Biography

Violinist Livia Sohn has built an international career as a concerto soloist, recitalist, chamber musician, and festival artist. Opus Magazine has called her “a stunning musician,” while The Strad Magazine praised her “remarkably lithe and transparent tone of exceptional purity. [Her] virtually blemishless accounts are nothing short of remarkable. Even when under the most fearsome technical pressure at high velocity, every note rings true with pinpoint accuracy.”

Sohn has appeared as soloist with orchestras throughout North America, including the Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Seattle, Milwaukee, Austin, Phoenix, and Boston Pops orchestras, and internationally with the Budapest Philharmonic, Berlin Symphony, Cologne Philharmonic, Iceland Symphony, Czech National Symphony, City of London Sinfonia, and orchestras throughout China, Mexico, South Africa, and New Zealand. Her collaborations have included conductors such as Yehudi Menuhin, Jesús López-Cobos, James DePreist, Gerard Schwarz, Myung-Whun Chung, Lukas Foss, Jane Glover, and Junichi Hirokami.

An avid chamber musician, Livia has been a guest artist at the Kuhmo Chamber Music Festival in Finland, Banff Centre for the Arts in Canada, Cartagena International Music Festival in Colombia, Spoleto Festival USA, Aspen Music Festival, Caramoor International Music Festival, Montana Chamber Music, Edmonton Chamber Music Society, Newport Music Festival, Chamber Music Chicago, Bay Chamber Concerts, Maverick Concerts, Brevard Festival, Sewanee Summer Music Festival, Prince Albert Music Festival in Hawaii, Festival of the Sound and Pender Harbour Music Festival in Canada, and Festival de San Miguel de Allende in Mexico.

In recital, Livia has appeared at New York City’s Mostly Mozart Festival, Chicago’s Ravinia Festival, Washington D.C.’s National Gallery of Art, Stanford University’s Lively Arts series, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum and Jordan Hall in Boston, Dame Myra Hess series in Chicago, Gwinnett Performing Arts Center in Atlanta, Xavier University in Cincinnati, University of Connecticut, Peace Center for the Performing Arts in South Carolina, and the Broad Stage in Los Angeles.

As a founding member of MoVE (Modern Violin Ensemble), a quartet of violinists, Livia is dedicated to expanding the repertoire for four violins through new commissions and multidisciplinary collaborations. Their debut album features thirteen world-premiere recordings, released on the Phenotypic label.

Livia has developed particularly strong relationships with living composers outside MoVE as well. Recent projects include the world premiere of a new violin and piano work by Jonathan Berger at The Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C., and a new violin concerto entitled “Agrifolia”, written for her by cellist-composer Paul Wiancko. The concerto was co-commissioned by Spoleto Festival USA, Rogue Valley Symphony Orchestra, and Palaver Strings.

Livia can be heard on the Naxos label in the CDs “Opera Fantasies, Volumes 1 and 2”, which features opera arrangements for violin and piano with pianist Benjamin Loeb; “Miracles and Mud”, featuring works for solo violin by Jonathan Berger; on the Eloquentia label in recordings of the Britten Violin Concerto; Schubert and Saint-Saëns piano trios; and on iTunes performing the Dvorak and Khachaturian Concertos in a live recording with the Budapest Philharmonic Orchestra.

Sohn gave her first public performance at age eight and, at thirteen, won First Prize and the Audience Prize at the Yehudi Menuhin International Violin Competition. She studied at The Juilliard School under Dorothy DeLay and Hyo Kang and also studied chamber music with Felix Galamir.

Livia is the founder of Coast Live Music, a nonprofit organization she created to bring dynamic and engaging musical experiences to the coastal community she and her family call home, from concert halls to hospitals, classrooms, and prisons. Rooted in Livia’s belief that music is a universal language, Coast Live seeks to reach audiences of all ages, from preschoolers to senior citizens, through its concerts and community outreach.

She is currently on the violin and chamber music faculty at Stanford University in California. She performs on a 1770 J. B. Guadagnini violin and a 2006 Samuel Zygmuntowicz violin.