1 Dec 2021
Materials PhD student awarded LU Arts Scholarship
Sarah Woods, who is studying for a PhD in the Department of Materials, has been awarded a 2021/22 LU Arts Scholarship for music.
Scholarship winners are selected based on their ability, passion, commitment and potential in their chosen art form. The winners come from a variety of subject areas and backgrounds, including undergraduate and postgraduate study.
Sarah has been selected specifically for singing; she has been doing singing lessons with the ambition of completing her grade 8 musical theatre exam next year. She hopes that the scholarship will help her to build up her confidence and give her more opportunities to perform.
At the age of 11, Sarah watched the Abraham Darby school band perform and was inspired to play an instrument. She gained grade 5 in clarinet, saxophone and singing, and participated in many of the school bands. Whilst in the Abraham Darby Showband she performed at the Birmingham Symphony Hall, the Royal festival hall and the Royal Albert Hall in London and participated in the International wind band festival in Carnegie Hall in New York winning the gold award. She also attended Telford stage school, was in school productions of Grease as Teen Angel and Bugsy Malone as Tallulah and finished college with A levels in dance, music, and theatre studies.
After deciding not to pursue music as a career she worked in a variety of different jobs before starting the Foundation in Science and Engineering course as a mature student at Loughborough University. Some musical activities that she took part in after finishing college include being a backing vocalist in a ‘Pink’ tribute band, playing clarinet for the band of the Mercian Regiment and being a part of the LSU sing society.
During the coronavirus lockdowns, she started to play clarinet again and recently joined the LSU classical society.
