Introducing Anna 

Anna Lowenstein is a fiddle player from Hackney. Anna moved to Manchester to study, completing a Music degree at Manchester University, before returning to London to continue her development as a Klezmer musician and specialist in Yiddish Historically-Informed Performance Practice. Alongside performing, Anna improvises and composes, and she provides participatory music for children with SEN support. 

“I grew up playing classical music really, until I was about 18. I was in the London School Symphony Orchestra and went to CYM, which is a youth music service, Saturday school, in Lambeth, and had amazing times there, met lots of, still great, friends and played lots of amazing music. But when I was 18, I kind of accidentally fell into this world, really I guess - ‘this world’ being the world I'm in now, which is Klezmer music.” 

Anna’s Musical Life History 

Anna was introduced to music, and to her instrument, through hearing her father playing at home. 

“My dad played, plays, violin and viola as a keen amateur. And would always be practising in the room next door when I was sort of going to sleep, so I think that's partly how I ended up, well, demanding to play the violin.” 

Her style of playing changed during a gap year before university when she was contacted, out-of-the-blue, by a band. 

“They were a band based in south London who play […] at the time, I guess they’d refer to themselves as ‘Gypsy music’, which then subsequently became a sort of interest of mine, what I wrote my dissertation on it at university.” 

Anna credits this experience for setting her on the path away from playing purely classical music. 

“It was the first time that I was playing not from sheet music. It was the first time I was improvising. And it just, yeah, it kind of completely exploded my world.” 

It was at this stage that Anna took the decision to learn Klezmer music, a music that she already felt a strong affinity with. 

“Having grown up feeling very connected to my Jewish identity, in various ways, and having grown up in the middle of the Orthodox Jewish community in London, kind of, even though I wasn't, you know, consciously aware of the music necessarily, it was in my ears. And then also my dad had a CD of Alicia Svigals […] We used to put that CD on and dance around the living room.” 

“While this new way of making music was becoming apparent to me, it felt like a natural progression or extension. I had to explore this world of Yiddish music and kind of haven't really looked back.” 

The Purpose and Motivations of Anna’s Music-Making 

“Connecting and expressing yourself and participating and, yeah, just those three things, expression, inclusion and communication, like that's music.” 

Developing as a Klezmer musician has increased Anna’s awareness of the importance of musical and social openness. 

“I think through getting involved and learning about folk music, it was like my eyes were suddenly open to, in a way, what music really is about.” 

She retains her love of classical music, while acknowledging some of its restrictions. 

“I met some of my best friends and had some of the most amazing experiences playing in orchestras […] There was a disconnect between the music and the social life, and the music and the audience, and the music and myself particularly.” 

Anna’s musical identity has been shored up by her coming to appreciate some of the benefits of a classical music background, while carving her own place on the Klezmer music scene. 

“Until recently, I’ve really cursed my classical background in terms of the training it gave me and the lack of certain musicianship skills, which I feel that I’ve had to do lots of work on, in order to play non-classical music. And, up until about a year ago, I was really resentful of that [...] I’ve started to see how, actually, having that knowledge and the level of training that I have, technically, on my instrument, has informed a lot of what I do and also the aesthetic.” 

“I’ve had some incredibly encouraging, supportive, open, generous teaching, which has made me feel really safe and really nurtured. And then on the flip-side of that […] sometimes, it’s a really scary world to be in because there are – you know and this happens in all scenes – there are ‘the names’, and they’re so knowledgeable and so experienced and so prolific and amazing virtuosos.” 

Anna’s Music-Making in Manchester 

“Manchester, this is the sound of Manchester. It’s the sound of the world, but it’s also the sound of Manchester. This is Manchester. This is the UK.” 

Anna was attracted to Manchester University because the music degree there offered an Ethnomusicology module and a Klezmer module. 

“I knew the music. I knew that. I knew that I wanted this to be my life.” 

While in Manchester, Anna volunteered with various social action groups, including Food Cycle and the Gleaning Network, but she never put musical roots down in the city as she continued to have a busy gigging schedule back in London. 

“Over the time I was in Manchester and through this other band that I, the band that I started playing with, I met a group who I then was gigging with for the last eight years or so, until recently [...] They were based in London, so I was coming down from Manchester for gigs.” 

Despite no longer living in Manchester, Anna was recently involved in an online project with the Manchester Jewish Museum, a Museum whose potential she is excited about and is keen to have further involvement with. 

“It was curated, or put together, by the creative director, Laura Seddon, and my friend and colleague Francesca Terberg. And it was talking to, it turned out to be, an all-female panel, which was quite nice, of Jewish musicians, UK Jewish musicians, and what they’re doing and what they’re up to.” 

“It seems like it’s gonna be a real hotspot for cool things happening, potentially. And I’ve got a couple of projects, which could fit nicely with a gig or a programme or whatever […] It would be really nice to come back for that positive reason.”