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 at the ´óÏó´«Ã½ Philharmonic Orchestra for thirty-five years. At the age of thirteen he won a music scholarship to Uppingham School and whilst there he 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 has been the leader for over forty years. Despite giving concerts all over the world with the Quartet, he gives many solo recitals and has performed concertos with over a dozen different orchestras. With The Lindsays disbanding in July 2005, Peter Cropper will continue performing as a soloist and chamber musician. Plans include complete cycles and recordings of all the Beethoven Violin Sonatas with Martin Roscoe, with whom he has also formed a piano trio with cellist Murray Walsh.
His musical activities don't end with the violin; he often gives talks about music for the ´óÏó´«Ã½, and 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 Festival in his home town of Sheffield, and achieved in making chamber music more approachable by the artists dressing informally and giving entertaining and informative introductions to the music. As Artistic Director of the festival he was awarded the 1994 Royal Philharmonic Society's Festival Prize for `consistently imaginative programming'. The festival has now evolved into "Music in the Round", an annual concert season presenting over 70 concerts in Sheffield, and on tour around the country, in some cases introducing chamber music to venues for the very first time. His development of the "Music in the Round" concept led to him receiving a prestigious "Creative Briton" award in 2000, and more recently he was awarded the 2005 Cobbett Medal from the Worshipful Company of Musicians.
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 last century, 1945) and he has nearly finished renovating a 17th century farmhouse tucked away in the Peak District in the heart of England. He has two children, a son, who is following in his father's footsteps, as a professional violinist, and a daughter who conducts and plays the oboe.
