Sara Mohr-Pietsch (; born 1980) is a British music broadcaster who works principally for

BBC Radio 3 BBC Radio 3 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It replaced the BBC Third Programme in 1967 and broadcasts classical music and opera, with jazz, world music, drama, culture and the arts also featuring. The sta ...

Early life and education

Mohr-Pietsch was born in

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

to a mother of Polish and a father of German descent. She sang in her school's

choral society A choir ( ; also known as a chorale or chorus) is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral music, in turn, is the music written specifically for such an ensemble to perform. Choirs may perform music from the classical music repertoire, which sp ...

and took the role of Aeneas in a school production of ''

Dido and Aeneas ''Dido and Aeneas'' (Z. 626) is an opera in a prologue and three acts, written by the English Baroque composer Henry Purcell with a libretto by Nahum Tate. The dates of the composition and first performance of the opera are uncertain. It was com ...

''. After school, she studied music at

Newnham College, Cambridge Newnham College is a women's constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college was founded in 1871 by a group organising Lectures for Ladies, members of which included philosopher Henry Sidgwick and suffragist campaigner Millic ...

(1998–2001), where she was the first ever Newnham Choral Scholar in Selwyn College's Chapel Choir. After gaining a first-class degree, she studied for an MA at the

University of Edinburgh The University of Edinburgh ( sco, University o Edinburgh, gd, Oilthigh Dhùn Èideann; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in post-nominals) is a public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Granted a royal charter by King James VI in 1 ...

, subsequently becoming a tutor, a post she retained until 2006.

Career

While based in Edinburgh, Mohr-Pietsch embarked on a career in

arts administration The arts are a very wide range of human practices of creative expression, storytelling and cultural participation. They encompass multiple diverse and plural modes of thinking, doing and being, in an extremely broad range of media. Both hi ...

and began to broadcast on Radio 3, winning a BBC talent contest in 2004. After moving back to London, her involvement with the network became more extensive. She became a regular presenter of the network’s ''Breakfast'' programme in 2007. Her fortnightly stretches alternated with those of

Petroc Trelawny James Edward Petroc Trelawny (born 27 May 1971) is a British classical music radio and television broadcaster. Since 1998 he has been a presenter on BBC Radio 3. Career James Edward Petroc Trelawny was born in Worcester and grew up in the Meneag ...

; previously

Rob Cowan Rob Cowan (born 14 April 1948) is an English music broadcaster and writer. Employed by music publisher Boosey & Hawkes for nineteen years in various capacities, his first record review was published in 1967.

was the other regular presenter. In addition, she presents (with others) the contemporary music programme ''Hear and Now''. Mohr-Pietsch began to present

The Proms The BBC Proms or Proms, formally named the Henry Wood Promenade Concerts Presented by the BBC, is an eight-week summer season of daily orchestral classical music concerts and other events held annually, predominantly in the Royal Albert Hal ...

in 2008 on Radio 3, and on television for the BBC. At the beginning of December 2013,

Clemency Burton-Hill Clemency Margaret Greatrex Burton-Hill (born 1981) is an English broadcaster, author, novelist, journalist and violinist. In her early career she also worked as an actress. In January 2020 she suffered an AVM brain haemorrhage and underwent eme ...

replaced her on ''Breakfast''. Mohr-Pietsch regularly presents Radio 3's ''The Choir'', and the ''Discovering Music'' series, particularly in programmes on

Johann Sebastian Bach Johann Sebastian Bach (28 July 1750) was a German composer and musician of the late Baroque period. He is known for his orchestral music such as the '' Brandenburg Concertos''; instrumental compositions such as the Cello Suites; keyboard wo ...

, whom she greatly admires and has studied extensively;

early music Early music generally comprises Medieval music (500–1400) and Renaissance music (1400–1600), but can also include Baroque music (1600–1750). Originating in Europe, early music is a broad musical era for the beginning of Western classi ...

is another interest. She is also a singer and

pianist A pianist ( , ) is an individual musician who plays the piano. Since most forms of Western music can make use of the piano, pianists have a wide repertoire and a wide variety of styles to choose from, among them traditional classical music, ja ...

and plays the

viola da gamba The viol (), viola da gamba (), or informally gamba, is any one of a family of bowed, fretted, and stringed instruments with hollow wooden bodies and pegboxes where the tension on the strings can be increased or decreased to adjust the pitch ...

– "incredibly badly" in her own words. In November 2018, the Dartington Hall Trust announced that Mohr-Pietsch had been appointed as the artistic director of the Dartington International Summer School and Festival. She will curate her first festival in 2020, in succession to Joanna MacGregor.

Voice

Writing in ''

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally. It was f ...

'' in 2007,

Michael Henderson Michael Earl Henderson (July 7, 1951 – July 19, 2022) was an American bass guitarist and vocalist. He was known for his work with Miles Davis in the early 1970s and on early fusion albums such as '' Jack Johnson'', '' Live-Evil'', and '' Ag ...

found it "inconceivable that Sarah Mohr-Pietsch, with her dropped aitches and glottal stops, would have been let loose on adio 3even 10 years ago." In 2016, the ''

Radio Times ''Radio Times'' (currently styled as ''RadioTimes'') is a British weekly listings magazine devoted to television and radio Radio is the technology of signaling and communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves ...

'' described her as having "one of Radio 3’s most reassuring voices. Such clarity, such warmth."

Charity work

In support of

Red Nose Day Comic relief is the inclusion of a humorous character, scene, or witty dialogue in an otherwise serious work, often to relieve tension. Definition Comic relief usually means a releasing of emotional or other tension resulting from a comic episo ...

2013, Mohr-Pietsch set herself the challenge of learning eight notes on the

cello The cello ( ; plural ''celli'' or ''cellos'') or violoncello ( ; ) is a bowed (sometimes plucked and occasionally hit) string instrument of the violin family. Its four strings are usually tuned in perfect fifths: from low to high, C2, G2, ...

in seven days, as part of a comic rendition of

Pachelbel's Canon Pachelbel's Canon (also known as the Canon in D, P 37) is an accompanied canon by the German Baroque composer Johann Pachelbel. The canon was originally scored for three violins and basso continuo and paired with a gigue, known as ''Canon and ...

References

External links

mohrpietsch.com
Official website {{DEFAULTSORT:Mohr-Pietsch, Sara 1980 births Living people Alumni of Newnham College, Cambridge Alumni of the University of Edinburgh BBC Radio 3 presenters