Chris Michell - Extended Biography
EARLY LIFE
Chris Michell (nee HUGHES), is very proud of her Celtic Heritage, being three-quarters Celt. She was born and brought up in a tiny village near Chester, UK, on the North Wales border. Her earliest memories are of wandering around in the woods and fields, communicating at a deep and peaceful level with trees, streams, flowers, cats and horses.This special, Pantheistic connection with nature has had a profound influence on her life and work.
She started piano lessons at seven, was composing little pieces at ten and took up flute at age twelve, as a result of hearing a live performance of “L’Apres Midi d’une Faune” by Debussy, which was totally inspirational to her. She decided there and then that she wanted to be a professional flautist and play in a symphony orchestra.
Unfortunately, there was not much tuition for classical flute available in the backwoods of Cheshire in the Sixties.... Chris was mainly self-taught, but she took herself to Manchester at the age of fifteen and played the Mozart Flute Concerto to the celebrated teacher, Geoffey Gilbert. He was so impressed with her playing that he offered her a place at music college straightaway, to be taught by him.
Sadly, her parents would not let her leave school and insisted she stayed on until eighteen, which she did, gaining eleven O levels and four A levels. She still feels that she missed a great opportunity to study with Gilbert, as he taught Galway and many other top flautists. Whilst a teenager, she also played Mandoline and Guitar and sang in an all-girl folk group and they did lots of local gigs for a couple of years.
EDUCATION
She gained an Honours degree from the University of Liverpool, studying flute with Atarah Ben-Tovim and composition with Hugh Wood. She performed the Ibert flute concerto, to critical acclaim at the age of 20. She was invited to do a master class with the legendary Marcel Moyse in Canterbury, at this time, but was unable to participate.
She won a place to do a Master’s Level post-graduate performing course at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, London. This was funded by a local authority scholarship. There, she studied with Peter Lloyd and later had a few private lessons with William Bennett. This was followed by a post-graduate teaching diploma at Christ’s College, Woolton. Whilst supporting herself to get into a professional orchestra, Chris worked as an auxiliary nurse for six months and later, as a social worker in Liverpool 8, for over twelve months.
CAREER
She was a finalist in the Royal Overseas League Competition with harpist, Kate Wilson in the Arianne Duo and was due to make her debut in the Queen Elizabeth Hall, London.They were tipped to win. In a terrible quirk of fate, Chris woke up in hospital two weeks before the Final, having been involved in a serious car accident, in which she sustained multiple injuries and serious concussion.
She had to learn to walk and play the flute again. But she fought back and eventually joined the orchestra of Welsh National Opera, as she had done the audition for them before the accident and they gave her another chance, after she had recovered.
She toured Britain and abroad full-time with Welsh National Opera (1976-81), playing flute and piccolo. She free-lanced with Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, English National Ballet, Opera North, Northern Ballet and Manchester Camerata and did various recording sessions including for EMI and HTV. She also did numerous chamber concerts with the Rossetti Trio, which consisted of herself, Helen McQueen on oboe and Stephanie Bamford, piano and harpsichord.
Tragedy hit again in 1980, when Chris’ baby son, Thomas Oliver, died very suddenly of a brain haemorrhage. Chris became more spiritually aware as a result of losing Thomas, which not only helped her cope with the shock and loss, but also guided her into holistic therapies. She visited healers in London and Edinburgh ( Major Bruce Macmanaway and Dr. Winifred Rushforth) and studied Astrology and Reincarnation. It was at this time that she also became very interested in Tibetan Buddhism and a great supporter of His Holiness the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan cause.
She also gave birth to two more children, Sophie (1981) and Tristan (1986). When Sophie was little, Chris spent much time working for CND and the Peace Movement and Sophie was wheeled in her push-chair around Greenham Common, where Chris participated with many women, who were protesting about the Cruise Missiles coming into Britain.
In 1988, she connected with dolphins on a deeply mystical level and felt guided and inspired by them to start composing and recording her own distinctive music. She became committed to the therapeutic and spiritual use of music and sound.
In 1989, Chris had reached a bit of a cross-roads in her life. She was unable to do much touring and orchestral playing with two small children as she was, by this time, a lone-parent. Having always been very academic and interested in the Law, Chris applied for a place to do the Law Society Exams at Bristol. She gained one of the 50 available places, out of 700 applicants!
However, at the last minute, she felt guided to give up her place to do Law and to continue as a Musician, recording her own compositions. During this period, she was also broadening her musical interests, having been massively influenced from childhood by composers such as Bach, Mozart, Debussy, Mahler, Delius, Stravinsky and Messiaen. She’d heard the Beatles live in Liverpool, when she was fifteen. Chris was also hugely influenced by Pink Floyd and Stevie Wonder in the Seventies and later, by Miles Davies, Brian Eno and Jan Garbarek.
In 1989, she decided to set up her own label Astarte Music to put out her own music. She was then signed up to World Discs Music, Seattle, USA as an artist, in 1991 and released several albums in America through them and later, Northsound Music, USA. She was also signed up to New World, Australia.
Her third album DOLPHIN LOVE (1991) was featured in a BBC Natural History Documentary in 1994. She currently has eight albums on the market, released through Oreade Music, Netherlands(www.oreademusic.com). She has sold over one million albums world-wide.
Her teaching includes Wells Cathedral School, Royal College of Music (Junior Department), Putney High School, Royal School-Bath and University of Lancaster.
Chris has played as a soloist at St. James’ Palace, London for the Royal Family. She toured Australia in 1991 and 1994 performing at the World Congress Centre, Melbourne, Darling Harbour, Sydney. and in Brisbane. In 1992, she gave a concert at the Commonwealth Institute, London with the celebrated percussionist, Joji Hirota and in the same year did a number of UK presentations, with Dr. Horace Dobbs on dolphin-assisted therapy.
She has played and given Sacred Sound/ Dolphin Healing workshops at several Mind, Body, Spirit Expos in London and in 1993 at the Skyros Centre, Greece. In 1996, she assisted Jonathan Goldman at his first Sound-Healing Intensive in Boulder, Colorado.
She has given several workshops and concerts for the Isle of Avalon Foundation and Chalice Well Trust, Glastonbury, concerts in the Netherlands and two presentations at Wainwright House, Rye, New York including a Peace Concert (April 2001).
She recorded live at Namgyal Monastery, McLeod, Dharamsala, India withTibetan Monk, Ven Bhagdro of Ganden monastery. Other collaborations include an album with Nigel Shaw, two albums with violinist Stuart Gordon, an album with Ben Scott and an album with Mike Rowland.
She played the flute to His Holiness the Dalai Lama during a private audience with him in Dharamsala, October 2001 and presented His Holiness with a copy of her Tibetan Freedom Chants CD, recorded with Ven. Bhagdro.
CURRENT
Chris travels extensively and has interacted with wild dolphins and whales in Australia, Hawaii, Florida, Bali,The Canaries, Greece, Egypt, Ireland, UK and the Azores.
With her albums, she raises money and awareness for the Peace movement, Whale and Dolphin Conservation and Tibet Relief fund. Her music has been used to assist water-birthing, the passing-over of terminally ill, with disabled children, for aromatherapy massage, meditation, space-clearing, cleansing chakras and stress-management. She lived and worked in Glastonbury, Somerset for ten years and during that time Chris gained professional qualifications in Hypnotherapy, NLP and Bodywork.
She now lives in beautiful Crete ( Greece) with her husband Professor John Heath and several cats, in a former village ‘kafenion’.... Her daughter, Sophie Michell is a TV Presenter/Writer (www.sophiemichell.com) and her son,Tristan Michell is a Doctor.
