Sarah Freestone

One of the UK’s leading multi-instrumentalists, Sarah is a graduate and Associate of the Royal Academy of Music where she studied classical guitar, violin (joint-principal studies) and bass guitar, winning the Julian Bream Prize and semi-finalist in the Tarrega International Guitar Competition. As a violinist she is a member of the BBC Concert Orchestra and as a guitarist/mandolinist she freelances with orchestras including the Royal Opera House, BBC Symphony Orchestra, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Britten Sinfonia and English National Opera. She performs in the West End and the Royal National Theatre on stringed instruments which also include viola, cello, banjo and ukulele. She has also appeared as backing vocalist with major pop artists and has performed as an actor/musician for several productions including the UK premiere of Arthur Miller’s Playing for Time. Sarah is currently performing in the multi award-winning West End production of Cabaret.

As a composer and arranger Sarah has most recently been commissioned by the BBC Symphony and Concert Orchestras, The Royal Ballet, Opera North, London Mozart Players, Britten Sinfonia, Scottish Ensemble, Trondheim Soloists and the Hallé, and was recently shortlisted for a Royal Philharmonic Society award, her second nomination. Her community compositions, enabling groups to come together and create their own music whatever their musical background or experience, have been performed at the BBC Proms, on Radio 3 and BBC TV. Sarah regularly arranges and conducts pop music sessions, including the BBC Radio 2 Piano Room series live from Maida Vale, arranging for artists including Jess Glynne, Tom Grennan, Haircut 100, Marisha Wallace, Natalie Imbruglia and Jack Savoretti (which was the selected Piano Room track for The Year In Music at the BBC in 2022) and was the arranger and composer of the 2024 CBeebies Wildlife Jamboree at the BBC Proms.

Sarah has devised and delivered Creative Group Composition CPD programmes for education and arts institutions around the UK including for Trinity Laban, BBC Proms, Kent Music and the South Riverside Music Partnership. She is a Creative Lead for the National Children’s Orchestra, a Music Mentor for Music For Youth and has been a guest speaker for the past three years on the Spitalfields Music Skills Lab training programme for community music practitioners. She has been a judge on the BBC Young Composer competition since 2020 and a Creative Director of the renowned young people’s creative orchestral project Animate Orchestra for over ten years.

Sarah writes, conducts and presents schools and education concerts, most recently for the BBC and Trinity Laban, and recently collaborated with Children’s BAFTA Award winning writer Andrew McCaldon on two orchestral family shows which toured the UK.