About
Cheryl Frances-Hoad was born in Essex in 1980. Her music has been described as “like a declaration of faith in the eternal verities of composition” (The Times), with “a voice overflowing not only with ideas, but also with the discipline and artistry necessary to harness them” (The Scotsman). Her output, described by The Spectator as “intricate in argument, sometimes impassioned, sometimes mercurial, always compelling in its authority”, spans opera, ballet, concertos, songs, choral and chamber music.
Twice featured on BBC Radio 3’s Composer of the Week (Five under 35, 2015, and Choral Christmas, 2026), Cheryl has received numerous awards, from the BBC Lloyds Bank Composer of the Year award at the age of 15 to the Mendelssohn Scholarship, the Robert Helps Prize (USA), the Sun River Prize (China), the RPS Composition Prize, and three Ivor Novello Awards (formerly BASCA Composer Awards).
Cheryl has held positions as Leverhulme Musician in Residence at the University of Cambridge, Rambert Musician in Residence, and Opera North/Leeds University Cultural Fellow in Opera-Related Arts. She has also held visiting research fellowships at three Oxford colleges (Merton, Keble, and Oriel) and served as composer in residence at the Presteigne Festival, Oxford International Song Festival, Musikdorf Ernen (Switzerland), and Huanui Music (Guernsey). She received her education at the Yehudi Menuhin School, The University of Cambridge, and King’s College London.
She has released six acclaimed portrait CDs, and her music features on more than 40 recordings. Magic Lantern Tales, her 2018 album of vocal music featuring Nicky Spence, Mark Stone, and Sholto Kynoch, was praised by SWR2 Treffpunkt Klassik: “the longer you listen to this beautifully crafted CD (…) the deeper you fall under its spell”. Her 2011 chamber music album, The Glory Tree, was selected as BBC Music Magazine’s “Chamber Music Choice” and praised by The Guardian as “engagingly freewheeling”, noting that “[Frances-Hoad] is quite unselfconscious about the music she writes and oblivious to how others might categorise it”.
Recent works include Earth, Sea, Air, a cello concerto for Laura van der Heijden and the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra; A Spider’s Tapestry for Schola Cantorum of Oxford and the Raschèr Saxophone Quartet; a Missa Brevis for Wells Cathedral; and The Millipede is Walking for the International Guitar Festival.
Her work Your servant, Elizabeth, commissioned for the BBC’s Platinum Jubilee Prom at the Royal Albert Hall on 22 July 2022, was written for the BBC Singers and BBC Concert Orchestra. Paying homage to Queen Elizabeth II and William Byrd, it was named the highlight of the 2022 Proms season by Ivan Hewett in The Telegraph: “like all the best ‘classical music’, it was fresh and surprising, yet rooted in tradition, and gave plenty of hope that an embattled art form has plenty of life in it yet”.
Future commissions include a horn concerto for Ben Goldscheider, a new work for soprano Claire Booth, and a major new cantata for chorus and symphony orchestra. In 2027, Cheryl will be Composer in Residence at the Wyoming International Chamber Music Festival.
The music of Cheryl Frances-Hoad is published by Chester Music Limited, part of Wise Music Group.
