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Sarah Watts
"Watts does ravishing things with the great clarinet melody with which the work opens ..."
"As a seasoned reviewer and even more seasoned musician it’s easy for me to say that such imaginative projects are very rare indeed, and of course, this one is entirely unique" (Dracula Bitesize)
Solo - Other
Instrumentation
- Sarah Watts - Clarinet
- Jon Iles - Narrator (Dracula Only)
- Daniel Browell - Piano (Winterreise only)
Repertoire
Ten Wee Drams. Ten works about the heritage, culture and landscape of the Scottish Hebridean Isle of Raasay. Can be a one hour or full length programme.
Feed The Beast. A programme highlighting animal extinction. New works for solo bass clarinet are set to stunning overhead visuals and with voiceovers. One hour.
DRACULA BITE SIZE. A 60 minute adaptation of Bram Stoker's Dracula for narrator and low clarinets. Narrated by Jon Iles (from ITV's The Bill) and Sarah Watts on low clarinets. One hour + optional Q&A.
Winterreise. A transcription of Schubert's song cycle Winterreise for bass clarinet and piano. Performed by Sarah Watts and Daniel Browell
Biography
Sarah Watts studied clarinet at the Royal Academy of Music with Angela Malsbury and Victoria Soames Samek (bass clarinet). Sarah then decided to specialise in the bass clarinet and continued her studies at the Rotterdam Conservatorium with Henri Bok, funded by the Countess of Munster Musical Trust and a Leverhulme Trust Studentship. Sarah was awarded the Exxon Prize for the best classical music student in Rotterdam.
Among the awards Sarah has won are the UK Howarth Clarinet Competition (2000), the Hawkes Clarinet Prize (RAM, 2001), the Sir Arthur Bliss Chamber Music Prize (RAM, 2000) and the Faber Prize, UK Performing Australian Music competition (2001 –recital broadcast on ABC radio). She was also a finalist in the wind section of the Royal Overseas League Competition in 2000.
Sarah specialises on the low clarinets and has premiered many new works for the bass and contrabass clarinet, gaining an international reputation as an artist, teacher and researcher on these instruments. Sarah enjoys putting together collaborative programmes that often combine with different art forms and help to make new music accessible and enjoyable for all audiences.
She has performed solo repertoire across the UK, Ireland, Asia, Europe and the Americas and has attracted composers including Sir Harrison Birtwistle, Piers Hellawell and William Sweeney to write works for her. In January 2003, Sarah performed a solo bass clarinet recital in London’s Purcell Room as part of the Park Lane Group Young Artist Series.
Sarah is Director of Performance at Sheffield University. Sarah hosts bass clarinet courses on the Isle of Raasay in Scotland and runs and tutors on other wind chamber music courses. Sarah has given workshops on bass clarinet technique at many establishments around the world. She taught bass clarinet at RNCM from 2012-2022.
Sarah performs with Hard Rain Ensemble, rarescale and SCAW and is exploring music for narrator and clarinets with voiceover actor Jon Iles.
Sarah is an Henri Selmer Paris artist, a Vandoren UK artist and a Silverstein Ligature artist.
In 2016, she was made an Associate of the Royal Academy of Music (ARAM), London and in 2020, was nominated for New Music Performer Of The Year at the Scottish New Music Awards.
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