Chris Hoyle
Head of School of Strings
GRNCM, PPRNCM
Email: [email protected]
Chris Hoyle has enjoyed a long career on the concert platform and in the teaching studio. He has embraced the variety of orchestral playing, chamber music performance, solo playing and teaching. These activities have taken him around the world.
He has worked with many of the UK’s finest orchestras and was a member of the BBC Philharmonic for 23 years, frequently broadcasting for radio and TV and performing in over 100 BBC Proms at London’s Royal Albert Hall. He particularly enjoyed the touring life, giving concerts around Europe, the Americas and the Far East. Amongst many striking venues, he recalls performing in the Sahara desert for the King of Morocco!
As Head of Strings at the Royal Northern College of Music, he enjoys working with students, enabling them to reach their maximum potential and finding their niche in today’s professional world.
He believes that the RNCM School of Strings should be an ambitious and supportive community in which staff and students flourish. When time allows, he enjoys performing alongside students and colleagues.
He fondly remembers his own studies there, highlights of which were winning the RNCM’s Concerto Prize leading to his performance of Britten’s Cello Symphony and his BBC Masterclass appearance with Paul Tortelier. He performed Schnittke’s Cello Sonata to the composer as part of the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival.
He was brought up in the great traditions of the French cello playing school, learning with Alexander Baillie and Peter Worrall, themselves students of André Navarra; with Raphael Sommer, himself a student of Paul Tortelier; with Maud Tortelier, herself a student of Pierre Fournier, and with Paul Tortelier, himself a student of Louis Feuillard and collaborator with Pablo Casals.
He is keen to pass on this learning to the next generation of cellists.
