Christopher Hooley began his viola studies at the Chethams School of Music in Manchester, where he studied with Rudolf Botta and Jackie Leonard. He also studied at the Royal Northern College of Music under the guidance of Nobuko Imai, Rusen Gunes and Eli Goren. He has participated in string quartet training courses under the direction of the Lindsey, Vermeer and La Salle quartets at the Britten-Pears School of Music in Aldeburgh. Alongside his studies in Manchester, he was part of the Youth Orchestra of the European Community, under the direction of Claudio Abbado, Georg Solti and Daniel Barenboim.

In 2003, he began to study baroque violin with Richard Gwilt of the London Baroque Orchestra, and later with the Academy of Ancient Music in Lisbon.  He has participated in the International Courses of Early Music at the Convento de Cristo, Tomar, under the direction of Richard Gwilt, Rainer Zipperling, Ketil Haugesand, Ana Mafalda Castro and Jill Feldman. He has also studied with Enrico Onofri. He plays a 1780 William Forster violin and a Dorfino viola (ca. 1910). He has played viola with the Gulbenkian Orchestra since 1988.

 

January 2010