Photo credit: Jan Vaceanu-Stoicov
Flora Curzon is an award-winning violinist based in London. She plays western classical music from baroque to contemporary, Klezmer / Yiddish music, traditional music from across the British Isles, pop, 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, and also sings, works with live electronics and plays the musical saw.
Her unique interests and skills have led her towards a wide range of collaborations and opportunities including with her musical soul-mate Francesca Ter-Berg (critically acclaimed experimental folk duo Fran & Flora, hailed as brave and classy by Robin Denselow, The Guardian), London Klezmer Quartet, Barokksolistene (Siwan, Dido and Aeneas, Narum), English Touring Opera, The OAE, Brecon Baroque, Teach Damsa / Michael Keegan-Dolan (NOBODADDY), Shobana Jayasingh Dance (Clorinda Agonistes), David Shweitzer (inc. Our Great National Parks - feat. Barack Obama), James Riley & The Rooftop Assembly, and Khiyo. Flora also works regularly with MishMash Productions devising fully-staged 'chamber-music-theatre' for Young Audiences, and has performed in staged shows by Jocelyn Pook and Deafinitely Theatre.
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 continues to study many kinds of classical and traditional music (old and new), improvisation, music production, and performance art.