A Cuban Reunion! The documentary film I made about my reunion with my Mozart y Mambo musicians in Cuba this January has just aired on Deutsche Welle TV, you can watch it now here on YouTube. We couldn’t finish the filming because of the lockdown in Havana but this film shows all that we did before we had to stay at home. Despite everything, I loved being there and seeing mi familia Cubana again and I hope you enjoy this film! Thanks to all of you for your support of this project – it means so much to me.
Winter in Havana
I visited my beloved Havana Lyceum Orchestra in Cuba in January to see how they have been doing during the pandemic and also we were hoping to be able to play a concert there to present “Mozart y Mambo” to the Cuban public. Sadly the concert had to be cancelled as we were all put back into lockdown, but we had some lovely days making music together and planning our next exciting project together. You can see what we did in this report for Deutsche Welle TV. Can’t wait to tell you about our new project…watch this space! Feb.2021
Happy New Year everyone!I wish you all much health and happiness in 2021. Although 2020 was a terribly difficult year, it also brought me something wonderful. Exactly one year ago in January 2020 before anyone had started talking about Covid, I was in Havana recording and filming my beloved Mozart y Mambo project. So I am feeling a little nostalgic right now as I haven’t been able to celebrate the success of the project with my Cuban friends yet – we haven’t seen each other for a whole year. But I am remembering being there like it was yesterday! A huge thank you to all of you who bought the album and have thus or also donated to the Instruments for Cuba fund – we have raised €23,000 and have received many donations of instruments and I can’t wait to start bringing them over to Havana. Thank you all for your incredible support!
Let’s Celebrate! 10 Years of Berlin Philharmonic Family Christmas Concerts It’s that time of the year again – how does the year fly past so quickly? This year´s Berlin Philharmonic Christmas Family Concert will be a celebration of 10 years of our special concerts. Creating and presenting these concerts are an absolute highlight of my year and I am excited to share some of my favourite moments from the last 10 years with you on December 18th at 3pm Berlin time – live and free on the Digital Concert Hall. Hope you can join me!
Berlin Philharmonic Horns Live! Don’t miss the next Berlin Philharmonic Horns live-streamed concert! On November 22nd at 3pm Berlin time, we will be playing a concert with a programme guaranteed to make you smile. The concert will be streamed live on my new streaming platform Sarah’s Music Space and we are very excited to be performing for you and being able to connect in these strange times. Immediately after the concert we will hold a live Horn Hangout to chat with the audience and see what they thought of the concert. See you on the 22nd!
Mozart y Mambo It’s time! I am so excited to finally be able to share my beloved new project `Mozart y Mambo´ with you all! We recorded the album and filmed a documentary film about the project in January – and I feel so lucky and grateful we did all this before the world shut down. The EPK and two tracks from the album – Mozart´s Concert Rondo KV 371 and the Rondo alla Mambo- have been pre-released and we will introduce you to everything and everyone little by little until the film is broadcast on June 27th and the entire album is released on July 10th. It was truly the project of my life and I can’t tell you how happy it makes me to be able to share it will all of you. Enjoy!
Horns in the Time of Corona – Hi everyone, I hope you are staying inside and staying healthy in these strange times. I am missing playing in my orchestra and my chamber groups so much. I know a lot of you are missing playing too, so what can we do to help and feel connected? I will be hosting a series of special virus-free Horn Hangouts starting Monday, March 23rd together with the wonderful Stefan Dohr. Hope you can join us, all infos are on the live page.
Mozart y Mambo Happy New Year from Cuba everyone! I have just finished recording what for me was one of the most inspiring, wonderful and crazy projects of my life. “Mozart y Mambo” will be an album of Mozart and Cuban music – two passions of mine. I recorded it in Havana for Alpha Classics with the Havana Lyceum Orchestra conducted by Pepe Mendez and well-known Cuban popular musicians. We of course had a film team with us to document everything and I cannot wait to share all this with you. Proceeds from the album will go towards buying instruments for my Cuban musicians and we will touring Germany this summer to bring you our music live. Watch this space for more details! January 2020
December and the Horn December is a busy month for everyone and an especially crazy (but wonderful one) for me.I love the idea of sitting around the tree with family on the weekends before Christmas but somehow that doesn’t usually happen in December…this year kicks off with a concert for Berlin Phil Brass and organ, followed by a family concert for the Dresdner Philharmonie. My annual Berlin Phil Christmas concerts are always a highlight of my Decembers – join us this year live for “Merry Quizmas” on the Digital Concert Hall on Dec 15th! Alongside all this and also of course the Berlin Phil concerts, I’m locking myself in a practice room preparing for my upcoming CD recording in Cuba – watch this space for more. Wishing you all as peaceful a December as you can possibly have!
Japan! My orchestra loves visiting Japan. We are back for two weeks of concerts with Maestro Zubin Mehta in Nagoya, Osaka, Fukuoka, Kawasaki and Tokyo. All wonderful concert halls and the weather here in Japan is sooooo much better than in Berlin right now. Happy to be back! November 2019
Berlin-LA-Berlin-Japan A quick catchup with all of you – there has been so much going on! I just got back from a great week in LA playing as a guest with the fabulous LA Philharmonic. It was their 100th Birthday Celebration Week – 4 programs in one week with 3 different conductors – Gustavo Dudamel, Esa-Pekka Salonen and Zubin Mehta. It was fantastic to be part of this week and play with this special horn section! Now back home and preparing for our Berlin Phil tour to Japan – looking forward to seeing many of my Japanese friends there! November 2019
Summer 2019 – what a summer it was! My travels took me to Japan, Australia, China, Cuba, Tanglewood and New York – I have met, played with, taught and interviewed wonderful people and I am feeling very grateful to be doing what I do. The interviews are for a film I am making for the Deutsche Welle about Beethoven so you will be able to see it next year. The Cuba project will be my next solo album, to be released also some time next year. There is a lot going on so please join me on these journeys and watch this space. Now back in Berlin and looking forward to starting work again in my “day job” at the Berlin Phil so come visit us here!
The 2019 Beijing International Horn Festival
I have never seen so many horn players together at any one time! We were 450 hornists at the 6th Beijing International Horn Festival. There will be some videos to come but for now you can see many photos of this extraordinary festival on their Facebook page
Pacific Music Festival 2019 Hi from Sapporo, Japan! My favourite festival of the year, the Pacific Music Festival, is taking place here right now and we are having a wonderful time. If you don’t know about this festival, you should, its fantastic! I had the honour of playing in the opening concert together with my ex-Berlin Phil colleague Radek Baborák, you can see the video here. Here´s another video of the Berlin Phil Winds performing Dave Brubeck at PMF. Enjoy and Sayonara! July 2019
Bells up Birmingham! I began my new job as International Chair of Brass at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire with a bang – 66 horn players joined me in flashmobbing the main train station in Birmingham, conducted by the BirmCon principal, Julian Lloyd Webber. We had a fantastic time and so did the commuters – as you can see in this video we made about it. I am looking forward to an exciting collaboration with the dynamic team at the Conservatoire. #bellsupBrum! June 2019
Bells Up South America! I had a wonderful time touring South America as a guest with the London Symphony Orchestra under my former “boss” Sir Simon Rattle. I was blown away for the passion for music and the horn which the horns players in these countries show – you can see it too in these four videos we made, horn players from Bogotá, Lima, Buenos Aires and Chile met with me to play together, I loved meeting so many new friends, hasta muy pronto! #bellsupSouthAmerica! May 2019
In South America…and loving it! Meeting lots of horn players, as you can see in this video we made in Colombia.Looking forward to more horn hangouts in Lima, Buenos Aires and Santiago de Chile! May 2019
Off to Baden Baden! After a delightful afternoon hanging out with my dear colleague Andrej Zust on the last live Horn Hangout, we are now beginning rehearsals for our Berlin Philharmonic Easter Festival in Baden Baden. The whole orchestra will spend 3 weeks playing Otello, symphony concerts and lots of chamber music. Come and join us!
The next live Horn Hangout is coming up with my colleague Andrej Žust of the Berlin Philharmonic! Have you ever joined us for one? If so, you will know how much fun they are and we hope to welcome you back for this one. If you haven’t joined us live before, please do on April 1st, it’s going to be a good one…2pm Berlin/ 8am New York/ 9pm Tokyo
Horn Hangouts USA What fabulous live Horn Hangouts they were! We streamed Jen Montone, Erik Ralske and Joe Alessi to thousands of viewers all over the world and had a fantastic time doing it. Thanks for all who joined in – both in person and online. You can now find the Hangouts on the Horn Hangout page. Enjoy!
February 2019
The first Horn Hangouts of 2019 are coming up soon! Team Horn Hangouts is going to the USA to hang out with three wonderful musicians- Jennifer Montone (principal horn, Philadelphia Orchestra) live from the Curtis Institute of Music. Erik Ralske (principal horn, Met Opera) live from the Juilliard School in New York and Joe Alessi (principal trombone NY Philharmonic) live from the NY Philharmonic Archives. If you have never joined in on a live Horn Hangout before, you really should, it´s a lot of fun, I promise! If you are regular viewers, I can´t wait to see you all live online in February – all details on the Live Page!
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Christmas Letter Berlin, December 2018 Dear Friends,
Some sad news is that we will not be filming any new Sarah’s Music episodes next year. Broadcasting budgets continue to be squeezed worldwide, including at Deutsche Welle, the host broadcaster of Sarah’s Music. My team and I have had an amazing run over the past four years and have made an incredible 96 episodes! I have loved and have poured my heart into making each and every one of them and feel so fortunate I have had this platform to share my music world. We’ve built quite a global community together! I promise the next project isn’t far away but until then, my thanks to my fantastic team and to everyone at Deutsche Welle for the past four years.
Coming up in early 2019, we have some Horn Hangouts planned – keep an eye out on the Horn Hangout page for the details. And I am looking forward to being back in Havana, Cuba this February with my beloved Havana Horns. Watch this space for more cool collaborations! I wish you a wonderful Christmas wherever you are in the world and a music-filled New Year! Hugs from Berlin,
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December 2018 Winter Drummerland! Last weekend I presented our annual Berlin Philharmonic Family Christmas concert. This year we featured the Berlin Philharmonic percussion section in a fantastic programme of body percussion and all sorts of other adventures. If you missed it live on the Digital Concert Hall, the concert will be up soon in the DCH archive – with an English voiceover! Watch this space, we’ll be Walking in a Winter Drummerland!
November 2018 Trip to Asia with the Berlin Philharmonic. We are on tour in Thailand, Taiwan and China for the next 3 weeks, if you can´t be with us in person (do say hello at the stage door after) then join us via our Berlin Phil tour blog here.
September 27, 2018 Join me at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire! I am thrilled to announce that I have just been appointed International Chair of Brass at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire. You can read all about it here. I am really looking forward to working with the dynamic team there, including the principal Julian Lloyd-Webber and Head of Brass Amos Miller. Come and join us! #BellsUpBrum! September 27, 2018
August 2018 New Season @BerlinPhil! Back at work with the Berlin Philharmonic for a new exciting season. We started off with a tour conducted by our new chief conductor designate, Kirill Petrenko. The concerts in Berlin, Salzburg, Lucerne and London were truly electrifying, its going to be a wonderful partnership, I’m sure! August 2018
Happy to be back in LA! We´re filming here for Sarah´s Music and I´m also lucky enough to be playing with the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl. Keep a look out for some great new episodes featuring the LA Phil, Gustavo Dudamel, Arturo Sandoval, the LA Street Symphony and the Lion of Salsa, Oscar D´Léon! August 2018
Back at the Pacific Music Festival! I’m back at the wonderful Pacific Music Festival in Sapporo, Japan. This year is a special one as we are celebrating the 100th birthday of PMF’s founder, Leonard Bernstein. I love this festival and the fact that the orchestra is made up of talented young musicians from all over the world. Music truly connects people for life! July 2018
Thank you Sir Simon! This was our last week with Sir Simon Rattle as chief conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic. I am terribly sad to see him go but he will stay living in Berlin and will also come back as a guest so we won´t lose him completely. Simon – you have been the best music director an orchestra could wish for. Looking forward to this final week of music making with Mahler 6 and the Waldbühne concert, thank you for these past 16 years! June 21st, 2018
Sarah’s Music won a prize! Thrilled to announce that Sarah´s Music won the bronze medal at the New York Festival Best TV and Film Awards in the category Music. We are really proud of this and will celebrate at our next shoot coming up in Alicante, Spain, next week! April 10th, 2018
Don´t miss the live Parsifal on the Digital Concert Hall! This is going to be very special…Sir Simon, fabulous singers and I just love the way the Berlin Phil play Wagner! Join us live on the DCH on Sunday, April 8th.
Berlin Philharmonic Easter Festival! Come to beautiful Baden Baden and join us for our annual Berlin Philharmonic Easter Festival! We´re performing Parsifal, great symphony concerts and lots of chamber music. Oh, and eating lots of cake too… come for a visit? March 19th, 2018
Horn Hangout Marathon! Five live Horn Hangouts in 6 days in 2 cities…this was definitely a first for me! My wonderful Horn Hangouts producer Tim Kelly (Handsome Tim) and I did three Hangouts in Chicago and two in New York and loved every minute of it! We´ll be posting the videos in the Horn Hangout archives as soon as we can, and also a little highlights video of the live masterclass in LA at the Colburn School, so watch this space! I feel positively horn hungover… Feb.10th, 2018
Hello New York! Team Horn Hangouts has arrived in New York for two special live Horn Hangouts, one from the Juilliard School with Julie Landsman, celebrating her legacy of teaching, and one with the phenomenal Chris Martin, principal trumpet of the New York Phil! Join us and join in here! Feb 8th & 9th, 2018
Thanks LA! Thanks to everyone in Los Angeles who made my time there so special! Andrew Bain, principal horn of the LA Phil for inviting me over to play with his orchestra and teach his Colburn horn class, everyone who took part in the wonderful horn concert and live masterclass (83 LA horns onstage at Colburn!) and to the legendary Arturo Sandoval for his live Horn Hangout, which you can now see on the Horn Hangouts page. Next stop: Berlin, Montreal, Chicago, New York, Miami and Havana. PHEW! Jan 21st, 2018
Hi from sunny Los Angeles! I´m so happy to be here – it´s a busy schedule with 2 weeks playing with the wonderful Los Angeles Philharmonic and also teaching at the Colburn School. We are holding two huge horn events – a horn concert on January 16 and a live streamed masterclass on the 17th, and also a Horn Hangout with trumpet legend Arturo Sandoval. Check out the Live page for details and see you either in person here in Downtown LA or online!
Happy New Year everyone! Looking forward to the first Horn Hangouts of the year, live from Los Angeles! January 17th and 20th, check out the Live page here on the website for details!
Horn Hangouts Guest List 2017/18 – Dear Horn Hangout friends, here, exclusively for you, is the guest list for the new season of Horn Hangouts! We have fabulous guests for you lined up, check out the Horn Hangout live page for more info and see you very soon online!
The Lucerne Festival Orchestra The latest Sarah´s Music episode features the wonderful Lucerne Festival Orchestra – an elite orchestra filled with great people, I hope you will have as much fun watching it as I had filming it!
Season 2017/18 at the Berlin Philharmonic! The new season at the Berlin Philharmonic is starting this week! It´s a back-to-school feeling after a wonderful summer, but a school that I really like to go to! We made you a little welcome-back video, have a look…Hope you can join us for lots of concerts either live here in Berlin or live on the Digital Concert Hall!
Pacific Music Festival 2017 I loved being part of the 2017 Pacific Music Festival in Sapporo, Japan. It´s such an inspiring festival and it´s wonderful to work with so many talented musicians from all over the world. I made a Sarah´s Music episode about PMF two years ago – watch it to see what we do here – kimonos, tea ceremonies…and lots of fantastic music! And here is how we horns cooled down during the hot Sapporo summer: Frozen!
The Latest Horn Hangout with Andrew Bain Check out the latest Horn Hangout with Andrew Bain of Star Wars fame here. We had such a fun time doing it and enjoyed our special cameo guest appearances…don´t miss this one! June 19th, 2017
The Markus Lanz Show June 8th, 2017
I really enjoyed being on the “Markus Lanz” show – a well known German talk show on ZDF TV. Watch it here in the Mediathek Mediathek And did Markus do the Horn Challenge…? Have a look…
The London Horn Flashmob May 30th,2017
We had so much fun! Thanks to the London Symphony Horns, the horns from the Band of the Coldstream Guards, all the other Household Division horns and everyone else who came down to the Barbican to join in. Was fantastic seeing you all and here is the video!
Musicians4UnitedEurope May 13th, 2017
If you are in Berlin on Sunday, May 14th, do join us, the Musicians4UnitedEurope, for a special fund-raising concert to show our support for the Pulse of Europe initiative. We are all passionately pro-Europe and are showing it the best way we know how – with music. Come and join us, all infos on our Facebook page.
Radovan Vlatković Horn Hangout April 24th, 2017
I loved the live Horn Hangout today with Radovan and Dinka Vlatković, hope you did too! It was fun to stream it on Facebook and see friend joining in from all over the world. If you missed it live, it´s here on the Horn Hangouts page, enjoy!
The Berlin Phil Live Lounge
April 9th, 2017 We were so happy that so many of you joined us and joined in at the annual Berlin Phil Live Lounge from Baden Baden. I really enjoyed hosting it and I´m sure you were agree, my guests were fabulous! If you missed it live, you can watch it here and our next live event will be the Horn Hangout with Radovan Vlatkovíc on April 24th, join us and join in!
First live Horn Hangout on the new website!
March 24th, 2017 – We streamed the first live Horn Hangout today on the new website with Tamás Velenczei as our guest and were so happy – firstly that Tamás was such a great guest but also that everything ran smoothly. Thanks to all of you who joined in – it was amazing to hear where you were all watching from – Australia, Afghanistan, China, Israel, South Africa, UK, USA to name a few. As always, the Hangout will up on the Horn Hangouts page as soon as possible so keep a look out for it.
The next live Horn Hangout will be with Radovan Vlatkovic on April 24th. Join us!
Welcome to my new website!
March 3rd, 2017 – welcome to my new website! I hadn’t quite realised just how many Horn Hangouts and Sarah’s Music episodes there were to organise so it’s taken longer than I realised to get the new website up and running – but it’s been great fun to have the chance to revisit the wonderful times I’ve had.
I hope you´ll have fun looking around the site, discovering new things and also rewatching some of your highlights. Do get in touch and let me know what you have found, what you enjoyed and what you would like to see here in the future.
Enjoy!!
Some of the new posts you may want to check out include the Horn Hangout from Gebr. Alexanders about how to care for your horn, the latest Sarah´s Music Episode about Zohra, the Afghan Women´s Orchestra and don´t miss the Sesame Street Horn Challenge!