Skip to main content

Sarah-Jane Bradley

Visiting Professorial Staff - Viola

Music

Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance Faculty of Music King Charles Court Old Royal Naval College Greenwich London SE10 9JF

Tel: +44 (0)20 8305 4444

Area of Work

Strings Department
Sarah Jane Bradley

Biography

Since making her critically acclaimed concerto debut with the Philharmonia in 1992 and as a recitalist at Wigmore Hall in 1997, Sarah-Jane has established a distinguished reputation as a soloist and is in high demand as a chamber musician. Formerly a founder member of the Leopold String Trio (1991-1999) and subsequently the Sorrel Quartet (2000-2005), she has frequently broadcast for BBC Radio 3, and recorded for, among others, Dutton, Chandos, and Hyperion. She has performed extensively throughout Europe, Scandinavia and North and South America and has participated in prestigious festivals such as Marlboro, Kuhmo and Prussia Cove. Current collaborations include the London Soloists Ensemble with pianist John Lenehan, violinist Lorraine McAslan, cellist Karine Georgian and clarinetist Anthony Pike as well as the Fidelio Piano Quartet, Honeymead Ensemble, Rautio Piano Trio and a string trio with Retorica.

Sarah-Jane works with several pianists in recital including John Lenehan, Martin Roscoe, Anthony Hewitt, Tom Poster, and Geoffrey Pratley, and has also worked with Richard Goode, Marc-Andre Hamelin and Peter Donohoe in chamber music. Her recital work has taken her to major venues in the UK and abroad, including Wigmore Hall and Bridgewater Hall, Manchester. She has a keen interest in seeking out new and lesser-known repertoire.

Creative Outputs

Sarah-Jane has premiered and recorded many new works for solo viola, many of which have been dedicated to her, including the viola concerto Winter Remembered by David Matthews. This was jointly commissioned and premiered at the Presteigne and Deal Festivals in 2002 and she gave the London premiere with the City of London Sinfonia in a concert broadcast live on Radio 3 in 2003. She also performed the work with the English Chamber Orchestra and Paul Watkins conducting at Kings Place in 2012 in a festival to celebrate David’s 70th birthday. This work is included on her debut concerto CD of British Viola Music with Orchestra Nova and conducted by George Vass, which was released on Dutton Epoch in 2007 to high critical acclaim. Subsequently she has recorded five further concerto CDs for Dutton: Arthur Butterworth’s Viola Concerto with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Delius’s Double Concerto with Philippe Graffin and the BBC Concert Orchestra conducted by David Lloyd-Jones (Classic FM Magazine’s Editor’s Choice), Paul Patterson’s Viola Concerto with Orchestra Nova (which she premiered at the 2009 Hampstead and Highgate Festival), Arthur Benjamin’s Viola Concerto and Romantic Fantasy for violin and viola with Lorraine McAslan, John Gibbons and the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, and most recently Walter Braunfels’ Viola Concerto with the BBC Concert Orchestra conducted by Johannes Wildner. Sarah-Jane also gave the premiere of Matthew Taylor’s Viola Concerto 5 Humoreskes in 2011 and recorded the work with the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Garry Walker in a studio concert for Radio 3 in January 2013. The CD was released on Toccata Classics in July 2013. Sarah-Jane has recorded two recital CDs for Naxos of East European Romantic Works and English Works for Viola and Piano, as well as a CD of works by Vaughan-Williams with the London Soloists Ensemble.

Other performances included a concert series at St John’s Smith Square with the London Soloists Ensemble, a performance of David Matthews’ Double Concerto for Violin and Viola at the Presteigne Festival, and a performance of the winning piece of the British Composer’s Awards student entry for solo viola to be broadcast on Radio 3. Sarah-Jane plays on a viola by G.A. Chanot of Manchester, 1896.“Sarah-Jane Bradley is that rare kind of viola player who can make you blush with shame for ever having told a viola joke. In her hands the instrument is passionate, eloquent and wide-ranging in its colours and moods. I would happily put this at the top of any list of recommended recordings.” BBC Music Magazine, June 2007 on “British Viola Music” (5* for both performance and sound).

Awards

Following studies as a scholar at the Royal Academy of Music with John White and at the Mozarteum, Salzburg with Thomas Riebl, Sarah-Jane won many prestigious awards, including the Trevor Snoad Award (Martin Trust), Countess of Munster, Maisie Lewis Young Artists, Royal Overseas League, Bernard Shore Award (ROSL), Tillett Trust, Leverhulme Trust, BBC Young Artists Forum and Young Concert Artists Trust amongst others. She was a prizewinner at the 1994 Lionel Tertis International Viola Competition, of which she is now on the executive committee and was also invited to sit on the jury for the 2013 competition. She won first prize at two competitions in Spain at Capellades and Sant Joan de Vilatorrada in 1995 which led to substantial recital tours.