Jonathan Sage is a freelance clarinettist based in York, England.  He studied with Alan Hacker and Lesley Schatzberger at the University of York, gaining a Masters Degree in Performance with distinction.

As a concerto soloist, Jonathan has played with Orchestras including the London Mozart Players, York Sinfonia, Cambridge Youth Orchestra and the Hessle Sinfonia. A highlight of his concerto career came at the Dartington International Festival when, at less than 24 hours notice, he stepped in for distinguished clarinettist Alan Hacker to play the Mozart Clarinet Concerto (on Hacker’s basset clarinet) with the Dartington Festival Orchestra under conductor Diego Masson.  More recently, Jonathan has given the world premiere of a new basset clarinet concerto by Irish composer Garrett Sholdice.  Appearing as soloist/director of the Ergodos Musicians, Jonathan performed Shodice’s concerto, Am Obersee, alongside the Mozart in a unique two-concerto programme.  

In November 2009, Jonathan performed to a capacity audience at Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival the UK’s largest contemporary music festival.  He has also given performances at the Ergodos MMX and Off-Grid Festivals in Ireland’s National Concert Hall, LEAP (Berlin), the York Spring Festival, Sampler Festival (London), Kaleidoscope (Dublin) the Late Music Festival, the Dartington International Festival, the International Conference on Music Since Nineteen-hundred 2007, the GEMdays Festival, ICMC and the University of York Concert Series. 

In 2013 Jonathan released his first solo album on Ergodos Records.  Entitled Counterpoint, it features Steve Reich’s New York Counterpoint as well as a new work from Benedict Schlepper-Connolly and a transcription of a Bach Sarabande.  To date it has been broadcast on RTE Lyric FM as well as on New York Public Radio station WNYC and BBC Radio 3.  Lyric FM reviewer Paddy Kehoe gave the album 5 stars and described the Reich as a “masterful interpretation”.  Jonathan also features on a number of other Ergodos Records releases as well as on Monty Adkins’ Four Shibusa, released on Audiobulb.

In 2008, Jonathan toured Ireland as an Ergodos Artist, playing a programme of contemporary clarinet music and also giving lecture recitals at Trinity College Dublin and Dundalk Institute of Technology.  Commissions for the tour included works by Jonathan Nangle, Garrett Sholdice and Alexander Harker, supported by the Irish Arts Council.  

Jonathan regularly works with groups including the Ergodos Orchestra, Bewegung Ensemble, Dark Inventions and Harmonium, and has performed alongside musicians including Alan Hacker, John Cameron, Jane Manning and Stephen De Pledge.  Jonathan has also played in orchestras including the New Mozart Orchestra, I Maestri, and the York Guildhall Orchestra.  He has toured an performed in venues throughout Europe and in the USA.



Jonathan Sage and the Keats Quartet is following