I was born Flora Herriman in 1966 to a sculptor and a political activist, who were at that time both graduate students at Michigan State University. We soon moved to the Chicago area, which is where I spent most of my childhood. The oldest of four kids, I was raised in an atmosphere of countercultural domesticity that included joining my parents on peace marches and picket lines, socialist picnics, labor union summer camps, and big pancake breakfasts every Sunday with Bob Dylan playing on the stereo. Fortunately my parents had eclectic musical tastes, so in addition to the high quality folk and pop music that was our daily fare (Pete Seeger, Ella Jenkins, Bob Dylan, Paul Simon, Peggy Seeger, Joni Mitchell, Tom Paxton, Judy Collins, etc.) we got large doses of Purcell, Handel, Haydn, Barber, Sibelius, Holst, Coltrane, Horace Silver, Archie Schepp, and much more. My father is a semi-professional folk musician who specializes in labor union folk songs, and though I wanted very badly to follow in his footsteps, I did not, because I didn't believe I could sing.

I started the Trumpet at age 8 in my local elementary school in Oak Park, Illinois, but wasn't very serious about it until around age 12, when I began taking private lessons with Mario O'neglia, the trumpet professor at Montclair State College (by then my family had relocated to Montclair, NJ). Mario's good teaching (including an early introduction to orchestral transpositions and instruction in the lyrical Italian style of trumpet playing) and the encouragement of an inspiring band director(Jeff Bleeke) made me start to think that maybe music was "my thing". After trying out several other instruments including the flute, guitar, saxophone and piano, I decided to get serious about the trumpet. In high school I was lucky enough to play in a chamber orchestra directed by Oscar Ravina, a violinist with the New York Philharmonic, and I was able to attend Montclair's Performing Arts High School, which gave me a chance to go more deeply into theory and composition than I otherwise could have.

During those years I also developed an interest in Jazz, through friends who lent me records by Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, Charles Mingus, Art Farmer, and Kenny Dorham. I started going to Saturday classes at Jazzmobile on 127th Street in NYC, where I got excellent instruction from teachers like Stanton Davis, Eddie Preston, Frank Foster, Frank Wess, and Lyle Atkinson. From them I learned that you can't get away with sloppy sight reading or neglected practicing, and I got to hear top level playing which made a big impression on me; I realized that playing jazz is hard work.

I eventually decided to audition for the pre-college departments at Juilliard and Manhattan School of Music, mostly due to the fact that I was trying to compete with my school's star flute player. To my great surprise, and due to the great work Dr. Oneglia had done with me, I made it into both. I chose to go to Juilliard because they were able to give me a bigger Scholarship, and therefore it would cost less. After a year of study with trumpet professor Ed Treutel, an embouchure change, intensive ear training and theory, and opportunities to play some standard orchestral repertoire, I decided to audition for Juilliard's Bachelor of music program.

I was accepted, and began college level studies there in 1983, at age 17. Juilliard was a difficult place to be at such a young age, and I got both good and bad out of it. The bad included a focus on competition rather than learning, and a tendency towards one-upmanship and musical snobbishness that took a long time to get rid of. The good inculded excellent ear-training and theory, and teachers who imparted to me an understanding and love for the Western Classical Repertoire that has enriched my life every day since then. My trumpet teachers there were Edward Truetel and Mark Gould. I was able to balance the Juilliard experience somewhat with summer studies at the Aspen music festival where I got lessons and coaching from great teachers like Chris Gekker, Louis Ranger, and Ray Mase along with broader opportunities to play through various chamber and orchestral works (funded with scholarships and a job scooping ice cream at the Aspen Baskin-Robbins). The fact that Ray and Chris were based in NY also made it possible to get supplemental lessons with them during the year.
It was in my classes at Juilliard that I was first introduced to historical brass instruments like the cornetto and natural trumpet. Though Juilliard offered no training in those instruments at that time, my Music History Teacher, Doug Hedwig offered me extra credit if I would learn the cornetto well enough to demonstrate it for the class, and I haven't put it down since then.

I graduated in 1987 with my Bachelor of Music in Trumpet Performance, and stayed in New York for a couple of years freelancing. During this time I played frequently with the Kit McClure All-Girl Big Band, and got to tour Japan with them, in addition to various classical, jazz, and latin pick-up jobs in New York. I also continued my early music training at the Amherst Music Festival(during my summers there I studied cornetto with Michael Collver, Doug Kirk, Bruce Dickey, and Jean Tubery), and picked up some natural trumpet lessons with Don Smithers, thanks to my friend Jeff Nussbaum, who used to let me join him in his lessons, becuase he knew I couldn't afford those studies on my own. In 1988, at the suggestion of a drummer I met on a doo-wop gig, I joined the 63rd Army National Guard Band in Sea Girt, NJ, mostly for the extra income. It was there I met my husband JJ, although just a few weeks after we began dating I was offered a job playing principal trumpet in symphony orchestra in Guanajuato, Mexico. I took the job and stayed for a year and a half, playing through lots of great music with a section of former Mariachis, and gradually losing that Juilliard attitude. It was a great place to be, beautiful scenery, great food , wonderful people. My salary, which would have put me below the poverty line in the US, provided a comfortable upper-middle calss living in Mexico. But after a year and a half I began to miss the US (especially my future husband), and decided to return.

Once home I decided to pursue my Jazz training further, and enrolled in the Jazz Studies Program at William Paterson College. Although I did not complete the program there I got a good grounding in Jazz theory and Style, and made my first try at lyric writing, to the Music of Rufus Reid. After winning a small lyric writing contest sponsored by Rufus, I realized that I liked writing, and this launched me into a new area of musical development that would eventually lead me back to my folk-music roots.

Though we are now divorced (but still on good terms)JJ Newberry and I were married in 1993, and in 1994 we had our beautiful daughter Elizabeth; soon after we moved to thr Trenton,NJ area.We all still reside in Roebling,
NJ, site of the factory that made the cables for the Brooklyn Bridge, but I now live with my boyfriend and musical partner, Michael Riley. Mike and I have a duo we call "Mike and Flora", performing originals and covers including rock, folk, pop, jazz and blues styles. I continue to freelance with groups such as Vox Amadeus, I Virtuosi Seicento,Trenton Early Brass, and The Actor's Net Theater. I also teach trumpet at the Westminster Conservatory in Princeton,
NJ, and substitute teach in the public schools.