Photo credit: Márkos Tamás
Flora Curzon is an award-winning violinist based in London. She plays western classical music from baroque to contemporary, Klezmer / Yiddish music, experimental and improvised music, and is particularly interested in projects where genres intersect and art forms collide. She plays on both 'modern' (metal string) and 'historical' (gut string) violins, sings, and works with live electronics.
Her unique interests and skills have led her towards a wide range of collaborations and opportunities including with her critically acclaimed experimental folk duo Fran & Flora with cellist Francesca Ter-Berg, London Klezmer Quartet, Barokksolistene (Siwan, Dido and Aeneas, Narum), English Touring Opera, The OAE, Brecon Baroque, Teac Damsa / Michael Keegan-Dolan (NOBODADDY), Shobana Jayasingh Dance (Clorinda Agonistes), Jocelyn Pook, David Schweitzer (inc. Our Great National Parks - feat. Barack Obama), James Riley & The Rooftop Assembly, Sam Lee & Friends, and Khiyo. Flora has also worked closely with MishMash Productions since 2017 devising and performing in fully staged 'chamber-music-theatre' shows for Young Audiences.
She has released records Precious Collection (Fran & Flora, Hidden Notes Records, April 2024, 'Album of the Month' in The Guardian, April 2024) Hold Still Liminal (solo, Feb 2023), Unfurl (Fran & Flora, Feb 2019), and Meditations and Laments (Gaia Duo, Dec 2019), and has performed at venues, festivals and studios including The Wigmore Hall (recital of baroque music with Benedict Williams), Kings Place, Sadler's Wells, The Globe, Jools Holland, Hidden Notes Festival, Schleswig Holstein Festival, Sintra festival, KlezMore Festival, Tiny Desk and BBC Radio 4s Woman's Hour. In 2019 she was Artist in Residence at Ryedale Festival, and in February 2020 she was interviewed on BBC Radio 3 This Classical Life with Jess Gillam. An experienced string-arranger and recording artist Flora creates and records string parts for songs, films and TV.
Flora trained on both 'modern' and 'historical' violins at the Royal Academy of Music, London, supported by the RC Wyse Bequest Award, where she studied with Maureen Smith, Elizabeth Wallficsh, Rachel Podger and Nicolette Moonen and took masterclasses with Maxim Vengerov and Ruth Watermann. She was a member of the Sainsbury Royal Academy Soloists, and winner of the Music Patrons Award in 2019, the Bickerdike Allen, Roy Burcher and John McAslan prizes in 2014. She has studied Klezmer at KlezKanada, Yiddish Summer Weimar and Klezfest London, and has taken lessons with many renowned Klezmorim over the last 15 years.
She continues to study many kinds of classical and traditional music (old and new), improvisation, music production and pedagogy.