Christopher Hyde-Smith's flute playing has been compared in The Guardian to Sir Laurence Olivier's acting in variety of expression, characterization and style.

He has made many trips abroad appearing as soloist in France, Germany, the Netherlands, Italy, Portugal, Scandinavia, Spain and Switzerland as well as North and South America.

He has performed with Pablo Casals, Francis Poulenc, Paul Tortelier and Igor Stravinsky.

Hyde-Smith has played the Cimarosa Concerto for Two Flutes with James Galway at the Royal Festival Hall and as concerto soloist he has frequently appeared with the London Mozart Players and also with the London Symphony Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, BBC Concert Orchestra, Scottish and Welsh Orchestras, Philomusica and Northern Sinfonia.

Hyde-Smith was a professor of flute at the Royal College of Music, where he also studied.