With a mission to teach, inspire and bring music to the community, she is the initial appointment to the University's new Academy of Cultural Fellows - the first time a leading opera company and university have collaborated in this way.

The Academy of Cultural Fellows will nurture the talents of the brightest and best new writers, artists, actors, dancers and musicians and her appointment has been made possible by generous funding from the Future Fund of Opera North.

Cheryl's role will afford her time and freedom to develop as a composer - and create exciting new music - as well as collaborating with Opera North, working on community music and theatre projects, and supervising students.

Essex-born Cheryl began composing at the age of eight while studying cello and piano at the prestigious Yehudi Menuhin School. She graduated from Cambridge University's Gonville and Caius College with a first in 2001 and an MPhil (with Distinction) in Composition. She has since won critical acclaim and a string of awards for her work which has been widely performed both in the UK and overseas.

Her latest piece, a 28-minute adaptation of the Beowulf legend, will be performed at London's Wigmore Hall in January.

Describing her work as "romantic music with lots more notes in it," Cheryl is clearly excited by both the challenge and the opportunity offered by Leeds:  "It's just fantastic. There is so much to the role, working with music students, the wider university and with the local community."

Cheryl is particularly looking forward to working with the opera company over the two years of her contract: "I would really like to write a full-length opera, and from a practical point of view, to be able to do these things and not to have to worry where my next pay cheque is coming from is wonderful.

"I know that I have so much to learn, such as the practicalities of making sure my music works when singers are having to move about the stage. Learning this discipline and working with Opera North will just be amazing."

The Academy of Cultural Fellows revives a tradition begun in Leeds in 1950, when printer and art-lover Eric Craven Gregory supported the work of a cadre of painters, sculptors, poets and musicians. In the austerity of post-war Britain, the Gregory Fellows helped create a University distinctive for innovative creative arts and the avant garde. Over the course of 30 years, fellows included the sculptor Kenneth Armitage, poets James Kirkup and Jon Silkin, and painters Terry Frost and Trevor Bell.

The Academy is led by Professor David Cooper, Dean of the Faculty of Performance, Visual Arts and Communications at the University of Leeds. He knows from first-hand experience the extra dimension the Gregory Fellows brought to the campus:  "As an undergraduate music student at Leeds I was fortunate to have been taught composition from 1976-8 by Peter-Paul Nash, the last Gregory Fellow in Music.

"I know how inspiring this was for me, to be learning directly from this extremely talented and sophisticated young composer. Cheryl is a wonderful addition to the School of Music, and it is so exciting to imagine that she will similarly inspire the students of today."

Dr Richard Mantle, General Director of Opera North, said: "We are very excited about the appointment of the first fellow, which celebrates Opera North's groundbreaking partnership with the University of Leeds, now reaching new heights. This has been generously funded by the Future Fund of Opera North and initiatives of this kind will further strengthen Opera North's position as one of the nation's leading arts providers as well as working to nurture new and emerging talent."

Further information:

For further information and a full biography of Cheryl Frances-Hoad, visit http://www.cherylfranceshoad.co.uk/

For requests to interview Cheryl please contact Simon Jenkins, senior press officer at the University of Leeds, tel: 0113 3437231, mob: 07791 333229, email: s.jenkins@adm.leeds.ac.uk.