Valerie Pitts

Who is Valerie Pitts?

Valerie Pitts, Lady Solti, is the widow of Sir Georg Solti. She was one of the BBC's original team of television presenters during the 1950s. She left the programme in 1960 to marry James Sargent who was stage manager of the Sadler's Wells Opera Company. She also worked at Granada Television.

She had met Solti in September 1964 when she interviewed him, fortuitously, as a last minute alternative to replace a missing news item. Solti pursued her romantically and finally persuaded her to leave her husband. They married in 1967, and had two daughters, Gabrielle and Claudia. She appeared on children's television, as a presenter of Play School and then at Granada a series for older children, ExtraOrdinary, which involved strange-but-true stories from science and the arts. She gave up her career as a presenter, though she continued to appear occasionally on television and worked with Solti for various charities.

Lady Solti is the patroness of the World Orchestra for Peace, which her husband founded and whose first concert at the United Nations he conducted. In addition, she has devoted time to other cultural organizations, including the Sadler’s Wells Theatre Trust, the Mariinsky Theatre Trust, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Musica Nel Chiostro, Battignano Italy, the Hungarian Cultural Centre, Liszt Academy, and the W11 Opera children's opera company in London.