Sophie Wang

Violinist Sophie Wang is a rising star in the early 2020s in Germany, where her family moved when she was eight. She made her debut at ten at the Festspielhaus in Baden-Baden, Germany. Wang was born in Taiwan in 1999. She is unconnected to the South Carolina-born Sophie Wang, who is a member of the Boston Symphony. She began taking music lessons at five, not only on violin but also on piano. Her family moved to Germany when she was eight, and Wang was enrolled in classes with Ariane Mathäus at the Pflüger Foundation in Freiburg. Among her later teachers were Rainer Kussmaul, Igor Ozim, and Boris Kuschnir. Wang made her concert debut on the violin at the Festspielhaus Baden-Baden, accompanied by the Philharmonie Baden-Baden. By that time, on piano, she had already notched the first in an impressive string of prizes, winning the first prize and the Mozart Prize of the Mozart Society Stuttgart at the International Piano Competition of the German Tonkünstler Verband in 2008. Soon, Wang was racking up violin prizes as well, including those at the International Paul Hindemith Competition Berlin in 2011, the International Louis Spohr Competition in Weimar in 2013, and the Andrea Postacchini International Violin Competition in Fermo, Italy, in 2014. She also began to attract fellowship support: the Youth Classics Sponsorship Award Zurich in 2012 and the CHIMEI Museum & Culture Foundation Arts Award in 2016 and 2017, among others. Wang has appeared at major concert halls in Europe and East Asia, including the Konzerthaus Berlin, the Shenzhen Concert Hall, and the National Concert Hall in Taipei. She has appeared as a soloist with the Salzburg Chamber Soloists, the Russian Chamber Philharmonic St. Petersburg, and the Zurich Chamber Orchestra, among other ensembles, as well as with numerous orchestras around Germany. Moving to Berlin, she enrolled at the Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler, studying with Ning Feng. In 2022, Wang released her debut album, Clara & Robert Schumann, on the CAvi-Music label, with pianist Florian Glemser. A documentary, Island of 1,000 Violins, has traced her career.
© James Manheim /TiVo