Sarah Frances Jenkins is a composer and clarinettist based in the UK.
As a composer, Sarah was recently selected as one of seven composers on the 2024 RPS Composers Programme where she is writing a piece for the Marian Consort. Sarah has been commissioned by prestigious organisations such as the BBC Proms (where ‘Music and Meditation’ was performed as part of The Dream Prom 2022) and the Vale of Glamorgan Festival (where she was Featured Composer in 2021, alongside composers Judith Weir and Peteris Vasks). Sarah is currently the ‘Emerge’ composer at the Presteigne Festival (2022-2024). At the 2023 Presteigne Festival ‘The Lonely Tree of Llyn Padarn’ was premiered by Mathilde Milwidsky (violin), Alexei Watkins (horn) and Ivana Gavrić (piano) and ‘The First Swallow’ for clarinet and string orchestra was premiered by Robert Plane and the Festival Orchestra. In July 2023, ‘Gaia’ (commissioned by the Gould Piano Trio and Robert Plane) was premiered at the Corbridge Chamber Music Festival. Her piece ‘Shivelight’ which was commissioned for the 2021 Corbridge Chamber Music Festival has just been released on the Resonus Classics CD ‘Isotonic: Commissions for Clarinet’ featuring pieces written for the clarinettist Robert Plane.
Since winning BBC Young Composer in 2017, Sarah’s music has been commissioned and premiered by ensembles including the BBC Concert Orchestra, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Aurora Orchestra, Solem Quartet, Magnard Ensemble, Psappha and the Kaleidoscope Chamber Collective. Her music has been performed in venues including the Royal Albert Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall, St David’s Hall, the BBC Radio Theatre at Broadcasting House, BBC Hoddinott Hall and has been broadcast live on BBC Radio 3. Her work inhabits striking and atmospheric sound worlds and is often inspired by the natural world.
As a clarinettist, Sarah was awarded The Musicians’ Company Silver Medal in 2020 and is now a member of the Musicians’ Company Young Artists’ programme. A chamber music highlight has been performing Samuel Coleridge-Taylor's Clarinet Quintet in F sharp minor with the Salomé Quartet. As an orchestral player, Sarah has performed as principal clarinet in Mahler’s ninth Symphony, under the baton of Martyn Brabbins and in 2019 she was selected for the Orchestral Placement Schemes with both the BBC National Orchestra of Wales and the Orchestra of the Welsh National Opera.
Sarah is a passionate educator and has been a BBC Proms Inspire Ambassador since 2017, where she helps to facilitate creative music workshops for young people. She holds a DipABRSM in Clarinet Teaching with Distinction.
In July 2020, Sarah graduated from the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama with a First Class Honours Degree and the Principal’s Award for Music. She studied the clarinet with Robert Plane, Lenny Sayers and John Cooper and was mentored by composer John Hardy. In July 2022, she completed a postgraduate degree in clarinet and composition at the Royal College of Music, where she was a Wilkins-Mackerras Award Holder and was taught by Richard Hosford and Timothy Lines.
