Sonoko Miriam Welde

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 at the age of nine and has since gone on to win the Norwegian Soloist Prize and the Virtuos competition, as well as representing Norway in the European Broadcasting Union’s Young Musicians Competition. She has been a part of the Crescendo programme, where she was  mentored by Janine Jansen and Leif Ove Andsnes, and a recipient of the Equinor Talent Scholarship.
  Her appearances include concertos with Oslo Philharmonic, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Bournemouth Symphony, Bergen Philharmonic, Trondheim Symphony, Norwegian Radio Orchestra, WDR Symphony Orchestra Cologne, Stavanger Symphony, Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne, Combattimento Consort Amsterdam, 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, Gidon Kremer, 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. In 2014 she founded the Opus13 String Quartet together with friends from her student days in Oslo.
  Her teachers have included Janine Jansen in Sion, Stephan Barratt-Due and Alf Richard Kraggerud in Oslo and Kolja Blacher in Berlin, and she has taken regular lessons with Vilde Frang.
  She plays a 1714 Alessandro Gagliano kindly on loan from Dextra Musica.