Cheryl Frances-Hoad facts for kids

Cheryl Ann Frances-Hoad, born in 1980, is a talented British composer. She writes many different kinds of music.

Early Life and Education

Cheryl Ann Frances-Hoad started writing music when she was just eight years old. At that time, she was also learning to play the cello and piano at the famous Yehudi Menuhin School. She later went to Gonville and Caius College at Cambridge University. There, she earned top grades in 2001. She also completed a special master's degree in music composition with high honors.

Musical Works and Performances

Cheryl has created music for two ballets. These ballets were choreographed by Lynn Seymour and Geoffrey Cauley. One of her ballets was even performed by the Scottish Ballet in London. Many important groups have asked her to write music. These include the BBC, the Manchester International Cello Festival, and the Almeida Festival.

In 2000, the Cambridge Music Festival asked her to write a piece. This music honored the 250th anniversary of Johann Sebastian Bach's death. The Cambridge University Chamber Orchestra performed it. In 2001, her first chamber opera, broken lines: sonata for opera, was performed for the first time.

In 2002, two more of her works had their first performances. One was for the Spitalfields Festival. The other was a piano trio for the London Mozart Trio at the Wigmore Hall. Later that year, another piece for solo cello was premiered at the Wigmore Hall. She also received a request for music from the Zurich Chamber Orchestra.

Cheryl was one of six composers chosen for an opera project called Family Matters. This opera was based on a play by Beaumarchais. Workshops for the opera took place in 2003. The full opera was staged in February 2004. In June 2005, her song cycle The Glory Tree was performed. This work was inspired by ancient rituals and sung in Old English.

Her opera Amy's Last Dive was composed in 2012. In 2014, her piece Quark Dances was performed by the Rambert Dance Company. Two of her works were premiered at the BBC Proms in 2017. These were Ein Feste Burg and From the Beginning of the World. In 2018, Last Man Standing, a 30-minute piece for a singer and orchestra, was performed by the BBC Symphony Orchestra.

In 2022, Scenes from the Wild, a long song cycle, was performed by the City of London Sinfonia. Also that year, her short piece Your servant, Elizabeth was first heard at the BBC Proms on July 22. In May 2023, the cellist Laura van der Heijden performed Cheryl's Cello Concerto for the first time. The BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra played with her.

In 2023, King's College, Cambridge, asked Cheryl to write a new Christmas carol. This carol, called The Cradle, was performed at the famous Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols on Christmas Eve.

Awards and Scholarships

Cheryl Ann Frances-Hoad has won many awards for her music. These include the Purcell Composition Prize and the Bach Choir Carol Competition. She also won the BBC Young Composers Workshop in 1996.

She received the Mendelssohn Scholarship in 2002. She also won the Bliss Prize and the Harriet Cohen Award in the same year. Other awards came from Cambridge University and other trusts.

In February 2006, she won the $10,000 Robert Helps Prize for her piece My fleeting Angel. After this, she became a Composer-in-Residence at the University of South Florida for a week. There, she taught students and gave a lecture about her work.

After winning the Cheltenham Festival Commission, her piece My Day in Hell was performed for the first time at the Cheltenham Festival.

Albums

• The Glory Tree: Chamber Works, Champs Hill Records (2011). This album has eight pieces written between 1999 and 2008.
• You Promised Me Everything, Champs Hill Records (2014). This album features her vocal works.
• Stolen Rhythm, Champs Hill Records (2017). This album includes orchestral and chamber pieces.
• Even You Song, First Hand Records (2017). This is a work for choir and organ.
• Magic Lantern Tales, Champs Hill Records (2018). This album contains songs.
• The Whole Earth Dances, Champs Hill Records (2020). This album has nine chamber works from 1998 to 2018.