Bob Ashworth was born in Salford in 1955 and 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. 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

Since 1978 he has enjoyed playing Principal Horn with 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 founded he Opera North Horn Club - providing a forum for professional, amateur and student horn players.

He taught the horn at the RNCM for 12 years, recently giving it up to devote more time to practice and growing vegetables. In addition to his Opera North commitments has played 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 No1 with the Cambridge Baroque Camerata. He also recorded 'Six Vignettes for horn and wind orchestra' by Martin Ellerby with the RNCM Wind Orchestra conducted by James Gourlay