Sonoko Miriam Welde is one of the most exciting young violinists to emerge from Norway in recent years. Born in Bergen in 1996 she made her debut with the Bergen Philharmonic aged nine and has since gone on to win the Norwegian Soloist Prize, Virtuos competition and the Equinor Classical Music Scholarship.
Her appearances include concertos with Oslo Philharmonic, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Bournemouth Symphony, Bergen Philharmonic, Trondheim Symphony, Norwegian Radio Orchestra, WDR Sinfonieorchester Köln, Stavanger Symphony, Combattimento Consort Amsterdam, Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne, Kremerata Baltica, Zagreb Soloists, Oslo Camerata, and the Estonian Chamber Orchestra with conductors including Andrew Litton, James Gaffigan, Joshua Weilerstein, Han-Na Chang, Marta Gardolińska 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, Alisa Weilerstein, Jonathan Biss, Sergio Tiempo and Janine Jansen. She appears frequently at the Bergen International Festival and has performed at Risør Chamber Music Festival, ArtLink Belgrade, Oslo Chamber Music Festival, International Chamber Music Festival Utrecht, Grachtenfestival Amsterdam, and Rosendal Festival.
She is a founding member of the string quartet Opus13 with whom she won 2nd Prize at the prestigious Banff International String Quartet Competition in 2022.
Since 2020 Sonoko has been a student of Janine Jansen at the Haute École de Musique in Sion, Switzerland. She has previously studied with Stephan Barratt-Due at the Barratt Due Institute in Oslo and Kolja Blacher at the Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler Berlin, and has benefitted from regular lessons with Vilde Frang. In 2018-2020 she was a part of the Crescendo programme.
She plays a 1736 Antonio Stradivarius, the 'Spencer Dyke', generously on loan from Anders Sveaas' Almennyttige Fond.
Photo: Nadia Norskott