Anna Lowenstein

Anna Lowenstein is one of the UK’s leading exponents of the klezmer fiddle tradition. Her latest project is a string quartet featuring British klezmer luminaries Flora Curzon on violin, Meg Hamilton on viola, and Francesca Ter-Berg on cello. The ensemble draws upon the melodies of Eastern European Jewish folk music while exploring the rich expressive possibilities of the string quartet.

Lowenstein’s exploration of the genre is inventive and intensely joyful. She and her colleagues perform with verve and gusto as they recreate what she calls the “sound world” of her childhood, in which the languages of Beethoven, Bartók, and Shostakovich mingled with Yiddish music.

The program, titled Through the Walls, skillfully incorporates storytelling, ethnographic interviews, and field recordings from Stamford Hill. It draws on the world of Eastern European Jewry, with its soulful melodies and haunting tonalities, while introducing audiences to the sound world of a brilliant young violinist and composer whose artistic vision is deeply rooted in the traditions of diasporic Jewish music yet directed toward the future — a future beyond the cruelties and barbarism of the present.

Line-up:
Anna Lowenstein (UK/IE) - violin
Flora Curzon (UK) - violin
Meg Hamilton (UK) - viola
Francesca Ter-Berg (UK/DE) - cello