Born in 1961, Chris Wormald was awarded The Mortimer Medal in 1998 from The Worshipful Company of Musicians at the British Open Contest in Birmingham Symphony Hall and was named 2001 Classic FM Music Teacher of The Year at a lavish ceremony in London, presented by Leonard Bernstein’s close friend and biographer, Humphrey Burton. At the invitation of, and in the presence of, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, Chris also attended a Buckingham Palace Garden Party in May 2018 for his outstanding dedication and services to music education over 35 years – the very last Buckingham Palace Garden Party to be attended in person by Her Majesty The Queen just prior to her 93rd birthday.

Chris has conducted brass bands professionally since 1983. Particular Championship Section highlights include conducting Brighouse & Rastrick Band at the 1994 Leek Arts Festival, succeeding Howard Snell as MD of Wingates Band (1998-2000), conducting Grimethorpe Colliery Band in concerts from Reading Town Hall to South Wales in 2007 whilst the band was reigning National Champions of Great Britain and conducting Black Dyke Band in concerts performing his own arrangements since 2018. He has conducted in the Royal Albert Hall a dozen times and at the Royal Festival Hall, Symphony Hall in Birmingham and Bridgewater Hall in Manchester on over forty occasions.

Chris has been a member of both BBCA and AoBBA since the early 1990s and has won numerous contests, competitions, festivals and awards as conductor, horn player, pianist, teacher and arranger. Now well into his fourth decade as a professional adjudicator, Chris has over one hundred such adjudications to his credit all over the World since 1991 with the emphasis on Championship Section and international contests since 2004. These include multiple Swiss, French and English National Championships, two Scottish Opens, Brass In Concert, Grand Shield (Senior Cup and Senior Trophy), Singapore Muse Festival, BBL (Northern Ireland), National Brass Band Finals (Sections 1-4), National Eisteddfod of Wales, Scottish Borders, Carnegie Trust, multiple Yorkshire, London, Midlands, Scottish, South West and North West Area contests, Preston Guildhall, Buxton, Pontins, Wilkinson Northern Open, Weston-Super-Mare, Durham and Leicestershire Associations, Easingwold, Skipton, Fleetwood, Ebbw Vale, Hardraw Scar, Minsthorpe, Morley, Rhyl, British Open Solo & Quartet Championships and annually on Whit Friday at Greenfield since 2015.

Chris appears numerous times in the 2020 BAFTA-winning Sky Arts television Whit Friday march contests programme in which he was not only studio interviewed but filmed at Greenfield preparing his adjudication paperwork.

As a teenager Chris was a member of the NYBBGB alongside Ian Bousfield, Nick Childs, Steven Mead, Lindsay Shilling and Martin Winter and played with the band under Harry Mortimer at Belle Vue in 1978. He joined James Shepherd Versatile Brass as horn soloist for five years at the personal invitation of Jim Shepherd in 1990, the year Chris was also appointed to Smithills School for the next 27 years having been Head of Brass Instrumental Teaching for Bolton MBC 1983-1990, during which time he also taught at the RNCM in Manchester. As an orchestral horn player, Chris made his professional London debut in the Philharmonia Orchestra at the Barbican in 2003 after two decades of freelancing throughout the UK.

Chris formed his internationally renowned Smithills School Senior Brass Band in 1991 and over the next twenty years of competition, together they won over fifty, major national and international competitions including becoming inaugural World Brass Band Champions in Kerkrade, Holland in 2005 (Adult, 3rd Section), winning twelve National Festival of Music For Youth titles in just sixteen years at the Royal Festival Hall in London and Symphony Hall in Birmingham, including two runs of five consecutive years of victories in that time; a level of national success never before achieved by any school. Chris conducted Smithills bands all over the World on over twenty major concert tours abroad, from Norway to New Zealand and Japan to America (five USA concert tours) in addition to eight times at the Royal Albert Hall in London before he left teaching in 2015 at the age of 54 to earn his living as a freelance horn player, conductor, pianist, arranger and adjudicator.

Chris has over one hundred published brass band arrangements worldwide with Obrasso, Kirklees Music, Wright & Round, Studio Music and EMR. His Obrasso arrangements continue to be recorded on CD and stream by Cory Band, Black Dyke, Brighouse & Rastrick and leading bands in Europe and Scandinavia. Chris also has over one hundred published choir arrangements for SATB and piano which are sung and recorded all over the world, especially by choirs across America and mainland Europe.