Lauded for her “stirring, singing tone” by Martha’s Vineyard Gazette, Canadian violinist Sophia Szokolay has captivated audiences across Canada, the United States, and Europe. Based in Boston, Sophia balances a busy schedule as a recitalist and chamber musician while completing her Doctorate at the New England Conservatory, where she serves as Donald Weilerstein’s teaching assistant.
Equally at home with chamber and orchestral repertoire, Sophia plays with the Cape Cod Chamber Orchestra, Palaver Strings, Delirium Musicum, and Phoenix Chamber Orchestra, led by music director Joshua Weilerstein. Her passion for new music has led her to work with notable living composers and to give many premieres, including Jörg Widmann’s String Quartet No. 7 at the YellowBarn Festival, Sid Richardson’s “Tide Tiding Time”, at Jordan Hall, James Lee III’s third string quartet, “Untranslatable” at the Ravinia Festival, commissioned in honor of Miriam Fried’s 30 years as director of the Steans Institute.
Sophia held Teaching and Community Engagement Fellowships at The Juilliard School where she worked with violin and music theory students at Opportunity Music Project and at Thurgood Marshall Academy Lower School. In 2020, she performed online for ICU Covid-19 patients and their families across the United States with Project: Music Heals Us. She curated an online Music and Movement class for toddlers and led music appreciation workshops at Lenox Hill Women’s Shelter.
Sophia received her Bachelor of Music from the New England Conservatory with a Minor in Music Theory, and her Master’s degree from Juilliard. Her teachers include Catherine Cho, Miriam Fried, and Donald Weilerstein.
Sophia’s passions outside of music include photography, distance running, and cycling.
“The extended first movement of Bartók’s Violin Concerto No. 2 impressed this writer as the most complex, chewy and rewarding absolute music of the afternoon, and soloist Sophia Szokolay showed herself more than equal to its demands. Quietly erupting from Balkan prehistory, she shunned theatrical trappings, bringing convincing high seriousness that apotheosized the composer’s boiling region in a paean of refined acceptance. Always she found lyric elements in the most dramatic challenges; she evinced a serene composure that directed her astonishing chops to the most satisfying musical ends. Zander and the orchestra partnered as true collaborators.” -Lee Eiseman for the Boston Musical Intelligencer
“Concertmaster Sophia Szokolay gave a fervent reading of her short moments in the spotlight during the Tannhäuser Overture.” -Jonathan Blumhofer for The Arts Fuse
“Sophia is an extraordinary and gifted teacher. She is not only passionate about teaching the violin, but also is patient and inspiring. Her expansive knowledge of musicianship allows her to point out subtleties in the music that students might otherwise not even be aware of. My son is studying both musicianship and violin with Sophia and she has had a considerable influence on him.”
-Parandis T.