tony Kofi is a British Jazz multi-instrumentalist born of Ghanaian parents, a player of the Alto, Baritone, Soprano, Tenor saxophones and flute. Having 'cut his teeth' in the “Jazz Warriors” of the early 90’s, award-winning saxophonist Tony Kofi has gone on to establish himself as a musician, teacher and composer of some authority. As well as performing and recording with Gary Crosby's “NuTroop” and “Jazz Jamaica”, Tony’s playing has also been a feature of many bands and artists he has worked/recorded with include “US-3” The World Saxophone Quartet, Courtney Pine, Donald Byrd, Eddie Henderson, The David Murray Big Band, Sam Rivers Rivbe Big band, Andrew Hill Big Band, Abdullah Ibrahim, Macy Gray, Julian Joseph Big band, Harry Connick JR, Byron Wallen's Indigo, Jamaaladeen Tacuma's Coltrane Configurations and Ornette Coleman.
Saxophonist Trish Clowes and pianist Ross Stanley have been carefully crafting their unique sound world over a number of years, performing their own material, arrangements of music from jazz, folk and church organ traditions, and free improvisations. The duo’s appearances include Wigmore Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall, Royal Festival Hall (with Stanley making use of the organ), Galway Jazz Festival, Symphony Hall (Birmingham), Buxton International Festival, Manchester Jazz Festival, and St George’s Bristol. In March 2024, Clowes and Stanley released their album ‘Journey to Where’ to wide critical acclaim, out on Stoney Lane Records.
Image by Chris Kelly.
Girton Jazz launched with a spectacular workshop and concert with Natalie Williams. Undisputed darling of Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club, Natalie is a veteran of the British music sphere. Since beginning her residency during the re-opening of the Club in 2007, the vocalist and songwriter has enjoyed a rich, varied music career, garnering awards and devoted fans along the way. Most successful vocalists coming out of the UK are on familiar terms with the influential musician.
“…People can’t help but go away with a bit of Williams’ natural sparkle having attached itself to them”
— Deuce