He has been a student in private lessons and masterclasses of such distinguished flautists as James Galway, Susan Milan, Peter-Lukas Graf, Atarah Ben-Tovim, Graham Mayger and Peter Lloyd. He freelanced with BBC orchestras, appearing as a concerto soloist and broadcasting frequently on BBC Radio 3. He has played under eminent conductors such as Rudolf Schwarz, Norman Del Mar, Richard Hickox and George Hurst. More recently, alongside a busy and successful career as a flute and recorder teacher, he has been active in diverse forms of chamber music: with the Pavlova Wind Quintet, duos with the guitarist Raymond Burley and with the percussionist Keith Fairbairn.

Recent concerts have featured him in events as extraordinary as appearing with the Oxford Trobadors in performances of Occitan songs, in a prison with his wind quintet, and improvising with the ex-Swingles Singer Wendy Nieper! He also enjoys playing Latin-American songs with his trio Serendipity (flute, guitar and percussion).

Chris has long been fascinated by the idea of re-arranging music from its original format. Having grown up during the era of 'switched-on' Bach (Jacques Loussier, Swingle Singers, Modern Jazz Quartet and others) he soon became aware of the exciting possibilities of hearing early music presented in a new way. Well-known precedents for this are Bach's re-arrangement of Vivaldi's string concertos for harpsichord, and Mozart's re-working of Bach's preludes and fugues for string quartet. Chris is currently working on arrangements of keyboard music for his wind quintet. As a keen pianist and harpsichordist he has perhaps greater access to unusual early and more recent compositions that a more conventional wind-player may not be aware of. He is also about to record an album of Bach pieces that he and Raymond Burley have arranged for flute and guitar.

Apart from arranging, Chris is concerned to give his instrument genuine solo stature. The flute has long been recognised as an important orchestral instrument, but it was only in the late 20th century that solo flute recitals became the norm. Even so, flautists suffer the frustration that much of their repertoire is second-rank compared to the great masterworks for piano or violin.

Having heard a performance of Bach's Chaconne for solo violin while at university, which seemed to create an entire orchestra from 4 strings and one player, he felt the flute could do something similar, especially the modern Boehm-system flute with its extended range of notes and tone-colours. Bach himself obviously thought highly of the flute and wrote much of its greatest repertoire (solo sonatas, trio sonatas, obligatos in choral works, concertos), no doubt inspired by the recent great improvements in the construction of the instrument and the presence of virtuosos like Pierre-Gabriel Buffardin and Johann Joachim Quantz. With that in mind, his approval of this album is not impossible to imagine.

Counterpoint for One