Christine Hartley was born in South Africa of a totally non-musical family and began studying piano at the age of six. By the time of fifteen, Christine was performing several of the major piano concertos on a national radio in South Africa.
After passing all student examinations with honors, she won an overseas scholarship and chose to study piano and cello in London at the Guild Hall School of Music with Kenneth Heath and William Pleeth for cello and Claudio Arrau and Bridget Wild for piano.
She was First Cellist in the Guild Hall student orchestra in her final year and after completing her studies and obtaining a teaching diploma, she returned to South Africa Orchestra, which was multipurpose: Symphonic, Opera, Ballet and light music by season.
While in South Africa, she met and married a French solo violinist and after two years in the PACT Orchestra, she went to France where she was appointed Cello Professor at the Albert Conservatoire and continued a chamber music career playing in baroque and modern ensembles for twenty years.
As a solo pianist, Christine has performed many well known concertos with major orchestras in England, France, Hungary, Switzerland, Grace, Namibia and Poland.
She is First Cellist with the Tampa Bay Orchestra.
|
|