Bob Ashworth  - Born in Salford in 1955, Bob Ashworth started singing lessons at the age of eight. He gained a scholarship as a chorister to Chetham's Music School but turned  it down because he wanted to play football, not rugby! He was encouraged to play the horn  at the age of twelve, and gained a place in the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain. 

At this time he was very interested in athletics, particularly the 200 metres. He decided to stay in Manchester to study with Sydney Coulston at the Royal Northern College of Music, where  he spent four successful years, gaining a 1st class diploma and the award of Laureate, and  met his future wife, Debbie.

Since 1978 he has enjoyed playing Principal Horn with the English Northern Philharmonia,  the orchestra of Opera North, in the theatre, the concert hall and the recording studio. He has made several appearances as soloist and is a regular member of the chamber group The Music Serenade, whose acclaimed recording (BBC Radio 3 Record Review) of wind octets by Mozart, Beethoven and Hummel is available on CD. He is an active member of both the British Horn Society and the International Horn Society, performing at many of the former's local seminars and writing for The Horn Call - the journal of the IHS. With his Opera North colleagues, he recently founded the Opera North Horn Club - providing a forum for professional, amateur and student horn players.

He teaches the horn at the RNCM, and in addition to his Opera North commitments has played recently with the Australian Chamber Orchestra, the London Symphony Orchestra, the Royal Philharmonic and the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. On the period instrument front (hand horn and baroque horn), he has played first horn for the Academy of Ancient Music, the Hanover Band and The Sixteen and has recorded Bach's Brandenburg Concerto No. 1 with the Cambridge Baroque Camerata.

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