Verity Sharp (born 1970) is an English television and radio presenter.

Early life

Sharp grew up in Somerset. After studying at

Dartington College of Arts Dartington College of Arts was a specialist arts college located at Dartington Hall in the south-west of England, offering courses at degree and postgraduate level together with an arts research programme. It existed for a period of almost 50 ...

, she read music at the

University of York The University of York (abbreviated as or ''York'' for Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a public Collegiate university, collegiate research university in York, England. Established in 1963, the university has expanded to more than thir ...

and studied composition. During these years, she did some acting, performed music, and studied languages, including French.

Presenting career

Sharp moved to London after graduating in 1992, and began working for Radio 3 in 1993, the year she had planned to start a post-graduate degree at the Guildhall School of Music. She trained as a producer, and from 1997 regularly produced and presented

Pebble Mill Pebble Mill Studios was the BBC's television studio complex located in Edgbaston, Birmingham, England, United Kingdom, which served as the headquarters for BBC Birmingham from 1971 until 2004. The nine-acre site was opened by Princess Anne on ...

's ''Music Machine'', a 15-minute music programme primarily intended for children. A year later, she was hosting the contemporary music show ''Hear And Now''. In 2001, the eclectic late-night music programme ''

Late Junction ''Late Junction'' is a music programme broadcast weekly on Friday nights by BBC Radio 3. Billed as "Journeys in music, ancient to future. The home for adventurous listeners.", the programme has a wide musical scope. It is not uncommon to hear me ...

'', which she presented at that time in alternation with

Fiona Talkington Fiona Talkington is a broadcaster, writer, presenter, and curator. She has been a presenter on BBC Radio 3 since 1989. She was a founding presenter (1999) of the music programme Late Junction. BBC For BBC Radio 3, Talkington has presented and pro ...

and

Max Reinhardt Max Reinhardt (; born Maximilian Goldmann; 9 September 1873 – 30 October 1943) was an Austrian-born Theatre director, theatre and film director, theater manager, intendant, and theatrical producer. With his radically innovative and avant-gard ...

, won her the Silver

Sony Radio Academy Award The Radio Academy Awards, started in 1983, were the most prestigious awards in the British radio industry. For most of their existence, they were run by ZAFER Associates, but in latter years were brought under the control of The Radio Academy ...

for ''Music Broadcaster of the Year'' – a "very proud moment for the team after three years of very hard work". On 21 March 2013, at the end of that evening's edition of programme, she formally announced that she was to cease being one of its regular presenters in order to pursue "a few more musical dreams". She has since become a regular presenter again. Since autumn 2019 when it moved to a single weekly show, she has alternated presentation duties with Jennifer Lucy Allan. She was also one of the presenters of ''

The Culture Show ''The Culture Show'' is a British magazine programme about books, art, film, architecture, music, visual fashion and the performing arts. The show was broadcast weekly on BBC Two between 2004 and 2015. Early history Launched in November 2004, th ...

'' on BBC2, and also presents ''Slow Radio'' on

BBC Sounds BBC Sounds is an Over-the-top media service, over-the-top audio streaming media, streaming and download service from the BBC that includes live radio broadcasts, Streaming media, audio on demand, and podcasts. The service is available on a wide ...

Music interest

It was from her student years that she acquired a taste for non-Western music. Although her training was in classical cello she later took up the

fiddle A fiddle is a Bow (music), bowed String instrument, string musical instrument, most often a violin or a bass. It is a colloquial term for the violin, used by players in all genres, including European classical music, classical music. Althou ...

and turned to traditional music. In 2013, she narrated the

BBC Four BBC Four is a British free-to-air Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It was launched on 2 March 2002

documentary ''How to Be a World Music Star: Buena Vista, Bhundu Boys and Beyond''.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sharp, Verity 1970 births Alumni of the University of York BBC Radio 3 presenters British radio presenters British women radio presenters British television presenters British women television presenters British fiddlers Living people Alumni of Dartington College of Arts