Jack Wyllie

Jack Wyllie is a British saxophonist and keyboard player, co-founder of the London instrumental band Portico Quartet. This Manchester concert presents a project under Wyllie's own name at Hallé St Michael's.

Jack Wyllie is a British saxophonist, flautist and keyboard player who co-founded the London instrumental band Portico Quartet, a group built around the Hang, a modern percussion instrument. Wyllie composes and plays flute, soprano and tenor saxophone, and has taken part in Hania Rani's piano concerto Non Fiction. The debut album under Wyllie's name, Adrian Corker Jack Wyllie, was released in 2017.

The evening introduces a new band led by Wyllie, with Hinako Omori on keyboards, Dobrawa Czocher on cello and Jesse Barrett on drums. Wyllie's collaborations have drawn on ambient, fourth-world, electronica and modern classical styles, and the project's recording, Eternal Spring, favours melodic lines and cyclical rhythms with a hopeful tone and draws on the natural world. The programme is classical in orientation, and the music suits listeners who follow contemporary instrumental writing.

Hallé St Michael's is a concert and performance venue on George Leigh Street in Ancoats. It occupies a former Roman Catholic church founded in 1859, which became a focal point for the Little Italy community of the district.