Serafina Steer

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Serafina Steer
Serafina performing at Corbet Place, 2006.
Background information
Born	1982 in London, England
Genre(s)	Kitchen Sink, Folk, Classical
Instrument(s)	Harp, Keyboard
Label(s)	Static Caravan
Website	Official website

Serafina Steer (born 1982) is an English harpist, pianist, singer and songwriter from Oxford.

[edit] Career

Serafina graduated with a First Class Honours degree in Music from Trinity College of Music, London, where she was awarded the String Faculty Silver Medal. She went on to do a four year fellowship at Dartington, where she undertook a collaborative study of Western and Indian music under the direction of Ravi Shankar.

During this time Serafina began developing her song writing and this has become her primary interest, though she has continued with Orchestral work both in England and abroad as a means of supporting herself whilst developing her career.

In 2007 Serafina released a 7" single and an album entitled Cheap Demo Bad Science on Static Caravan records. Both were recorded and produced by Mike Lindsay of folktronica band Tunng. The album opens with a simple cover of Brian Eno's By This River but all other songs are her own. Her compositions are a mixture of thoughtfully written everyday vignettes, and slightly upsetting dreams. They are played and sung with great beauty and skill, clearly revealing her classical training.

A live recording of her playing songs from her album and an interview discussing comparisons to Joanna Newsom can be seen on the BBC website:[1]

[edit] Collaborations

Serafina has also appeared both live and on record with other musicians including Tunng, Capitol K, Cibelle, The Memory Band and Shimmy Rivers and and Canal.

She has also been known to perform with her brother Sam Steer who did the animation for the video to her song Tiger in his room in Camberwell:[2]

[edit] Discography

Albums

Cheap Demo Bad Science, 2007, Static Caravan

Singles

Peach Heart bw/ Mano E Mano, 2007, Static Caravan

Compilations

The Ground Bellow Me (Capitol K version of Seven Bridge), 2006 from Utrophia 03 Utrophia
Cheap Demo Bad Science (They Came From The Stars, I Saw Them version) 2007, 93 Free CDs
Uncomfortable (Capitol K version), 2007, Stolen Comp, Stolen Recordings