Canadian violinist Dr. Sophia Szokolay is celebrated for her “stirring and singing tone” (Martha’s Vineyard Gazette), captivating audiences across Canada, the United States, and Europe. Based in Boston, she combines a vibrant performance schedule with a deep commitment to pedagogy and musical scholarship, teaching violin and chamber music at Brandeis University.
Sophia appears regularly with ensembles such as the Cape Cod Chamber Orchestra, Delirium Musicum, Palaver Strings, and A Far Cry. She is a passionate advocate for new music, having premiered works by György Kurtág, James Lee III, Shulamit Ran, and JörgWidmann.
This season, Sophia will give the North American premiere of her grandfather Sándor Szokolay’s Violin Concerto with the Cape Cod Chamber Orchestra, and the debut of Collective Voices, a set of new commissions for violin and piano exploring cultural identity and migration, at New England Conservatory’s Jordan Hall.
Sophia earned her Doctor of Musical Arts degree from The New England Conservatory where she served as Donald Weilerstein's teaching assistant and taught an undergraduate course on Bartók’s string quartets. She previously studied at The Juilliard School with Catherine Cho and Miriam Fried.
Beyond music, she enjoys distance running and cycling, and is training for the 2025 New York City Marathon.
“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
“A particular highlight was concertmaster Szokolay’s masterful embodiment of “Friend Henry,” Mahler’s representation of Death as a comrade leading all souls in a Totentanz, a dance of death, in the second movement [of the Fourth Symphony]. The moment Szokolay switched to a violin tuned a whole step higher than standard, a ripple went through the audience. With fiery intensity, she captured the grotesque spirit of the role, balanced with moments of lyrical beauty, and onlookers were hypnotized by the unsettling dance.” -Kathy May Tran 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.