Biography
Personal Life
Born 26 August 1997 in Vienna, Austria
Education
Primary school with the Vienna Boys‘ Choir (Wiener Sängerknaben) and subsequently at the “Evangelische Volkschule” at Karlsplatz.
In June 2015, she passed her A-Levels (Matura) at Musikgymnasium Neustiftgasse in Vienna.
Studies
When she was 6 years old, Sophia was accepted into the special class for highly gifted students (Hochbegabtenlehrgang) of the Vienna University of Music. Her first teachers were Ms. Marina Sorokowa, Ulla and Veronika Schulz in the class of Prof. Gerhard Schulz. From 2013 until 2018, she studied with Prof. Leonid Sorokow as a regular student at the University of Music and Performing Arts, Vienna. Since 2018, she has been a student of Prof. Elisabeth Kropfitsch at the same university.
Since 2017, she has also been inscribed as a regular student of Prof. Violeta Smailovic-Huart at the Schola Cantorum in Paris.
Competitions
At the age of 6, Sophia won first prize with distinction at the Prima la Musica Youth Music Competition in Vienna.
In April 2019, she won the international Alexandre Glazounov competition in Paris.
Master classes
She regularly attends master classes both in Austria and abroad, with, among others:
- Prof. Michael Frischenschlager (A,J)
- Prof. Gerhard Schulz (A)
- Eszter Haffner (A, IT, HU)
- Chia Hong Drapal Liao (J)
- Violeta Smailovic-Huart (F)
- Prof. András Csontha (HU)
- Jan Bjoranger (IT)
- Bard Monsen (IT)
- Ani Kavafian (IT)
- Luc-Marie Aguera (IT)
- Regina Brandstätter (A)
and many more…
Important concerts
In July 2015, she played Mozart‘s Sinfonia Concertante with orchestra at the MuTh – Concertsaal of the Vienna Boys’ Choir; in January 2016, she played Mendelssohn’s Concerto in E minor with orchestra.
In June 2018, she played a charity concert, “Voices of Migration“ together with Juilliard University professor Bärli Nugent at the Vienna International Center in Vienna.
In October 2019, she returned to the stage of the MuTh Concert Hall in Vienna together with opera singer Valentina Nafornita for a charity concert.
She plays solo concerts with Eduard Kutrowatz (founder of the Liszt Festival in Raiding) for example as part of the “Schubertiade” festival in Vienna’s Konzerthaus.
In December 2019, she performed together with the Hungarian opera singer Eszter Sümegi in Budapest, Hungary.
Experience
For three years, Sophia was the concert master and also a soloist of the Orchestra of “Musikgymnasium Wien” giving concerts at the “Wiener Musikverein” and at the “Wiener Konzerthaus”. As such, she played numerous performances every year, both as a soloist and as a member of different chamber music ensembles, including as a café violinist.
She is passionate about chamber music, string quartets, duets, and has played in various chamber music formations as first violinist. She debuted as a café violinist in February 2014 at the Palace of Justice in Vienna. She has her own string quartet (since mid-2016).
She has gathered experience as an orchestra member working with a number of different orchestras, including the orchestra of the “Musikgymnasium Wien”, Strauß Festival Orchester, Mozartorchester, Kamerata Schulz, Schloss Schönbrunn Orchester, Salonorchester Alt-Wien im Kursalon as well as a number of smaller ensemble formations. She has also repeatedly been offered fixed-term contracts with the orchestra of Vereinigte Bühnen Wien since 2016.
She is a member of the “Live Music Now“ Foundation that was supported by Yehudi Menuhin.
Repertoire
Her repertoire includes the major violin concertos of Bruch, Wieniawski, Mozart, Saint-Saens, Mendelssohn, Sibelius, Khachaturian, Prokofiev, Brahms, Glazounov … as well as sonatas, suites and recital pieces by Beethoven, Franck, Haydn, Mozart, Sinding, Bach, Bartók, Ysaye, Paganini, Ravel, Brahms, Schubert, Richard Strauss and many more.
