Toby Cook, Viola

Toby Cook performs internationally as a chamber musician and soloist, recently including at Kings Place London, Elbphilharmonie Hamburg and Philharmonie Berlin. He was awarded the Barbirolli Prize at the Lionel Tertis International Viola Competition 2019 and the Len Lickorish Memorial Prize at the Royal Overseas League International Strings Competition 2022.

Toby studied with Lawrence Power at the Zurich University of Arts, Tabea Zimmermann at the Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler Berlin, and with Juan-Miguel Hernandez and Garfield Jackson at the Royal Academy of Music in London, where he began in the Primary and Junior Royal Academy departments with Jacky Woods and Clare Thompson as a young boy. Alongside his studies he has had the pleasure of receiving masterclasses from artists including Ettore Causa, Pekka Kuusisto and Nobuko Imai, and collaborating with composers such as Garth Knox and Vasilis Alevizos on their new works, with premiere performances in the UK and Luxembourg..

An avid chamber musician, Toby is a founding member of Ensemble Textura, a Berlin-based experimental string ensemble. He has performed alongside musicians of the Berlin Philharmonic and clarinettist Matthew Hunt at HellensMusic festival, Tabea Zimmermann at the Laeiszhalle Hamburg, Gary Hoffman and Antje Weithaas at Kronberg Academy’s ‘Chamber Music Connects the World’, Claudio Martínez Mehner and Christoph Poppen in Santander, members of the ARC ensemble at the Music of Exile Festival in Toronto, Canada, and regularly participates in the Open Chamber Music Seminar at Prussia Cove.

Toby is also a passionate pedagogue and is a member of the European String Teachers’ Association, with whom he appeared at conferences at the European Parliament in Strasbourg and in Valletta, Europe’s ‘Cultural Capital’ 2018.