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Florence K follows on Thursday, March 1st at 7:30pm with her special blend of genres and cultures in her warm and enchanting music. Just like Coral Egan, she follows in the footsteps of her musician mother, the singer Natalie Choquette. Despite her youth, Florence K already has two impressive albums to her credit as well as two Felix Awards for Album of the Year in the World Music category.
www.florencek.com -
Warmth, refinement, musicality, emotion: these four words easily sum up Florence K’s entire body of work. Her young, but impressive career began as a family affair: she took the “K” in her stage name from her musician father, Hany Khoriaty and she began to perform by singing backing vocals for her mom, opera singer, Nathalie Choquette. Trained as a classical singer since childhood, Florence later studied classical piano and several languages; a passion that is expressed throughout her recordings, as her songs move elegantly between Spanish, French and Portuguese. But let’s get back to the bigger story, shall we? Florence, having toured the world with her mother, returned to Montreal where piano became more prominent in her life as she started playing at Stash Café four nights a week. At the tender age of 18, her range of repertoire was already impressive- she alternated between bossa nova and blues while playing jazz and pop music as well. Florence’s maturity and musicality rapidily progressed as her repertoire expanded.
October 2003 is a landmark in Florence K’s career, as she founded Red Blues Productions with Pierre Deslauriers, a joint venture that still flourishes today and publishes all of Florence’s compositions. On a more musical note, Florence chose a live concert recording to serve as her debut album. Live au Lion d’or documents a mesmerizing performance that took place in November 2004. The album was released in May 2005 to critical acclaim and commercial success. A year later, she released her first, full-length, studio album Bossa Blue, which she also co-produced. Florence’s innovative mix of blues, bossa nova and jazz on Bossa Blue is not the only impressive feat for the artist at 23 years old, the fact that it sold over 90,000 is also incredible. Later that year, she played in front of a crowd of 6,000 at the Montreal International Jazz Festival and again a year later, she was back at the same festival for 3 sold-out nights at Montreal’s TNM. 2007 still had more glorious moments in store, as Florence toured with iconic French singer Patrick Bruel and later won Album de l’année – Musiques du monde (Album of the year – World Music) at the ADISQ gala, where she also performed the opening number with several fellow nominees. After that, Florence went back to Paris where she was very warmly received and finally capped off an already magnificent year playing Quebec City’s opening night concert for the province’s 400th anniversary celebrations.
2008 began much like 2007 ended for Florence K… with excitement! The emerging artist toured most of the free world and shared the stage with Isabelle Boulay and Bernard Lavilliers in Europe. On November 6th, 2008 Florence K released La Historia de Lola, a modern masterpiece that showcases her love of Brazilian and Cuban music and is strongly infused with a large dose of salsa, bossa nova and blues.
La Historia de Lola performed just as strongly as the others and Florence won her second Félix, for Album de l’année– Musiques du monde (Album of the Year World Music). La Historia de Lola was certified gold shortly after the ADISQ gala. Florence K has always showcased her love of multiculturalism and she’s living proof that one can successfully mix all genres of music in a uniquely beautiful style. This approach to music, and life in general, made her assignment as UNICEF’s Quebec Ambassador easy to embrace. Florence would like to help educate the people of Quebec regarding the condition of thousands of children across the world currently being deprived of their fundamental human rights.
A holiday album, entitled Havana Angels recorded this spring, in Havana, Cuba will be released in Canada November 2, 2010. Co-produced by Osvaldo Montes, Havana Angels is the final chapter in Florence K’s Cuban trilogy. The album includes original material composed by Florence as well as classic holiday songs reinterpreted with traditional Cuban ensemble Sintesis and a stunning duet with Jesse Cook.
“I have always dreamed of recording an album in Havana with Cuban musicians,” says Florence K. “I wanted to bring my music to Havana and have the musicians bring Cuba to my music. Havana Angels has allowed me to do just that. With Havana Angels I have realized some of my biggest dreams, played with incredible musicians and brought together some of my biggest loves. I am so excited and proud to be able to offer it to everyone!”
So many artists today seek credibility and notoriety through veiled imitation or a confluence of other artist’s work- it’s both refreshing and exciting to happen upon someone with the unique artistry and integrity that is Florence K.
2011-2012
