Sarah Burnett

Sarah Burnett, bassoon

Sarah is an active freelance orchestral player working with a wide variety of orchestras nationwide. She is currently Principal Bassoon of Glyndebourne Touring Opera and Britten Sinfonia, having joined the latter in 2002. Amongst others, she has played as guest principal for the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, the London Mozart Players, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and the London Philharmonic Orchestra. As a student, she was Principal Bassoon of both the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain and the European Union Youth Orchestra.

Sarah read Music at St Catharine’s College, Cambridge, and studied at the Royal Academy of Music. In 1993, she gained a scholarship to study at the Hochschule for Music and Theater in Hanover with Klaus Thunemann. She is a Professor at the Royal College of Music and also teaches bassoon at the Purcell School.

As both a soloist and chamber musician, Sarah has given recitals at the Wigmore Hall, Purcell Room, Fairfield Halls, the Bridgewater Hall and at the Pump Room in Cheltenham. She also appears regularly in broadcasts for BBC Radio 3 and Classic FM.
Sarah Burnett interview

In conversation with Sarah Burnett

What do you enjoy about playing with Britten Sinfonia?
Britten Sinfonia is an orchestra that offers a vast variety…. from tiny ensembles to large chamber orchestras, from Purcell to Frank Zappa. This not only leads to challenging instrumental diversity but also keeps boredom at bay! It’s also full of people who enjoy what they do, are prepared to meet any challenge head on, all with a sense of fun and pride.

When did you start playing the bassoon?
At the age of ten I decided I wanted to play a woodwind instrument. The local education authority gave me an oboe to fiddle about with over the summer holidays. I adored it and spent most waking moments making an abominable sound, driving my parents, sisters and the local farm animals insane. At the start of the new term it was taken away from me because ‘someone older wants to play it’. I was distraught. Mum and Dad tried to console me by buying me a plastic recorder as a replacement. That made me even more distraught!! Then a friend of the family bought a new bassoon and I inherited his old one, a Chinese “Lark” - what a misnomer! I resumed the occupation of driving parents, sisters and farm animals mad, this time down an octave or two, and have never looked back.

Do you make a living playing music?
I sometimes look at the friends with whom I went to university and wonder how they’ve got a five bedroom house with two cars, three annual holidays and a weekly shop at Waitrose… and then I remember that I’m an orchestral musician. They do something which earns them a fortune, but they do envy me because I love what I do and they can’t believe the variety I have. I feel very fortunate to be able to make my way in music. My other commitments are with Glyndebourne Touring Opera and of course with the Haffner Wind Ensemble (the principal wind section of Britten Sinfonia). Then on top of that, I have a fairly hectic schedule playing with other orchestras on a freelance basis up and down the country. I am also a professor at the Royal College of Music. I adore teaching and relish the individual challenges that each student brings to a lesson.

What has been the most memorable experience in your career so far?
The first orchestral experience I ever had was with the National Youth Orchestra. I had only been playing for 18 months - to this day I maintain I was only brought in as a mascot! The first thing we played was Shostakovich’s 5th Symphony. I was so bowled over with the sheer volume of it that I was unable to play for the first three pages. Just as well I was only 8th bassoon! Then later in my youth orchestra career, I was lucky enough to work with Bernard Haitink. This time it was with the European Community Youth Orchestra at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam doing Mahler 9. The silence at the end of this monumental work seemed to last forever, with most of the audience, the orchestra and the conductor himself in tears. AMAZING!!!!

…and the funniest?
Unfortunately I am a terrible giggler. It takes very little to set me off ... usually just a loud instrumental squeak will do. The audience is also a fabulous source of entertainment. Once, years ago, I was playing a particularly modern wind quintet which was ferociously difficult and needed full concentration. Halfway through, an elderly lady said to her neighbour, in what she obviously thought was a whisper, ‘Oi, Bessy! Have they finished tuning up yet?’ We didn’t make it to the end…

Do you have time for anything else?
I’m so little at home that one of my favourite pastimes is just being there; pottering in the garden, cooking, and having friends round for supper. I’m also a complete bookworm. Sailing used to be a passion, but neither time nor money permit right now. One day…

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