About
Leora and Liz met in 2016 on a summer music course in Romania. After this they began making music together and during their studies they were winners of the Colin Blythe Chamber Music Award. They have played at venues and societies throughout the UK, and their music ranges from Baroque through to Contemporary. They have worked with several composers promoting new works and along with their chamber music concerts they work in outreach with Music In Hospitals.
Liz
Liz is a freelance flautist based in London. Worked with several orchestras including: Hampstead Garden Opera, Hastings Philharmonic and London’s New Opera Group. She has also been a guest soloist with the Chichester Chorale. She has done outreach work with London Philharmonic Orchestra in their Open Sound project and Side by Side schemes with London Philharmonia and Welsh National Opera. She has played in several shows including Miss Saigon, Phantom of the Opera, The Pirates of Penzance and Oliver.
Other work has included recitals alongside several acclaimed musicians including Richard Shaw, Nicky Spence, Richard Pierson, Cathy White and Robin Ireland. She has given performances for Elysian Residences and venues that she has performed at include Birmingham Symphony Hall, the Royal Albert Hall and St John’s Smith Square.
She studied at Birmingham Conservatoire with Jonathan Rimmer and Marie Christine Zupanzic completing her BMus(Hons) degree and her DipABRSM and LRSM diplomas. Liz later studied privately with Paul Edmund Davies and then continued her studies at Trinity Laban College of Music and Dance with Anna Pope completing a Masters degree and her FTCL diploma. Her studies were supported by the Denne Gilkes Memorial Fund and she was later invited back to give a performance for the Trinity College of London Honorary Awards.
Liz is a highly recognised teacher. Her pupils range from complete beginners to advanced. She has worked with several organisations including the Junior Birmingham Conservatoire and Flutewise. Liz is also currently a flute professor and chamber music coach at the University of Chichester.
Along with performing Liz is the founder and agent for Fira Events. The company has worked for both intimate and large scale events throughout the UK and internationally. Companies she has worked with include The National Wedding Show and JR Events Ltd.
Leora
British-American violinist of Iraqi-Kurdish descent, Leora Cohen, enjoys a diverse career performing as a recitalist, soloist and ensemble musician around the world. She holds a first-class degree from the University of Cambridge and two postgraduate Diplomas from the Royal College of Music.
Leora made her debut at 16 performing Lalo’s Symphonie Espagnole at St John’s Smith Square. In 2020 she performed Beethoven’s Violin Concerto at West Road Concert Hall, was a finalist in the Sir Karl Jenkins Music Competition and played Shostakovich Violin Concerto No.1 in masterclass with Michael Vaiman live-streamed on the Violin Channel. For over two years she toured with the LGT Young Soloists, performing regularly to Liechtenstein Royalty and opening the 2022 Heidelberg Festival playing Kreisler. In her final year at the RCM, Leora was soloist with the RCM Symphony Orchestra in a public masterclass with Maxim Vengerov on Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto in E minor. She currently performs regularly as soloist with the Albion Chamber Orchestra in London, as a recitalist across the UK with Paul Wingfield and Germany with Parvis Hejazi and in Fira Duo with flautist, Liz Meyer.
Leora has played chamber music on BBC Radio 3, at Kings Place, and at the Wigmore Hall, and held an Instrumental Award for chamber music during her time at Cambridge.
A prominent concertmaster of her generation, she has led all orchestras of the RCM senior and junior departments, the National Youth Orchestra of GB, and the Cambridge University Orchestra under the baton of many renowned conductors including John Wilson, Sir Mark Elder, Sir Antonio Pappano, Jac van Steen and Thomas Adés at the BBC Proms, and collaborating with soloists such as Sheku Kanneh-Mason and Guy Johnson. She has played alongside the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, London Sinfonietta, Philharmonia, BBC Symphony Orchestra, English National Ballet, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Chamber Orchestra of Europe and Chineke!.
In her spare time, Leora edits and typesets manuscripts for publishing houses such as Bärenreiter, Schott, the Frank Bridge Trust and the Bohuslav Martinů Institute.
Leora plays a Vincenzo Panormo violin on loan from the Harrison-Frank Family Foundation, and is grateful for the support she has received from the University of Cambridge, the Royal College of Music, Talent Unlimited, Help Musicians, the Countess of Munster Musical Trust, the Stephen Bell Trust, the Honourable Society of Knights of the Round Table and the MCSC/H.S. Barlow Charitable Trust.
