About
Chris Orton is an internationally acclaimed recorder player and teacher, with a distinguished career spanning performance and music education. He holds teaching positions at the Royal Northern College of Music, Chetham’s School of Music and Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, and is Musical Director of the National Youth Recorder Orchestra.
A prize-winning soloist, Chris won 1st Prize at the Moeck/SRP International Solo Recorder Competition (2007) and received a £20,000 BBC Performing Arts Fund Bursary. His accolades also include the Gaudeamus Prize and Prix du Jury at the International Krzysztof Penderecki Competition for Contemporary Music, and the Silver Medal of the Worshipful Company of Musicians. In 2004, he became the first recorder player to win the Symphony Hall Recital Competition, subsequently giving the instrument’s debut solo recital at Birmingham’s Symphony Hall.
Chris has performed with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and Ex Cathedra, and is a member of the Spanish recorder quartet Windu. A passionate advocate for contemporary music, he has premiered and recorded new works and collaborated with composers across Europe. He has been invited to teach, adjudicate and perform at major international recorder festivals in Israel, Australia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Germany, Singapore and Hong Kong, among others, and delivered a keynote presentation at ORDA Amsterdam in 2026.
Chris studied at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, with further studies in Amsterdam and Barcelona.
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