Chris Orton

Professor of Recorder

HonBC, AdvPGDip (Prof Perf) BMus (Hons) Dalcroze Professional Certificate (DEIEB)

Email: [email protected]

Chris Orton is a recorder player, Dalcroze Eurhythmics teacher and conductor with an extensive international career in both performance and music education. He holds teaching positions at the Royal Northern College of Music, Chetham’s School of Music, and the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, and serves as Musical Director of the National Youth Recorder Orchestra.

Chris studied recorder, viola, and composition at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire under Ross Winters and Annabel Knight, before taking further lessons with Anneke Boeke in Amsterdam. He subsequently pursued orchestral conducting with Jordi Mora at the Escola Superior de Música de Catalunya (ESMUC) in Barcelona, and in 2017 completed his Dalcroze Eurhythmics teaching certificate, having studied principally with Bethan Habron-James in Manchester.

His performance career spans solo recitals, chamber music, music theatre and orchestral collaboration. He has performed with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and early music ensemble Ex Cathedra, and is a member of the Spanish recorder quartet and music theatre group Windu, with whom he performs music theatre entirely from memory. His commitment to contemporary music is reflected in solo recordings dedicated to the music of Thomas Simaku, Michal Pawelek and Sören Sieg.

A committed advocate for new music, Chris has worked to introduce the recorder to student and professional composers across Europe, with projects at the RNCM, the University of York, the Krakow Academy of Music and ESMUC. He has given solo recitals at contemporary music festivals in Amsterdam, Kraków and Huddersfield, and has been repeatedly invited to festivals in Israel, Lithuania, Australia, Singapore and throughout Europe. In July 2026 he delivers a keynote presentation at ORDA Amsterdam on teaching and motivating teenage musicians.

His competition record includes 1st Prize at the Moeck/SRP International Solo Recorder Competition (2007), a £20,000 BBC Performing Arts Fund Bursary (2007), 2nd Prize, Prix du Jury and the Gaudeamus Prize at the International Krzysztof Penderecki Competition for Contemporary Music (2006), and the Silver Medal of the Worshipful Company of Musicians (2004). In 2004 he became the first recorder player to win the Symphony Hall Recital Competition, giving the instrument’s debut solo recital in Birmingham’s Symphony Hall, and as a student was the inaugural recipient of the Biddy Baxter and John Hosier Music Trust Award (2003).

Alongside his performing life, Chris has built a substantial career in music education. In addition to his conservatoire posts, he conducts the Junior RNCM Chamber Orchestra, and is the founding conductor of the Junior RNCM Wind Orchestra. He taught for ten years with Manchester Music Service, delivering first-access and music and movement programmes in primary and secondary schools, served as Assistant Musical Director of Stockport Youth Orchestra from 2014 to 2021, and previously conducted the Birmingham Schools’ Recorder Sinfonia for Birmingham Music Service.