Peter Cropper was born in Southport, Lancashire, England. He comes from a musical family; his grandfather was Leader of the Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and his uncle Principal viola player in the BBC Philharmonic for thirty-five years.
At the age of thirteen he won a music scholarship to Uppingham School and whilst there joined the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain, where he met his wife to be, Nina Martin.
He continued his violin studies at the Royal Academy of Music in London with his future father-in -law David Martin. He won numerous prizes there including the prize for the best final year recital. He also founded the internationally acclaimed Lindsay String Quartet of which he was the Leader for over forty years.
Since The Lindsays retirement as a quartet at the end of July 2005, Peter has been playing in a piano trio with Moray Welsh and Martin Roscoe and is in the process of recording all the Beethoven violin sonatas with Martin. He is also teaching an MA in String Quartet performance at Sheffield University.
His musical activities don’t end with the violin, he often gives talks about music for the BBC. He was invited to sit on the music panel of the Arts Council of Great Britain, which gave him an insight into the need to promote music as well as play it. To this end he started the International Chamber Music Series, now known as Music in the Round, in Sheffield, where he now lives. As Artistic Director of this festival he set about popularising chamber music by dressing informally and giving entertaining and informative introductions to the music. In 1994 he was awarded the Philharmonic Prize for ‘consistently imaginative programming’. In 2000 he was given a Creative Briton award for his outstanding vision, leadership and creativity in the musical life of Great Britain. Peter has been awarded many honorary degrees, including Doctorates from the universities of Leicester, Sheffield and Manchester.
Outside music, Peter’s interests are varied, but his main loves are wine and food (having been born in one of the best wine years of the century, 1945) and he has just finished renovating a 17th century farmhouse tucked away in the Peak District. He has 2 children, a son who is following in his father’s footsteps as a violinist and a daughter who plays the oboe. He plays on a Golden period Stradivarius violin.
