Jess Robinson

Published: May 19, 2019, noon

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The actress and comedian Jess Robinson tells Michael Berkeley how her training as a classical singer informs her impressions of a vast range of singers, including Kate Bush, Bjork, Lady Gaga, Billie Holiday and Julie Andrews.

A regular on Radio 4\\u2019s The Now Show, Dead Ringers, and 15 Minute Musicals, Jess made her name starring on stage in Little Voice and playing Joan Collins\\u2019 daughter in Full Circle. Her musical impressions propelled her to the semi finals of Britain\\u2019s Got Talent in 2017 and she\\u2019s currently on tour with her show No Filter.

Jess chooses songs by Samuel Barber and Debussy that were favourites from her classical singing lessons, and pieces that remind her of the rich musical heritage of her family, including a 20th-century organ prelude that she plays in her local church as a double act with her mother \\u2013 her mother plays the keyboards but Jess plays the pedals, as her mother\\u2019s legs are too short to reach them! And we hear Jess\\u2019s grandmother singing a traditional Yiddish song, recorded after she arrived in Britain on one of the very last Kindertransports in 1939.

Producer: Jane Greenwood\\nA Loftus production for BBC Radio 3

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