A brief synopsis:
Francesca Ter-Berg is a multi-disciplinary artist. Known for her unique cello playing style, she is a specialist in Klezmer music, a songwriter, composer, ethnographer and improviser. Francesca’s work explores the paradigm between the past and the present in her live performances, which she explores both in her live performances and studio work.
 
Francesca performs with critically acclaimed duo Fran & Flora (‘an album of beguiling beauty’ - The Wire) and produces film scores and site-specific installation works, focusing on the identity beholden in urban environments and exploring the natural world.
 
As a collaborator and improviser Francesca has toured and recorded nationally and internationally with artists including Imogen Heap, Talvin Singh OBE, Sam Lee, Portico Quartet, Riz Ahmed, Ashley Paul, Frank London (Klezmatics) and Cosmo Sheldrake and has performed at Glastonbury Festival, Café Oto, Kings Place, The Royal Festival Hall and WOMAD.
 
Francesca is a specialist in Klezmer and Roma music, which she has studied for over 10 years with some of the top worlds experts. She regularly teaches workshops in the style and creative music making.
 
A native Londoner, now based in Margate, Francesca’s unique and fresh perspective on modern day life combined with her knowledge and understanding of traditional music informs the ground-breaking and eye-opening sonic world that she inhabits and is slowly sharing with the world.

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The longer version:
My practice comprises of the following main elements:

• Traditional music, predominantly Klezmer & Roma music which I have been studying for over 10 years
• Experimentalism & new music, making sound art, installations and film scores with an emphasis on collecting aural history and using found sound.
• Travel, connecting with people, telling stories.
• Collaboration

 
Here’s the bit about my background, where I’m coming from and what I seek to create and make happen!

My priority is to bring my passions together and make unique and inspirational music which draws upon my many eclectic influences.
 
I am one half of the critically acclaimed experimental-folk duo project Fran & Flora (with violinist Flora Curzon) who’s debut album Unfurl, produced by Sam Beste (Hejira) was released in February 2019. Our album artwork was hand drawn by Oscar winning Illustrator Alan Lee (Lord Of The Rings). We have made live appearances on BBC4 Womens’ Hour, Cerys’ 6 Music show and Germany’s WDR1 COSMO show. 
​                                                            
                                                                                                        **** - Songlines Magazine
                                                                                               ‘beguiling beauty’ – Clive Bell, The Wire
                                                ‘Organic idyll...Fran & Flora do wordless sorrow especially well’ - Noel Gardner, The Quietus
                                                                                                          
When not touring or recording with Fran & Flora I collaborate with a number of my favourite artists, which lately have included Trumpeter Frank London (The Klezmatics, NY), Producer/Composer Imogen Heap (UK) and songwriter Ana Silvera (UK/CPH) on a new EP reworking lesser known Sephardi songs in the medieval Spanish (Ladino) dialect. I’m currently working on 2 EP’s of solo material; ‘Mountain Music’, a series of improvisations recorded during a residency in the mountains of Banff Canada, and a song-cycle about sisterhood, to be released in 2020. 
 
I have recently been commissioned by the JW3 to produce an original score for ‘Jewish Britain On Film’, a curated collection of films from the BFI archives, to premier at the UK Jewish Film Festival in November 2019 and subsequently tour across the UK.
 
I have been supported by the Help Musicians UK Transmission Fund, The Jewish Music Institute SOAS, BBC Introducing and am a recipient of the prestigeous Arts Council England DYCP grant.
 
A passionate nature explorer, I am inspired by the magical chaos and serendipity of life. This feeds into my work and musical practice. I seek the unknown pleasures of life, who I might meet on the way and where it may take me.
 
Now for the serious stuff:
 
In 2007 I finished an Undergraduate degree in Social Anthropology from the University of Sussex. It was amazing, changed my world-view forever and during this time I got heavily into activism, sustainability and vegan cooking. Masters Degree in Popular Music from Goldsmiths College and is one of the most versatile and in demand session and studio musicians in the UK.
 
After attending an enormous anarchist squat party organised by the radical Jewish group Jewdas in Brick Lane I discovered Klezmer music and knew immediately what I had to do next. I subsequently spent all my money and time travelling the globe to study with the worlds greatest players, some of my favourite musicians to date. I also spent several years studying 1-2-1 with my good friend virtuoso Sinti musician Tcha Limberger.
 
After a subsequent a period of intensive touring and collaboration with ground-breaking artists such as Sam Lee & Talvin Singh I decided to pursue my interests in composing, improvising and studio practice and completed a Masters Degree in Popular Music at Goldsmiths College in 2016 where I focused on studio composition, sonic art and experimentalism. I subsquently went on a series of residencies in Margate (UK) and the Banff Centre for Arts & Creativity (Canada) where I started developing my solo work.
 
I am passionate about outreach & education. In 2012-14 I travelled to Bangladesh and Sudan with Sam Lee & Friends, working with the British Council. I often facilitate creative music making and Klezmer music workshops across the UK and Europe.
 
The sonic shapes our identity:  I like to use field-recordings in my work, which I make on my travels and site-specific locations. I have a particular interest in aural histories and captures the sound of my environment. For my Goldsmiths degree show I manipulated underwater recordings of the Thames and collected sounds for a sound-diary during an extensive period of travel through British Colombia and Vancouver Island. I have studied the art of phonography with Chris Watson and Jez Riley French and own a number of specialist microphones for the job!
 
When not making music or being on the road I like to pursue my other main passion – FOOD 
 
Previous collaborations include Imogen Heap, Sam Lee, Talvin Singh OBE, Floating Points, Portico Quartet, Sophie Solomon, Cosmo Sheldrake, Tanita Tikaram, Roger O’Donnell, Riz Ahmed, Hejira, Lisa Knapp, Gerry Diver, The Unthanks, Kate Young, Frank London, London Klezmer Quartet, Soumik Datta, Jyotsna Srikanth, and the BBC Symphony Orchestra.​​
 
I have toured and performed extensively at an eclectic array of spaces & festivals including:
Cafe Oto, Green Note, Cecil Sharp House, Woodburner, The Vortex , Nest Collective's 'UnAmplifire', Sofar Sounds, Corsica Studios, St Marys Music Hall, Kings Place, St Pancras Old Church, The Rose Hill Tavern (Brighton), Tap Social (Oxford), Latitude (BBC Music Introducing), Fire In The Mountain, Shambala, London International Arts Festival, Songlines Encounters Festival, Serious's 'Between The Lines' Festival, Glastonbury, WOMAD.