Toby Cook

Bio

Currently studying with Tabea Zimmermann at the Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler Berlin, Toby Cook regularly performs in venues across Europe, recently including the Santander and Tibor Varga music festivals. He is a holder of the ‘Ottilie-Selbach-Redslob’ and ‘Yehudi Menuhin Live Music Now Berlin e.V’ scholarships and was a semi-finalist in the 2019 Lionel Tertis International Viola Competition, receiving the Barbirolli prize.

Toby has received masterclasses from artists such as Nils Mönkemeyer, Pekka Kuusisto and Máté Szücs and has had the opportunity to collaborate with numerous composers on new works, including Garth Knox and Thomas Jones.

An avid chamber musician, Toby plays in a number of ensembles and has twice the performed with musicians from the Berlin Philharmonic and clarinetist Matthew Hunt at HellensMusic festival, as well as with Claudio Mehner in Santander and with members of the ARC ensemble at the ‘Music of Exile’ festival in Toronto, Canada.

As an orchestral musician, Toby has often played under acclaimed conductors such as Manfred Honeck and Gianandrea Noseda, and was a member of the European Union Youth Orchestra 2018, appearing on numerous radio and television broadcasts.

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.