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Shirley has had an unusual and diverse career. She studied at the
Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London with Raphael Wallfisch,
where she performed with the London Symphony Orchestra, made a
concerto debut at the Heritage Museum in St. Petersburg and gave a
concert of trios with renowned cellist Yo-Yo Ma at the Barbican, After
further study in Paris with Janos Starker, with Steven Isserlis and
Ralph Kirshbaum at IMS Prussia Cove and at the International Menuhin
Academy in Switzerland, she left the UK for Jerusalem.Although she
initially went for a year, Shirley became involved with a great many
musical projects, and met many musicians and friends, so ended up
staying for 10 years. She joined Moroccan jazz fusion group Sound of
the Ground - the result of a chance meeting in a Jerusalem restaurant,
which led to many other projects playing Arabic, Oriental and North
African music with groups including Sabreen, Yasmin Levy, Tarshika
Orchestra, Khaled Jubran, Radio Effendi, al-Farabi Trio, Maurice
El-Mediouni, and oud players Bilal Irshed, Haytham Safia and Nizar
Rohana. She also began developing a long-held interest in jazz,
taking studies in jazz improvisation on cello and piano at the
Jerusalem Centre Creative for Music, run by saxophone player Arnie
Lawrence. She subsequently joined both his band, and worked with many
musicians on the vibrant Israeli jazz scence, including Avishai
Cohen and Omer Avital.Shirley has toured most of Europe, Russia,
Jordan, Egypt and Morocco as well as all over Israel and Palestine
(and occasionally getting caught in the crossfire….)
Shirley studied musicology and English Literature at the Hebrew
University of Jerusalem, and was a tutor of Cello for several years at
the Edward Said Conservatory of Music in Ramallah. She acted on
several occasions as a deputy teacher of Cello at the Tel Aviv
Conservatory of Music and now teaches Musicianship and Improvisation
at the Royal College of Music Junior Department.Since moving back to
London in 1999, Shirley has quickly established herself of both the
jazz and World Music scenes. She has performed at arts centres and
festivals around the UK, and the Channel Islands, and has worked
with, among others, Neil Cowley, Robert Mitchell, Mulato Astatke,
Gilad Atzmon, Antonio Forcione, Attab Haddad, Julian Ferraretto,
Partikel, Maciek Pysz, Maurizio Minardi, Al-Andaluz, Yazid Fentazi,
Khyam Allami, Tamer Abu-Ghazaleh, Alejandro Toledo and the Magic
Tombolinos, She'Koyokh, Komsos, Sefiroth Ensemble, Alice Zawadski.
She has performed at venues inclduing the Barbican, Queen Elizabeth
hall, Purcell Room, Kings Place, Ronnies Scotts, 606 jazz Club,
Vortex, Brunel Museum, Forge, National Theatre, Green Note, Rich Mix
and also runs a regular world music night at the Ritzy Cinema Bar in
Brixton. She performs with her own projects, which include an duo
recital programme drawing on her various musical infleuces, her jazz
trio and world music band Melange. In 2016 Shirley has been invited
to lead the "Beyond Cello" program of the London Cello Society,
imcorporating workshops in improvisation, jazz, world music and
more. Shirley speaks Hebrew and Arabic, and keeps making doomed
attempts to learn French. She likes playing tennis, and has a massive
soft spot for kittens..and hedgehogs.....