RAFFI BODEN / FRANCESCA TER-BERG DUO

RAFFI BODEN / FRANCESCA TER-BERG Cello duo

Londoner  Francesca Ter-Berg (Fran & Flora) and NY-based cellist Raffi Boden (Mamaliga, Arco Belo) met one afternoon in Prospect Park at an impromptu Klezmer jam in 2021. They immediately discovered shared telepathic musical capabilities and wanted to play together more. Cello is somehow often overlooked as a creative instrument in so many genres, and Klezmer is no exception. So! They started the Klezmer Cello Revolution. Combining their shared love for Klezmer, Romanian, Greek music and improvisation Raffi & Francesca are going to explore all the Cello has to offer and will be joined by special guests TBD. Big room vibrations.

Raffi Boden chose the cello as a kid because he wanted to sit down while he played, and he never left the chair. His innovative cello playing style has brought him around the world to perform klezmer and greek music in Paris, to perform with the Sinfonica de Falcòn in Venezuela, and alongside Jamey Haddad, Simon Shaheen, and members of Snarky Puppy. Raffi plays in the new East Coast Klezmer project Mamaliga and with chamber-jazz ensemble Simone Baron and Arco Belo. He's currently finishing his Masters degree at Juilliard with his mentor Joel Krosnick.

London born Francesca Ter-Berg is a cellist, producer, songwriter and improviser who has been playing and studying Klezmer music. for over 10 years. She is one-half of the critically acclaimed string duo Fran & Flora and Francesca's debut EP, In Eynem,  released in Spring 2021 is a synthesis of traditional melodies and songs in Yiddish and Sinti Romanes combined with field recordings, heavy beats and live processing.
“Francesca Ter-Berg has a sense of levitating above and around the material world” - John Doran, The Quietus