Holly Cook is a freelance musician who works regularly the UK and abroad, and performs on flutes and ethnic instruments. She enjoys a variety of work, including orchestral playing, chamber music, playing in bands and in the theatre. Holly has recently played on a range of flutes and whistles in ‘The City Waites’ with Lucie and Roddy Skeaping, in the onstage band in The Beggar’s Opera, staged at Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre (June – July 2011). Holly broadcast excerpts from The Beggar’s Opera on BBC Radio 3 in June 2011.

From September 2011, Holly has been awarded the position of the ‘Richard Carne Junior Fellow’ at Trinity College of Music, and is grateful to have been awarded a scholarship from the Richard Carne Trust to support this role. She will be furthering her research into ethnically inspired works for the flute, alto and bass flute, and commissioning and performing these works. Holly will continue to expand her repertoire on a range of ethnic instruments, and will be recording ethnic flute works during her Fellowship year. Holly’s work at Trinity will involve leading workshops and classes for flautists, percussionists and composers on music inspired by ethnic instruments, and she will be organising events to perform these works and promote new works. For more information see the Trinity Laban website.

Holly has given solo recital performances around the UK, including venues such as St Martin-in-the-Fields, Cheltenham Town Hall and Ely Cathedral. She has forthcoming recitals with the King’s Lynn Music Society, Wisbech Music Society and at the Barber Institute of Fine Arts, Birmingham in the 2011/2012 season. Holly has performed as a concerto soloist on a number of occasions, including playing Mozart Flute Concerto in D Major with the Jubilate Orchestra, Bach Brandenburg Concerto No.5 with the Brunelleschi Ensemble and the Nielsen Flute Concerto with Stamford Chamber Orchestra.

As an active chamber musician, Holly enjoys performing regularly with the Vesuvio Wind Quintet, Ayre Flutes and Syrinx Flute and Harp Duo. Holly has played at a number of festivals and venues, including a recent series of concerts in Saudi Arabia with the Vesuvio Wind Quintet (April 2011), the 6th Henri Tomasi Wind Quintet Competition in Marseilles (February 2011), the Park Lane Group Composers’ Symposium at the Royal Festival Hall, the British Flute Society Convention (2010, 2008), Boosey & Hawkes Celebration of British Woodwind Music at the Horniman Museum, the Deal Festival of Music and the Arts (2010) and the Chiddingly Festival (2009). Holly was also featured in an interview in Muso Magazine with Ayre Flutes in 2009.

Holly graduated with a Master's degree in which she was awarded a distinction in performance from Trinity College of Music in 2009. She studied flute with Anna Noakes and ethnic flutes with Tony Hinnigan and Andy Findon. As part of her studies she was awarded a Leverhulme Orchestral Mentorship with Ileana Ruheman, principal flautist of the BBC Concert Orchestra. Holly's specialist area of research and performance was ethnic flute music, completing a dissertation entitled 'Tsuru-no-Sugomori by Wil Offermans: Its History, Context and Value in the Contemporary Flute Repertoire'. Whilst studying, Holly was also awarded a Fellowship in performance and a Licentiate in flute teaching from Trinity College London and was a finalist in the Harold Clarke Woodwind Competition.

As a younger performer, Holly was Peterborough Young Musician of the Year in 2001, before commencing studies at Birmingham University the following year. She was the winner of the Birmingham University Concerto Competition in 2005 and performed the Nielsen Flute Concerto at the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra Centre with the Birmingham University Symphony Orchestra.

Holly has gratefully received scholarships from the Richard Carne Trust, the Leverhulme Trust, EMI Sound Foundation, the Elizabeth Wright Charitable Trust, Trinity College of Music and the Fidelio Trust (with the Vesuvio Wind Quintet).

As well as playing the flute, Holly also enjoys oil painting and sketching.