INTRODUCTION
British cellist Sarah Gait is an innovative musician and creator. Recently awarded the 2020 ISA Digital Creative Award from the Universität für Musik und Darstellende Kunst, Vienna, for her video Heroes: the Shadows of a Tragic Mind, Sarah performs across the UK and Europe, including recently as soloist with the Stuttgarter Kammerorchester in another of her own improvisation-based compositions.
A graduate of the Royal Academy of Music, London, and Royal Northern College of Music, Manchester, Sarah has performed on BBC Radio 3’s Live in Concert and featured in Classical Music Magazine. Sarah is a keen promoter of classical music with young people, appearing as Ambassador for the BBC Proms Inspire Scheme, and her own compositions have been broadcast on BBC Radio 3.
Sarah’s work as a cultural ambassador in her own home county was recognised by a 2019 Cumbria Life Culture Award, while she currently collaborates with leading young composers in projects generously supported by Arts Council England and RVW Trust.
BIOGRAPHY
Sarah performs in major UK venues as soloist and chamber musician, including Birmingham Symphony Hall, Cadogan Hall, King’s Place, Barbican’s Milton Court Hall and Southbank Centre, with invitations for this season including the Royal Albert Hall’s Love Classical chamber series. She also performs at festivals across Europe, including Cello Akademie Rutesheim, where she performed as concerto soloist in the festival’s final concert in 2019.
Previous awards have included from the Royal Philharmonic Society, Sir John Barbirolli Memorial Foundation, EMI Music Sound Foundation, the BBC and prizes in chamber music and contemporary music from the Royal Academy of Music and Royal Northern College of Music, where she graduated with Master of Music and 1st class Bachelor of Music with Honours degrees respectively, studying under the tutelage of Guy Johnston, Robert Cohen, Peter Dixon and Emma Ferrand.
Sarah is privileged to have participated in masterclasses with many of today’s most eminent cellists including Claudio Bohórquez, Adrian Brendel, Mario Brunello, Colin Carr, Frans Helmerson, Gary Hoffmann, Gregor Horsch, Ralph Kirshbaum, Miklos Perenyi, Christoph Richter, Hannah Roberts and Wolfgang Emanuel Schmidt, as well as from leading chamber music practitioners Hatto Beyerle (at the European Chamber Music Academy), Peter Cropper, the Henschel and Talich Quartets, Sitkovetsky Trio and members of the Endellion Quartet.
Sarah studied with Prof. Frans Helmerson at the masterclasses of the Barenboim-Said Akademie in Berlin and Sion Festival in Switzerland, with thanks to the generous support of the Nicholas Boas Charitable Trust. She was also a scholarship holder at the Schleswig-Holsten Musik Festival 2021, working with renowned soloist David Geringas, and was invited to join the Berlin/Israel based Musethica scheme.
An avid proponent of contemporary music, Sarah co-directs Platform Music, which specialises in the promotion of 20th century and contemporary music in alternative concert settings, alongside acclaimed American violinist Luke Hsu, and Peruvian violist and Associate of the Royal Academy of Music, Varinia Oyola Rebaza.
Sarah has collaborated with leading contemporary music figures, such as composers Magnus Lindberg, Paul Patterson and the late Dmitri Smirnov, and improvisatory musicians Markus Stockhausen and Florian Weber, and has premièred numerous new solo and chamber works, many of which are dedicated to her.
Recent recordings include Woven Half Dreams for solo cello by Angela Slater, funded by Arts Council England, and Rafael Marino Arcaro’s new cello sonata, supported by RVW Trust, which is being premiered this season.
Awards for Sarah's own compositions include Winner of the BBC Young Composer competition and the National Centre for Early Music Composers’ Award, as well as a performance at the BBC Proms and recording at the BBC Maida Vale Studios. Click here for a full composition biography.
Sarah plays on an 18th-century cello on kind loan from the private collection of Dr Peter Hauber in Berlin.