Sarah Jenkins

Sarah Jenkins

Key Facts

Biography

Sarah is a clarinettist and composer based in the UK. Since  winning BBC Young Composer in 2017, Sarah has been commissioned by ensembles and organisations such as the BBC Concert Orchestra, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Aurora Orchestra, Cheltenham Music Festival, Ty Cerdd, Ensemble Cymru, the Kaleidoscope Chamber Collective, and her music has been performed in venues including the Queen Elizabeth Hall, St David’s Hall and the BBC Radio Theatre.

In 2018, Sarah received a commission to write for the BBC Concert Orchestra: And the Sun Stood Still was premiered by the orchestra and Principal Conductor Bramwell Tovey at the Queen Elizabeth Hall and was broadcast live on BBC Radio 3. Recent highlights have been to write Tincture of the Skies, a solo violin piece for BBC NOW’s Nick Whiting and a new commission for the clarinettist Robert Plane – Shivelight, for clarinet and piano.

As a clarinettist, Sarah has performed as principal clarinet with the Royal College of Music Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Martyn Brabbins. She recently worked with the Salomé Quartet in a performance of Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s Clarinet Quintet. In Cardiff, Sarah was accepted on to the Orchestral Placement Schemes with both the BBC National Orchestra of Wales and the Welsh National Opera and she was a finalist in the RWCMD Concerto Competition 2020, performing Arnold Cooke’s Concerto for Clarinet and Strings. Sarah has performed as principal clarinet and principal E flat clarinet with the Young Musicians Symphony Orchestra.

A passionate believer in the power of music education, Sarah has been a BBC Proms Inspire Ambassador since 2017, where she helps to facilitate creative music workshops for young people. She has visited schools across South Wales delivering creative workshops and has worked with the charity ‘Young Music Makers of Dyfed’ to explore composition and creativity with GCSE music pupils.

Sarah graduated from the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama with a First Class Honours Degree and the Principal’s Award for Music in July 2020. She studied clarinet with Robert Plane, Lenny Sayers and John Cooper (Eb). In September 2020, Sarah began a postgraduate degree in clarinet and composition at the Royal College of Music, London, where she is taught by Timothy Lines and Richard Hosford. Her studies are generously supported by a Royal College of Music Scholarship and a Help Musicians UK Postgraduate Award.

 

Award: Silver Medal, RWCMD 2020

Page updated: December 2020

Photo credit: Unknown