An exciting double bill combining the London premiere of Estonian kannel zither player Mari Kalkun and music by the innovative string duo Fran & Flora.

You might also like ‘Q&A: Mari Kalkun in conversation with Simon Broughton’ at 7pm in St Pancras Room tonight.

‘As singer, writer and instrumentalist Mari is a musician whose work is a jewel in the rich Estonian scene.’ Fiona Talkington, Songlines

From Estonia, kannel zither player Mari Kalkun brings her captivating solo show. Her recent album Ilmamötsan means ‘In the Wood of the World’ in the Võru language of south Estonia and it uses the forest to look both outwards and inwards. On stage she tells wonderful stories. Kalkun can strum her 12-string kannel with rock ‘n’ roll attitude. She says ‘as soon as I touched the instrument it felt so natural the first songs started to come straight away. As a songwriter I feel it’s always important to add my own touch. If I quote a traditional song, I like to make it my own.’

Listen to our Kings Place podcast featuring Mari Kalkun in conversation with Songlines Editor-in-Chief Simon Broughton.

Violinist Flora Curzon and cellist Francesca Ter-Berg are both established collaborators and string players. They’ve worked with Sam Lee, Talvin Singh, Portico Quartet and many others. On their debut album Unfurl they combine traditional Transylvanian, klezmer, Romanian, Greek and Armenian sounds as learned from masters of these traditions.