Lucy Southern

About Lucy

Biographie

Lucy Southern is an American crossover violinist based in France, known for her expressive jazz improvisation and versatility across styles and genres. Equally at home in jazz, gypsy jazz, classical and contemporary music, she has performed and recorded with a wide range of ensembles and artists, touring throughout Europe and appearing in venues and festivals across France and abroad. Her work as a violinist is rooted in a strong classical foundation while embracing the spontaneity, freedom and improvisational language of jazz.

Originally from the San Francisco Bay Area, Lucy began playing violin at the age of five. She studied with Ellen Rose and later with Irene Sazer, co-founder of the Grammy Award-winning Turtle Island Quartet. During her early years, she participated in programs at the Crowden School and performed with the Berkeley Youth Orchestra before continuing her studies at San Francisco State University School of Music. There, she studied with members of the Alexander String Quartet and earned a Bachelor of Music degree in violin performance, graduating Summa Cum Laude. She was also awarded the Shenson Foundation Award for her final recital.

Drawn to the rich tradition of jazz violin and inspired by a desire for adventure, Lucy moved to Paris, where she quickly became active in the city’s jazz scene. She deepened her jazz studies at the Didier Lockwood School and with acclaimed jazz violinist Pierre Blanchard at the Aubervilliers Conservatory. During this time, she founded the Gypsy Messengers, a group dedicated to the tradition of gypsy jazz, with whom she performed extensively, including on the small stage of the Django Reinhardt Festival.

Her work across genres has led her to perform in a wide variety of musical settings and prestigious venues, including Paris’s Église de la Madeleine, Café Jazz Montparnasse and the Andernos Jazz Festival. She has also toured extensively throughout Europe as a violinist with the renowned French contemporary circus company Akoreacro, bringing her improvisational and versatile approach to a multidisciplinary performance environment.

In 2022, Lucy was selected as one of the top ten semi-finalists in the Zbigniew Seifert International Jazz Violin Competition in Lusławice, Poland, the leading international competition dedicated to jazz violin. In 2025, she released her first EP under her own name, marking a new chapter in her work as a bandleader and composer. She continues to develop her personal artistic voice through her own projects and collaborations, and in 2026 will release a new album with the Ozanne/Southern Project, a quintet she co-leads.