Norwegian violinist Sonoko Miriam Welde (b.1996) is the winner of “Virtuos” and the Norwegian Soloist Prize 2014, and the Equinor Classical Music Scholarship 2016. As a soloist she performed with orchestras such the Oslo Philharmonic, Royal Philharmonic, Bergen Philharmonic, Norwegian Radio Orchestra, WDR Sinfonieorchester Köln, Bournemouth Symphony, and Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne, and conductors including Andrew Litton, James Gaffigan, Han-Na Chang, Marta Gardolinska, Joshua Weilerstein and Edward Gardner.
An enthusiastic chamber musician, Sonoko has been championed by Leif Ove Andsnes, with whom she performs regularly, and has also worked with Tabea Zimmermann, Clemens Hagen, Sergio Tiempo, Gidon Kremer, Alisa Weilerstein, Jonathan Biss and Janine Jansen. She is a founding member of the string quartet Opus13, who took second prize in the 2022 Banff International String Quartet Competition.
In 2021, she released her debut album, of Bruch and Barber violin concertos and The Lark Ascending with the Oslo Philharmonic on LAWO Classics. It was nominated for the Norwegian “Spellemannprisen” in the classical music category and received raving reviews from publications such as Gramophone, BBC Music Magazine and The Strad.
Sonoko currently studies with Janine Jansen in Sion, and formerly studied with Stephan Barratt-Due in Oslo and Kolja Blacher in Berlin. In 2018-2020 she was part of the Crescendo Mentoring Program.
Sonoko was recently announced as the new artistic director of Vinterfestspill i Bergstaden, a chamber music festival in Røros, Norway.
She plays a 1736 Antonio Stradivarius, the 'Spencer Dyke', generously on loan from Anders Sveaas' Almennyttige Fond.
Artists
