This performance by violinist Sophia Szokolay and pianist Sophiko Simsive took place on Saturday, February 15, 2020 at 7:30 pm.

• Program
• About the Artists
  • Sophia Anna Szokolay
  • Sophiko Simsive

Program

About the Artists

Sophia Anna Szokolay

Canadian violinist Sophia Anna Szokolay has performed across Canada, the United States and Europe as a recitalist and chamber musician. She is a Doctoral Candidate at the New England Conservatory and a member of the chamber music faculty at the NEC pre-college program.

Sophia has performed with A Far Cry, the Etobicoke Philharmonic, Győr Philharmonic, Narragansett Bay Symphony, Scarborough Philharmonic, and Toronto Sinfonietta. Equally at home with chamber and orchestral repertoire, Sophia plays with the Cape Cod Chamber Orchestra, Juventas New Music Ensemble, and Phoenix Chamber Orchestra. Her love of new music has previously led to work with composers Brett Dean, John Heiss, David Ludwig, James MacMillan, and Jörg Widmann. In 2021 she gave the North American premiere of Widmann’s String Quartet No. 7.

Sophia held Teaching and Community Engagement Fellowships at The Juilliard School where she worked with violin and music theory students at Opportunity Music Project and at Thurgood Marshall Academy Lower School. In 2020, she performed online for ICU Covid-19 patients and their families across the United States with Project: Music Heals Us, she curated an online Music and Movement class for toddlers and led music appreciation workshops at Lenox Hill Women’s Shelter.

Sophia received her Bachelor of Music degree from the New England Conservatory with a Minor in Music Theory, and her Master’s Degree from Juilliard. Her teachers include Catherine Cho, Miriam Fried, and Donald Weilerstein.

Sophia’s other passions include photography and running. She competed in the TCS Toronto Marathon in October 2022.

Sophiko Simsive

Georgian pianist Sophiko Simsive began piano lessons with her mother at age three. While still a child, she was invited to perform the Beethoven 2nd concerto at the Beethoven Festival in Bonn, leading eventually to a concert tour throughout the Netherlands, as soloist with the I Virtuosi Italiani under Lev Markiz in Rotterdam, Utrecht, Leiden, and Groningen.

Sophiko won both the 1st Prize and the Audience prize at the Princess Christina Competition in Holland. While a student there, she also won top prizes in competitions in Amsterdam (Yamaha, Grachtenfestival, and The Young Pianists Foundation), in Utrecht, and in Italy. More recently, Sophiko won piano concerto competitions at Yale, the Music Academy of the West, and the Manhattan School of Music.

Sophiko’s undergraduate studies began under Mila Baslavskaja at the Sweelinck Conservatory in Amsterdam. After graduating cum laude with a BM degree, she studied with Jacques Rouvier at Universität der Künste. Sophiko earned MM and MMA degrees at the Yale School of Music under Boris Berman and is currently working on a doctorate at the Manhattan School of Music under the direction of Solomon Mikowsky.