bio

Jess Bull Anderson (she/her) is a London-based artist and musician committed to creating meaningful work which inspires personal growth and deepens one’s appreciation to their self and the surrounding world.

She is currently studying her masters of music in tenor trombone and sackbut at the Royal College of Music with Rupert Whitehead, Byron Fulcher, and Sue Addison, alongside Alexander Technique teacher training at LCATT. She recently completed her undergrad at the RCM and was awarded the Richard Edwards Memorial Prize for the most versatile brass musician. Previously she was a scholar of the Royal Academy of Music (DipHE), studied at Chetham’s School of Music, and an art scholar and music award holder at King’s High School, Warwick.

Her artwork and poetry has always been recognised alongside her musicianship, with projects over the last few years including co-devising the inclusive SISTERKIND event at Vortex Jazz Club, live painting with MOSAIC ensemble, designing fabric for Joel & Sons (which holds a Royal Warrant from HRH Queen Elizabeth II), performance of her painting NOTHING IS PERMANENT at Southbank’s Elizabeth Hall, and collaborations with composers through writing text (most recently with Thomas Shorthouse for serpentine.iii ensemble) and developing animations (Illayda Oguz for magpie duo), winning joint runner-up with Illayda for the Alpine Fellowship Music Prize 2026 for her poetry and animations.

She is a founding member of the Royal Sackbut Collective, emerging artists for Brighton Early Music Festival (2025/26) and supported by the Continuo Foundation, Robert Anderson Trust, and British Trombone Society, and she was sponsored by Sir Rodger Vickers in the National Youth Jazz Orchestra. She has a wide array of performing experience across genres, including with Billy Bragg, Martin Carthy, Lisa Simone, Hermeto Pascoal, Steve Beresford, Evan Parker, Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, She’s Got Brass, CNSMSP Ensemble Next, and Vache Baroque.

Jess has an innate drive to connect to her surrounding community and to inspire younger generations of creatives, knowing it is essential for everyone to have the opportunity to connect with the arts. Having taught music and art for over eight years, she has worked and volunteered with a wide range of organisations such as Hackney Music Developmental Trust (brass, musicianship and theory teacher, assistant SEND workshop facilitator), Royal College of Music (free improvisation coach), Choir with No Name (musical volunteer), Godolphin and Latimer Prep School (Redcliffe Gardens brass teacher), English Touring Opera’s Turtle Song (working with people affected by dementia), Royal London Hospital (collaborative improvisation workshop facilitator), Multi-Story Orchestra (workshop development and presentation), Gender and the Large and Shiny Instruments, and Royal Academy of Music Widening Participation department (leading workshops on performance confidence and giving trombone masterclasses). Jess has also been invited as a key-note speaker to various schools, sharing her experiences recovering from memory loss and how it changed her connection to creativity and music-making.

“In 2022, I experienced severe memory loss due to chronic migraine, which unapologetically forced me to completely pause everything in her life. I lost the ability to do so much which I had previously taken for granted, including my art and music making. It was incredibly humbling to go from spending most of my waking hours painting to completely forgetting the names of colours and being unable to work out what a paintbrush was, and to go from intuitively playing the trombone to forgetting how to read music and unable to conceptualise sound as anything other than atonal.

Gradually over time, I recovered from her memory loss, and as I recovered, I developed a profound gratitude and appreciation of the smallest moments in life. Awakening from my memory loss - a period of complete creative silence in my life - the months that followed became a time of deep self-reflection, allowing me to re-evaluate my connection to my creativity and sense of self.

Reconnecting to life after my effective ego death, I have never lost the feeling of having absolute emotion in the present, or appreciation of the monumental value of the shift I have gone through. I learnt how to fully embrace vulnerability, knowing that even in the darkest moments, there is always something to be grateful for. In rediscovering my artistic voice, I truly realised the importance of beauty and creativity, and how creating is an integral part of my identity.

My work is now immensely personal, emotional, and deeply inspiring, and reflects the profound shifts I have experienced in my life. I is excited to continue sharing my creativity with the world and creating work that inspires connection, healing, and personal growth.”