Q&A: Sarah Burnett

SB: I come from a rural community in south-west Scotland, where music is definitely not the thing, but I was completely addicted to BBC Young Musician. It was my only exposure to young people playing music at such a high standard and I was captivated. I knew I wanted to play a woodwind instrument. We had a family friend who was qualifying as a GP and decided he was going to buy himself a sports car or new bassoon. He bought the bassoon, and so I got his old one and just took to it like a duck to water. I was very fortunate. He started me off a wee bit and then I moved to the local peri teacher, who was incredibly supportive. I’d only been playing for a few months before he had me auditioning for the National Youth Orchestra (NYO), Chetham's School of Music, and Douglas Academy in Glasgow. I was completely out of my depth, but I got into all of them. I couldn't read tenor clef, I was about Grade 5, but they clearly saw something in me. So, aged 12, I went off to Chetham's and joined NYO, which was the first orchestra I’d ever seen in person. We played Shostakovich 5, and I still remember the tingles and being utterly overwhelmed and lost. But then I got the bug – and here we are!