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Cora Venus Lunny is an Irish improvising violinist, violist, vocalist, and composer.

Cora Venus Lunny is an improvising violinist, violist, vocalist and composer with extensive performing, touring, and recording experience in contemporary, classical, improvised, and folk musics. A member of Yurodny and Fovea Hex, they frequently perform with Crash Ensemble, solo as a free improviser and in free duo with Izumi Kimura. A fascination with consciousness, groove, and the social realities of music drives their compositional curiosity.

Born in Dublin, Cora was first given a violin at the age of three and never looked back. A life in music became their goal and, from the age of thirteen, they studied classical violin intensively with highly respected violinists around Europe, including Rimma Sushanskaya, Joji Hattori, Alexander Arenkov, Arkady Futer, Lara Lev and Vladimir Spivakov. They were frequently to be found performing concertos and recitals to critical acclaim around Ireland and Europe, and when they were 20, Nigel Kennedy chose them to join him as second soloist on a tour of Japan, Taiwan, New Zealand and Australia.

For the next few years, Cora appeared on over 30 albums of recorded music and in innumerable gigs. They have worked with, to mention just a few, Damien Rice, The Republic of Loose, Kanye West, Laura Sheeran, The Jimmy Cake, Camille O’Sullivan, Julie Feeney, The Blizzards. Their interests began to branch out from the classical soloist template which they had been indoctrinated in, and their skills expanded to incorporate improvisation, composition, the viola, vocal & ensemble work, and recording.

A fascination with consciousness and groove drives their passion for music and performance. Cora has a special fondness for bringing new music to diverse audiences, and they have premiered many contemporary works as a soloist, with their string quartet, with the Crash Ensemble, and as a collaborator. Their own albums, “1943” (2011), a self-produced EP of covers and originals, and “Terminus: Conscientiae” (2014), a spontaneously composed response to Bartok’s Solo Sonata, are available on Diatribe/Rue Faubourg Records.

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...Lunny travels back and forth between single and dual voices, mournful and dramatic melody, trance-like mellowness and boldly defined rhythms, lyricism and dissonance.
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