Florence Cooke
At 25 years old, the violinist Florence Cooke has performed in all the major London halls, as well as in Europe, the USA, Canada and Israel, performed at the BBC Proms, and featured live on BBC Radio 3.
She studied at Cambridge University, where she was the first winner of the Nigel Brown Prize in 2003, and then at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. She gained a distinction in all three years at the Guildhall, and last year she held the prestigious Leverhulme Fellowship.
Recent performance highlights include a ‘Composer Portraits’ series concert at the Proms broadcast live on BBC Radio 3, quartet concerts in the Barbican and LSO St. Luke’s and leading the LPO ‘Future Firsts’ concert of contemporary music in the Royal Festival Hall. Florence has participated in masterclasses with (among others) Ferenc Rados, Andras Keller, Gabor Takacs-Nagy, Gerhard Schulz, the late Lorand Fenyves, the late Howard Davis, and the Heine, Endellion and Takács Quartets.
Florence is a keen chamber musician, and for the past three years she has has participated in the masterclasses and Open Chamber Music at IMS Prussia Cove. She has performed at many festivals including the Obertoene Festival in Austria, Festival Alchimie Sonore in Rimini, Italy, the Wye Valley Festival and the Banff Summer Festival in Canada. She has a regular duo partnership with pianist Daniel Tong, and has been a guest performer with the Razumovsky Ensemble and the Fidelio Piano Quartet. Florence also teaches Chamber Music at the Junior Guildhall School of Music in London.
Florence is the recipient of numerous awards including the Myra Hess Award (2005), Leverhulme Fellowship (2006), Gordon Clark Memorial Scholarhip (2007) English Speaking Union Scholarship (2006), Countess of Munster Scholarships (2004 and 2005), Razumovsky Trust Award (2006-8) and Nigel Brown Prize (2003).
Florence’s main teachers have been Krzysztof Smietana and David Takeno.
For further information, please visit Florence’s website.
