Biography
Cheryl Frances-Hoad graduated from Gonville and Caius College with a triple 1 st in 2001 and an Mphil (with Distinction) in Composition (studying with Professor Robin Holloway), also at Cambridge . She has just been awarded a PhD (in Musical Composition) from Kings College London, studying with Dr. Silvina Milstein and George Benjamin. She began composing at the age of eight while studying 'cello and piano at the Yehudi Menuhin School, and since then has won many prizes, including the Purcell Composition Prize, The Bach Choir Carol Competition, the BBC Young Composers Workshop 1996, the Cambridge Composer's Competition, the Birmingham Conservatoire Composition Competition, the Robert Helps Prize, the International String Orchestra Composition Competition and the Royal Philharmonic Society Composition Prize. She has recently won the Music Commission from Wicklow County Council's "Per Cent for Arts Scheme" and will write a piano concerto for Bobby Chen and the Greystones Orchestra, to be premiered in Wicklow in 2009. Her commissions include works for the BBC, the Surrey Philharmonic, the Manchester International 'Cello Festival, the Chard Festival of Women in Music, the Bass Club, Bass Fest and the Almeida Festival, and her music has been featured on BBC2, ITV, Radio 3 and Classic FM.