Cora Venus Lunny is an Irish musician. Her father is the musician Dónal Lunny. A musician is a person who plays or composes music. ... Dónal Lunny (born 10 March 1947) is an Irish folk musician. ...

Established as one of Ireland's leading classical musicians since her teens, Cora Venus Lunny is active as a soloist, chamber musician, interpreter of contemporary classical music, improvising violinist and composer.

Born into a musical family of Irish and German parents in Dublin, Cora Venus was given her first violin at the age of three, immediately showing a natural aptitude and love for the instrument. A brief fling with movie acting failed to distract her, and a life in music became her goal. From the age of thirteen she studied intensively with highly respected violinists around Europe, including Rimma Sushanskaya, Joji Hattori, Alexander Arenkov, Arkady Futer, Lara Lev and Vladimir Spivakov.

In 2002, Cora was a guest musician on Sinead O'Connor's album of traditional Irish songs, "Sean Nos Nua", her first excursion into the truly "non-classical" world. This inspired her to improvise more and experiment with other genres of music. A few months in Vienna among the classical establishment became an unintentional sabbatical, and confirmed for Cora that despite her love for classical music, she needed to broaden her musical horizons.

A jam with Nigel Kennedy in Dingle in 2002 (filmed for a Philip King documentary) resulted in his inviting her to Berlin with his band, to play some Polish folk music and a bit of Jimi Hendrix. Subsequently, Cora Venus accompanied Kennedy on a tour of Taiwan, Japan and New Zealand as second soloist, playing Vivaldi Double Concertos and the odd bit of Bartok. Cora's musical travels took her as far as Iceland and the Faeroe Islands, and in 2004, she made her first foray into film score composition for Sangrail, an as yet unfinished short. In 2005, she made her debut as a violist in a performance of Mozart's Sinfonia Concertante with Vladimir Spivakov and the Ulster Orchestra at the Waterfront Hall, Belfast.

In recent years, she has toured Europe as a classical violinist as well as guesting on various albums, most recently the long-awaited 9, from Damien Rice. In 2007, she will serve on the international jury of the Sarasate Violin Competition in Pamplona, where she was a laureate in 2001. She is currently working on her own solo recording projects of both classical music and original material.

She has appeared in several Irish films, most recently Man About Dog and Speed Dating.

External links

• Cora Venus Lunny's website
• Cora Venus Lunny's myspace page
• IMDB listing
• Sarasate International Violin Competition
• Interview in Irish Times (requires paid subscription)
• Interview in Irish Independent (requires free subscription)