"A brilliant player with a bright future ahead"
Suzi Klein
"The sound of heavenly beauty"
Maxim Vengerov
"A natural feel for melody"
Nicola Benedetti
"A brilliant player with a bright future ahead"
Suzi Klein
"The sound of heavenly beauty"
Maxim Vengerov
"A natural feel for melody"
Nicola Benedetti
Dennis Evans
Leora Cohen is a British-American violinist. She enjoys a diverse career, performing as a recitalist, soloist and ensemble musician around the world. Leora graduated with a double first class (summa cum laude) from Cambridge University and has been awarded two Diplomas with Distinction by the Royal College of Music in London. Previous professors include Remus Azoitei, Ani Schnarch and Alexander Gilman.
Leora made her debut at 16, performing Lalo’s Symphonie Espagnole at St John’s Smith Square in London. Before graduating from high school, she went on to perform a number of concertos and pieces by Brahms, Mendelssohn, Mozart and Sarasate with London-based orchestras. During her studies at Cambridge, she appeared regularly as a soloist with student orchestras, covering a considerable amount of the Baroque repertoire for solo violin and orchestra. In early 2020, she performed Beethoven’s Violin Concerto at Cambridge’s main concert hall and was a finalist in the Sir Karl Jenkins Music Competition. During the pandemic, Leora appeared on the Violin Channel in recordings and live performances, including a masterclass with Michael Vaiman playing Shostakovich Violin Concerto No. 1.
Whilst studying at the Royal College, Leora was a member of the LGT Young Soloists, performing regularly to the Liechtenstein Royalty at their private functions and palaces internationally. With this group, she was also chosen as soloist to open the 2022 Heidelberg Festival, playing Kreisler’s Alt Wiener Tanzweisen. In her final year at the Royal College, Leora was soloist with the College’s Symphony Orchestra, playing Mendelssohn in a public, live-streamed masterclass with Maxim Vengerov.
Since graduating, she has become a regular soloist with the Albion Chamber Orchestra and the Piccadilly Sinfonietta in London as well as a member of the Tel Aviv Soloists Ensemble.
Leora performs recitals across the UK with Paul Wingfield and Germany with Parvis Hejazi and in Fira Duo with flautist, Liz Meyer. Her creative and unique concert-programming has resulted in a notable enthusiasm for performing recitals. She has endeavoured to include music by female and under-represented composers at every opportunity, expanding her repertoire significantly. Leora also has a distinct approach to, and passion for, contemporary music that is respected by many composers, who have written and dedicated music to her. Leora was a chamber music award holder at Cambridge University and has played chamber music on BBC Radio, and at the prestigious London venues Kings Place and Wigmore Hall.
Leora is a prominent concertmaster of her generation, taking up her first posts at a young age, leading concerts with the National Children's Orchestra and the Royal College Junior Department orchestras. She is also a former concertmaster of the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain, of the Royal College Symphony Orchestra and of the Cambridge University Orchestra, leading orchestral concerts with significant concertmaster solos under the baton of many renowned conductors, such as John Wilson, Sir Mark Elder, Sir Antonio Pappano, Jac van Steen and Thomas Adés, and collaborating with soloists, such as Sheku Kanneh-Mason, Guy Johnson, Alim Beisembayev and Tom Poster.
As a teenager, Leora was praised for her orchestral leading by distinguished music journalists and concert critics, being described as a leader that “really impressed” and playing solos that were “ a particular delight”. During her concertmaster walk onto the stage and bow at the 2017 BBC Proms, Leora was introduced by Suzi Klein live on BBC Radio and television as “a brilliant player with a very bright future ahead of her”. She has continued to receive positive acclaim for her numerous concertmaster appearances in major concert halls globally, on international radio channels and global concert series such as Festival Berlioz.
During her studies and as a young professional, Leora also appeared alongside the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, London Sinfonietta, Philharmonia, BBC Symphony Orchestra, English National Ballet, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, the Helsinki Philharmonic and the Chamber Orchestra of Europe. She currently takes on extra work with the Royal Northern Sinfonia, English Chamber Orchestra, Brandenburg Sinfonia and Chineke! and leads the Hapax Orchestra.
Leora is joined by Gloucester Cathedral's Director of Music, Adrian Partington, for recitals of music for violin and organ.
Help Musicians UK
The Stephen Bell Trust
The Countess of Munster Musical Trust
The MCSC/H.S. Barlow Charitable Foundation
The Loan Fund for Musical Instruments
Cambridge University
The Royal College of Music
Joyce Fretwell
Norman Rosenberg
Dennis Evans
Miles and Anna Kibort Hember
Those who wish to remain anonymous
Talent Unlimited
The Harrison-Frank Family Foundation
The Guild of Friends
Florian Leonhard Fine Violins
The Honourable Society of Knights of the Round Table
Cambridge Violin Workshop
Leora is currently seeking sponsorship to purchase an instrument. To find out more, or discuss kindly contributing to or helping to raise the funds for this investment, please don't hesitate to contact her.
Trinity College, Cambridge
Music by Czech composers
Trinity College, Cambridge
Banksome, St Aldhelm
A programme exploring important Czech composers, and their music and interaction
Banksome, St Aldhelm
St Peter's Church, Bournemouth
Music by Czech composers
St Peter's Church, Bournemouth
St Mary's Church, Aylesbury
St Mary's Church, Aylesbury
Danny House
Danny House
"Young British-American violinist Leora Cohen...brings a a wonderful range of colours and nuance to the Three Poems for Violin and Piano, matching Honeybourne’s playing with a remarkable sure-footedness, sensitivity and musical maturity." - Francis Wilson
"Reason’s ability to combine the sounds of violin and piano – enhanced by the resonant acoustic of the recording as well as the superbly controlled and judged playing of Leora Cohen – whets one’s appetite for her larger-scale works" - Paul Corfield Godfrey
Composed in around 1898, this sonata is the later of two that Stanford wrote for violin and piano. It belongs to Stanford’s period of full compositional maturity and is most obviously influenced by the violin sonatas of Johannes Brahms. Despite the positive reception of its single performance during Stanford’s lifetime, the Sonata disappeared from the repertoire for over a century until it was recorded for Hyperion in 1999 and finally published in 2006.
Public masterclass with Maxim Vengerov and the RCM Symphony Orchestra
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