Livia Sohn, Violin

Biography

Hailed by Opus Magazine as "a stunning musician", violinist Livia Sohn performs widely on the international stage as concerto soloist, recitalist, and festival guest in Europe, North America, South America, Asia, Africa, and New Zealand. The Strad Magazine says "Livia Sohn possesses a 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."

This past season saw Ms. Sohn performing such wide-ranging concertos as Paganini and Bruch to Britten and Rorem, with orchestras in North America as well as in China and Italy. Highlights from this season sees her playing Dvorak and Barber Concertos in Los Angeles and Budapest, as well as recitals in Tokyo and New York. In 2007, a concerto called "Jiyeh", by Israeli-American composer Jonathan Berger, was written for and premiered by Ms. Sohn. This season "Jiyeh" will be released on CD, together with the Britten Concerto.

Ms. Sohn gave her first public performance at age eight. In 1989, at the age of 12, she won First Prize in the Yehudi Menuhin International Violin Competition, where she was also awarded the Audience Prize. She attended the Juilliard Pre-College Division from the age of seven, at which time she began her studies with Dorothy DeLay and Hyo Kang. She continued under their tutelage at The Juilliard School, where she also studied chamber music with Felix Galamir. She plays on a J. B. Guadagnini violin crafted in 1770 and a Samuel Zygmuntowicz made in 2006. She has been on faculty at the Music Department of Stanford University since 2005.