YolanDa Brown
For some, worldwide touring and critically acclaimed albums would be satisfaction enough. Not for YolanDa Brown, she wears many hats, musician, broadcaster, author, philanthropist and wears them well… with passion and full of vigour.
YolanDa is a double MOBO Award-winning artist, her music is a delicious fusion of reggae, jazz and soul. She has toured with The Temptations, Jools Holland’s Rhythm and Blues Orchestra, Billy Ocean and collaborated with artists such as Dave Stewart from Eurythmics, Snarky Puppy’s Bill Laurance, Kelly Jones from Stereophonics and Rick Astley. She is currently composing music for the iconic Sesame Street as well as the Netflix Series CocoMelon Lane.
She was awarded an OBE for services to music, music education and broadcasting in the 2023 New Year Honours List by His Majesty the King. In July 2022, YolanDa was appointed Chair of BPI (organises The BRIT Awards, The Mercury Prize). The Lord Lieutenant of Greater London appointed YolanDa as a Deputy Lieutenant in October 2022.
A champion for the importance of music education, YolanDa is Chair of Youth Music, sits on the Arts Council National Council, is a trustee of the PRS Foundation, an ambassador for the Prince’s Trust and London Music Fund and sits on the advisory board of the London Philharmonic Orchestra. In 2021, she was invited by the Department of Education to sit on the advisory panel of the National Plan for Music Education. November 2022 saw YolanDa awarded the Music Week – Women in Music “Music Champion Award”.
She is a broadcaster working across TV and Radio, including her eponymous series for CBeebies, “YolanDa’s Band Jam”, which won the RTSNW award as Best Children’’s Programme. For the BBC Proms she hosted the Ella and Dizzy Centenary, as well as Last Night of the Proms, Gospel Choir of the Year for BBC One and BBC Young Jazz Musician of the Year and is host of the London Philharmonic Orchestra podcast, Offstage.
Over on the airways, she hosts YolanDa Brown on Saturday on Jazz FM, presents the best of classical music on Scala Radio on Sundays, BBC Radio 4’s Loose Ends with Clive Anderson and can be heard regularly across BBC Radio 2.
You may have also spotted her flexing her general knowledge muscles on such shows as Bridge of Lies with Ross Kemp, University Challenge, The Hit List, Richard Osman’s House of Games, Celebrity Mastermind, Pointless Celebrities, Celebrity Eggheads and Gareth Malone’s All Star Music Quiz. She even got to indulge her other passion of classic cars on Celebrity Antiques Road Trip, scouring the country for hidden treasures, and she was recently a sitter on Portrait Artist of the Year on Sky Arts.
An entrepreneur too, YolanDa launched the London Saxophone Festival in 2018, currently in its third edition, and is about to launch her own music venue and restaurant, Soul Mama, in autumn 2023. YolanDa loves to drive fast cars around race tracks in her spare time and can even rattle off a Rubik’s Cube in around five minutes (on a good day).
A real renaissance woman set to reach new heights, join YolanDa Brown for some sunshine music.
Age guidance: 14+
Ticket Information
£30, £25
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Future events in this series
EFG London Jazz Festival 2023
EFG London Jazz Festival is back this November! World-class artists and emerging stars bring the very best of jazz and musicianship to London over ten days of live performances, special collaborations, fresh discoveries, and exclusive new commissions in venues across the capital.
Read more about this series
YolanDa Brown
An EFG London Jazz Festival event
Saturday 11 November 2023, 19:30
The double MOBO Award-winning, multi-talented saxophonist YolanDa Brown brings her delicious fusion of reggae, jazz and soul to Cadogan Hall for a night of sunshine music.
The Cookers
An EFG London Jazz Festival event
Sunday 12 November 2023, 19:00
The Cookers, an exciting all-star septet, summons up an aggressive mid-’60s spirit with a potent collection of expansive post-bop originals marked by all the requisite killer instincts and pyrotechnic playing expected of some of the heaviest hi...
Blue Town Trio
Monday 13 November 2023, 14:30
Blue Town Trio features London-based talented vocalist Zoe Francis, the multi-award-winning guitarist Jim Mullen, and the incomparable Ross Stanley on Hammond organ B in a selection of bittersweet songs, the lyrics of which capture our moods whether...
The Hot Club of Jupiter
Tuesday 14 November 2023, 14:30
Regulars at both London jazz venues and on the swing dance circuit, The Hot Club of Jupiter plays a unique mix of Gypsy swing, hot jazz, New Orleans grooves, Brazilian carnival samba and French surrealism. 'Good fun that deserves to be taken seriousl...
Avishai Cohen + Emma Rawicz
An EFG London Jazz Festival event
Tuesday 14 November 2023, 19:30
Avishai Cohen is globally recognized as a musician with an individual sound and a questing spirit, an ever-creative player-composer open to multiple strains of jazz and active as a leader, co-leader and sideman. In his latest album, Naked Truth, you...
Rachael Cohen Quartet
Wednesday 15 November 2023, 14:30
One of the most in demand players of her generation, saxophonist Rachael Cohen presents her quartet featuring some of the freshest talent on the London jazz scene performing a set of her own compositions and arrangements.
Sissoko, Segal, Peirani and Parisien
An EFG London Jazz Festival event
Wednesday 15 November 2023, 19:30
The stellar quartet featuring Ballaké Sissoko (kora), Vincent Segal (cello), Vincent Peirani (accordion) and Émile Parisien (sax), channel a multitude of influences to irresistible effect. Malian musical royalty Ballaké Sissoko has spent many year...
The GAB Trio
Thursday 16 November 2023, 14:30
French guitarist/band leader Clement Regert joins forces with long-term music partner, Italian guitarist Gianluca Corona and versatile drummer/percussionist Steve Taylor for this new project. The sound is BIG, playing a melodic mix of flamenco/Brazil...
Ron Carter “Foursight”
An EFG London Jazz Festival event
Thursday 16 November 2023, 19:30 & Friday 17 November 2023, 19:30
Ron Carter, the three-time Grammy Award-winning jazz legend and the most recorded jazz bassist in history, will be making his first appearance in the UK in over eight years with his “Foursight” Quartet. The group includes drummer Payton C...
Corina Kwami Quartet
plus special guest Adele Joel
Friday 17 November 2023, 14:30
Corina's show will showcase selections from her Pangea project featuring selections of jazz, sambas, and some originals, with speical guest Adele Joel, one of the leading tap dancers in the UK. The project's mission is to share stories through music...
The Benny Goodman Orchestra’s famous 1938 Carnegie Hall Concert
An EFG London Jazz Festival event
Saturday 18 November 2023, 19:30
Bandleader and clarinettist Pete Long (Ronnie Scott’s Big Band, Echoes of Ellington and ex-sax star of Jools Holland’s Rhythm and Blues Orchestra) present a superlative recreation of one of the greatest concerts in jazz history. The 16 musicians...
Nikki Iles featuring the NDR Bigband
A Love of Imperfect Things
Sunday 19 November 2023, 17:00
As Composer-in-Residence of the NDR Bigband in 2023, the British pianist, composer and bandleader Nikki Iles reflects on the limits of perfection and the desire for the spontaneous and unfinished with her programme A Love of Imperfect Things, a theme...
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