Just for the recorder – Chris is the best

We think of the simple recorder as just that – the basic instrumenton which generations of children have learned to play music.

Think again. In the hands of a virtuoso like Christopher Orton it is a world-beater.

To prove it, Chris, who works for Manchester Music Service, became the first British winner of the world's most prestigious recorder competition in the world AND won a £20,000 BBC Fame Academy bursary.

On November 11 Chris won the Moeck/SRP International Solo Recorder Competition, held every two years in London.

It has helped cement Chris's reputation as one of the leading players of his generation. He was commended for his contemporary music and use of electronics.

Said Chris: "The competition is very tough. You play for 50 minutes giving the full range of the instrument, playing seven or eight pieces of substantial work."

He also teaches violin and viola for Manchester Music Service but says that within music education the recorder is still the instrument that gives children a good start - and most musicians would have played it early on.

Chris decided to develop his recorder playing after being inspired by a recorder player at a concert at the Wigmore Hall in London when he was 13.

Although basic instruments cost just £6 or £7, Chris has his specially made and can cost up to £3,000.

His Fame Academy bursary will be granted over two years, with half being used to buy new instruments and the rest to develop new repertoire for the recorder. Chris also intends to use some of the money to help set up a recorder project in his work for Manchester Music Service.

Chris, aged 26, originally from Surrey but now living in Chorlton,Manchester, is also giving masterclasses to composers and teachers in the Krakow Academy of Music in Poland and holding a masterclass in contemporary music and performance at Birmingham Conservatoire in January.

With Piers Moth, Chris, also holds recorder workshops in schools as part of the Manchester Music Service Workshop Programme.

He has appeared live twice on BBC Radio 3's "In Tune."

The Executive Member for Children's Services, Coun Sheila Newman, said: "Congratulations to Chris on his world first and his BBC bursary. He is an inspiration to the many children he has taught in Manchester and a musician who can only add to the city's musical reputation. He is proving that music making can reach the heady heights with an instrument that many of us might think is just a bridge to more complex ones. Chris also shows once again that in Manchester we never cease to amaze."

Media contacts:

Dave Hulme, tel: 0161 234 4610

Jane Lemon, tel: 0161 234 3179