Sarah Gait
INTRODUCTION
Cumbrian-born cellist and composer Sarah Gait is an alumna of the Royal Academy of Music and Royal Northern College of Music and awardee of the Royal Philharmonic Society and BBC. Moving to Berlin in 2022, her busy performing career as soloist and chamber musician features venues across UK and Europe, including Barbican Centre, King’s Place and St John’s Smith Square, with recent concerts at the Embassy of Brazil in London, Gohliser Schlösschen Leipzig and Palais Lichtenau Berlin.
Remarkably, Sarah has performed on BBC Radio 3 as all of solo cellist, solo pianist and composer. Also featuring in Classical Music Magazine, she is a committed advocate of the role of classical music in young people's lives, appearing as Ambassador for the BBC Proms Inspire Scheme and receiving the 2019 Cumbria Life Culture Award for cultural work in her home county.
Sarah is active in the audiovisual scene, winning the 2020 ISA Digital Award, from MDW Vienna for her first video, while her record label will launch in 2024. Sarah is the grateful dedicatee of many new works for cello and in 2019 gave the world première of her own newly commissioned work for improvising solo cellist and orchestra with the Stuttgarter Kammerorchester.
BIOGRAPHY
​
British cellist Sarah Gait is an innovative musician and creator. She performs across Europe and is the recipient of prestigious awards from the Royal Philharmonic Society and BBC, impressively having appeared on BBC Radio 3 as all of solo cellist, solo pianist and composer.
​
A Masters graduate of London’s Royal Academy of Music and graduate of Manchester’s Royal Northern College of Music, Sarah later held a Fellowship with Southbank Sinfonia at St John’s Smith Square in London, where she enjoyed unique experiences, such as recording at the Tower of London and being commissioned to compose a new work for the Anghiari Festival. Moving to Berlin in 2022 to pursue new musical opportunities, Sarah has since performed at venues such as Gohliser Schlösschen Leipzig, Palais Lichtenau Berlin and Salonkonzerte Bremen.
​
Sarah’s solo and chamber music engagements have seen her perform in leading venues such as (in London alone) 22 Mansfield Street, the Barbican Centre, King’s Place and St John’s Smith Square, in addition to festivals across Europe such as Barenboim-Said Akademie, Schleswig-Holstein and Weimar (Germany), Bad Leonfelden (Austria), Sion and Lac Leman (Switzerland), Verao Classico (Portugal) and Anghiari, Montepulciano and Virtuoso e Bel Canto (Italy).
In 2012, Sarah was announced winner of the BBC Proms Young Composer Competition and, shortly after, the NCEM/BBC Radio 3 Composers Award. Since then, she has received commissions from leading ensembles and festivals, such as the BBC Symphony Orchestra, while she premièred her own concerto as improvising soloist with the Stuttgarter Kammerorchester, at the closing concert of the prestigious Cello Akademie Rutesheim.
​
Sarah has enjoyed working in masterclasses with leading cellists of our generation, including Claudio Bohórquez, David Geringas, Frans Helmerson, Miklos Perenyi, Wolfgang Emanuel Schmidt and Troels Svane. She is deeply grateful for the support of generous trusts and individuals, including Arts Council England, the Nicholas Boas Trust, the Royal Philharmonic Society Enterprise Fund and RVW Trust, who have shown such faith in her musical qualities and vision and enabled her to carry out a multitude of inspiring projects.
​
Recently becoming involved in visual and digital arts, Sarah’s first video won the ISA Digital Creative Award Vienna 2020 and her record label will launch in 2024. As a mentor for aspiring young musicians, Sarah holds roles as Ambassador for the BBC Proms Inspire Scheme and Mentor for Awards for Young Musicians, and was awarded a Cumbria Life Culture Award as a tribute to her cultural work in her home county.
​
Sarah plays on an 18th-century cello on generous loan from the private collection of Dr Peter Hauber in Berlin.