Hailed by the Boston Globe as a “terrific violist”, Carol Cook made her concerto debut at aged 16 and has since appeared in concert halls worldwide as both a soloist and chamber musician. As a soloist she has performed with the Metamorphosen Chamber Orchestra in Boston, the Edinburgh Symphony, the Guildhall Symphony Orchestra, the Cambridge Sinfonia and the Edinburgh Players, among others. She was featured on the “Rising Star” series at the Caramoor International Festival in NY two years running and was also a member of the Caramoor Virtuosi, performing with musicians such as Donald Weilerstein, Arnold Steinhardt and Claude Frank. Ms Cook has also appeared as a chamber musician at summer festivals in Banff, Canada, Verbier International Festival in Switzerland, and the Montreal Chamber Music Festival, As a member of the Broyhill Ensemble, Carol was a resident artist at “An Appalachian Summer Festival” in North Carolina for three summers. The Broyhill ensemble recently released a CD of the “Tsontakis Piano Quartet Trilogy” on the Koch label.

Carol was until recently a member of the “Appalachia Waltz Trio” with the Grammy Award winning violinist Mark O’Connor. Founded in 2002, the trio toured extensively throughout the U.S. Recent performances include an appearance at the new Kimmel Center in Philadelphia as part of the “Welcome America” festival to celebrate the Fourth of July as well as concerts at the Phoenix Symphony Hall, Chambermusic Northwest Festival, the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C. and the 92^nd Street Y in New York. The trio released their debut album, “Crossing Bridges”, to rave reviews in November ’04.  The Appalachia Waltz Trio's performances have been broadcast on NPR as well as streamed live over the internet as part of Arts4all’s new Artspass subscription series.

Carol has appeared as guest Principal Viola with numerous orchestras including the highly acclaimed Australian Chamber Orchestra with whom she toured extensively throughout Australia and New Zealand during the summer of ‘03. She will be joining them again this year on their US tour (for details see schedule page). She has frequently performed with the New York Philharmonic the London Symphony Orchestra and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and is currently a member of the Lyric Opera Orchestra in Chicago and the Metamorphosen Chamber Orchestra.

Carol holds a Masters Degree from the Juilliard School under the tutelage of Hsin-Yun Huang and Toby Appel, and an Artist Diploma from Oberlin Conservatory. She also holds a Bachelor Degree from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London where she studied with David Takeno.

A native of Scotland, Carol is also an accomplished Scottish fiddler. She won her first fiddle competition aged 8 and went on to win numerous awards for her playing including the National Young Fiddler of the Year competition in 1992. She released a solo album the following year entitled 'The Cook Collection' and her playing has been featured on BBC Radio Scotland and Moray Firth Radio.