Toby Cook

Tillett Debut Artists 2023

Toby Cook performs internationally as a soloist and chamber musician, recently including at the ‘Gstaad Menuhin’, ‘Schiermonnikoog’ and 'Rome Chamber Music' Festivals. He is a Tillett Trust and Villa Musica artist, winner of the Małopolska competition, the Barbirolli Prize at the Lionel Tertis International Viola Competition and the Len Lickorish Memorial Prize at the Royal Overseas League International Strings Competition, and ‘DMR Stipendienprogramms 2022 im Rahmen von NEUSTART KULTUR’, ‘Deutschen Stiftung Musikleben’, ‘Ottilie-Selbach-Redslob’ and ‘Yehudi Menuhins Live Music Now Berlin e.V.’ stipendiat.

Based between Berlin, London and Zurich, Toby currently studies with Lawrence Power at the Zurich University of Arts, having completed his masters degree with Tabea Zimmermann at the Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler Berlin, and Bachelor degree with Juan-Miguel Hernandez and Garfield Jackson at the Royal Academy of Music in London. He began as a young student in the Primary and Junior Royal Academy departments with Jacky Woods and Clare Thompson. Alongside his studies he has received masterclasses from international artists including Ettore Causa, Pekka Kuusisto and Nobuko Imai and attended numerous academies including the Seiji Ozawa International Academy, HellensMusic Festival and the International Musicians Seminar at Prussia Cove. In recent years he has collaborate with composers including Garth Knox, Vasilis Alevizos and Thomas Jones on their new works, with performances in London and at the Agora Music Festival in Luxembourg.

An avid chamber musician, Toby is a member of the Feguro string quartet, and has played with the 12, Seida and 4|12 ensembles, as well as with musicians of the Berlin Philharmonic and clarinettist Matthew Hunt at HellensMusic festival, with Tabea Zimmermann at the Laeiszhalle Hamburg, with Claudio Martínez Mehner and Christoph Poppen in Santander, and with members of the ARC ensemble at the Music of Exile Festival in Toronto, Canada, amongst others. He participated in all three sessions of Open Chamber Music at Prussia Cove this Autumn, performing in local venues.

Toby is passionate about teaching and is a member of the European String Teachers’ Association, with whom he performed at conferences at the European Parliament in Strasbourg, and in Valletta, Europe’s cultural capital in 2018.