Cheryl Frances-Hoad

Cheryl Ann Frances-Hoad (born 1980) is a British composer. Early life Frances-Hoad began composing at the age of eight while studying cello and piano at the Yehudi Menuhin School. She graduated from Gonville and Caius College (Cambridge University) with a Double 1st in 2001 and an MPhil (with Distinction) in Composition, also at Cambridge. Composer She has had two ballets choreographed by Lynn Seymour and Geoffrey Cauley; the second was performed by Scottish Ballet in the Britten Theatre, London. Her commissions include works for the BBC, the Surrey Philharmonic, the Manchester International Cello Festival, the Chard Festival of Women in Music, the Bass Club, Bass Fest and the Almeida Festival. In 2000 the Cambridge Music Festival commissioned a work to commemorate the 250th anniversary of Bach’s death, which was performed by the Cambridge University Chamber Orchestra and conducted by Nicholas Daniel. In November 2001 Frances-Hoad had her first chamber opera, broken lines: sonata for opera, premiered by the New Cambridge Opera Group, as part of the Britten@25 Festival, with generous funding from the R.V.W. Trust. June 2002 saw two premieres: the Spitalfields Festival commission (a