Waterbaby – Sarah Smout

Waterbaby invites us on a personal and global journey exploring our fragile and intrinsic relationships with water. Combining her soulful poetry, mesmerising vocals and live-looped cello soundscapes, Sarah captivates and tugs at the heart. With stories from her voyages by boat to Iceland, Shetland, the Faroes and the Uists, and over land to waters around her northern UK home, Sarah shares personal experiences of how water has shaped her life. Waterbaby is a plea for the future of the planet by returning to the ocean that cradled us all as we were waiting to breathe; humming with atmosphere, carrying the voices of people, places and beings who need to be heard, encapsulating the urgency for connection, healing, and experience with nature.

About the speaker

Sarah Smout is an environmental artist whose work transcends traditional boundaries, weaving together nature, creativity, and activism to provoke thought and inspire change. Combining her unique use of live-looped cello soundscapes, ethereal vocals and soulful poetry, she creates a transportive and mesmerising world leaving audiences captivated and spell-bound, ready to take action for the planet. Her music has been played on the BBC’s Radio 2, Introducing and Look North programmes, and she has worked with Greenpeace, COP26 and Yorkshire Wildlife Trust, with many ongoing cross-arts, science and community projects.

Prior to her solo career launching in 2019, she toured and recorded internationally with artists for over a decade. Now, Sarah makes every effort to tour via land and sea, in order to keep her negative impact on the planet to a minimum. Sarah has embarked on epic sea voyages to places such as the Hebrides, Orkney, Shetland, the Faroes and Iceland to record natural sounds, travel slowly, and collect stories from the people, flora and fauna she encounters. 2025 sees her biggest adventure to date, set to take place around Svalbard, a frontier of climate change.

Sarah’s deep care for the planet resonates through her compositions, encapsulating the urgent need for connection, healing, and experience with nature.

This event has been organised as part of the Society’s Regional Theatres Programme which aims to inform and inspire the public about the diverse world of geography.

Booking information 

Advance booking for this event is required. Tickets are £14, and £10 for RGS-IBG members. To book tickets, please visit Stamford Arts Centre's website. If you require assistance with your booking, please call Stamford Arts Centre's box office at 01780 763 203.