Biography

Sophie Branson was born in Tokyo in 2006 in the family of a British mathematician and a violinist from Russia. From the age of four, she is studying in the violin studio of Liana Tretiakova at the Zakhar Bron School of Music in Zurich, Switzerland. She’s a student of the Art and Sport Gymnasium Rämibühl in Zurich and the Pre-College of the Zurich University of the Arts. 

She has attended master classes of Prof. Zakhar Bron, Prof. Latica Honda Rosenberg, Maxim Vengerov, Daniel Hope and Alexandra Soumm at the Menton Music Festival, the Zakhar Bron Academy in Interlaken and the Salzburg Summer Academy. She’s also a scholarship holder of the International Music Academy in Liechtenstein and takes part in the intensive weeks and activities held there.

At the age of fifteen, Sophie is a winner of numerous national and international competitions. She won the 1^st prize at the “Swiss Youth Music Competition” in 2022 and 2019 in the duo category, the 1^st prize at the “Premio di Padova” in 2017, the 1^st prize at the “Nouvelles Etoiles International Competition” in 2021 and the 1^st prize at the “Rising Star International Competition” in Riga in 2020. 

At the age of eight, Sophie became a prize winner of the “International Competition Crescendo” in Geneva, where in the final round she made her debut as a soloist with the chamber orchestra Soloists of Neuchâtel under the baton of Sergei Ostrovsky, and performed the Bach Concerto in A-minor. In the same year, she appeared as a soloist with the Pskov Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Arif Dadashev (Moscow) with concertos of Bach and Vivaldi. Since then, Sophie has appeared regularly as a soloist with symphony and chamber orchestras in Geneva (Switzerland), Paris (France), in Novosibirsk, Omsk, Toliatti (Russia), Minsk (Belarus) and has performed concertos by Bach, Vivaldi, Mozart and Wieniawski and virtuosic pieces by Vitali, Sarasate and Stravinsky. 

In 2018, Sophie participated together with Vadim Repin, Alexander Buzlov and Ilva Eigus in the world premiere of Daniel Schnyder’s Concerto Grosso “iGeneration” at the Trans-Siberian Art Festival. With the Novosibirsk Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra, she also performed Stravinsky’s Italian Suite. Both performances received excellent reviews in “The Strad”. At the Menton Music Festival 2018, Sophie performed at the Cocteau Museum as part of the Young Artists series. She also performed at the Bolshoi Theater at the festival Moscow Meets Friends at the invitation of the Spivakov Foundation and at the Zaubersee Festival in Lucerne. 

Since 2021, Sophie is playing on a violin generously loaned to her by Stefan Peter Greiner.