About

CELLIST

“Passionate yet thoughtful… sublime to hear.”

~TIME OUT CHICAGO

“Sophie Webber is an extraordinary musician and a first-rate cellist. Her spirit is always warm and engaging and her playing is consistently compelling.”

~Dale Warland

British Cellist Dr. Sophie Webber is an internationally accomplished soloist, chamber musician, and educator. She has received many awards and prizes for her playing, including the Sir John Barbirolli memorial prize for Cello, Indianapolis Matinee Musicale Graduate Strings Prize, Zumaia International Chamber Music Festival First and Public Prize, and Finalist for Oxfordshire Young Musician of the Year.

She has released two critically acclaimed albums; "Escape: Six Suites for Solo Cello by J.S.Bach" (January 2018) and "B2C: Bach Cello to Choir" (April 2020), recorded with members of the Chicago's Choir of the Ascension. Both recordings were audio-engineered by multi grammy-winning audio engineer, Chris Willis.

COMPOSER/ARRANGER

A Segue to "Escape": Sophie recorded "B2C: Bach to

Choir" in late 2019; her own choral arrangement sung

alongside Solo Cello Bach Suites Nos. 1 and 3, in collaboration

with choral director Ben Rivera and members of Chicago's Choir

of the Ascension. The goal of this project was to highlight the

implied harmonies in Bach's Suites for Solo Cello, and to open

them up to a wider and more diverse audience. The recording

was made possible thanks to a successful kickstarter campaign

in the spring of 2019.

In the last couple of years, Sophie has been creating many

arrangements of music, as well as writing original compositions.

In 2018, she performed Paganini's Theme and Variations on One

String for Solo Cello accompanied by her own orchestral

arrangement (performed by San Diego's New City Sinfonia).

In addition to a number of ballads for voice, piano/voice, and

cello, she composed "Journey Home" in 2016, a work for live

solo cello and electronics, which speaks to the colorful life and many

struggles endured by substance abuse-survivor and counselor

Amanda Longe.

EDUCATION/EDUCATOR

A former DM student of Janos Starker and Tsuyoshi Tsutsumi at Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, Sophie previously studied with Richard Markson at Trinity College of Music, London, from where she graduated with a First Class Honors degree.

A passionate and dedicated teacher herself, Sophie has served as cello faculty at Southeast Missouri State University, Jacobs School of Music Summer Clinic, Oxford Cello School, Trinity College of Music Junior Department, Lake Forest College and the Music Institute of Chicago. Also a keen music theorist, Sophie held a position as Music Theory Instructor at Indiana University for four years and has taught a variety of university level courses.

Currently, Sophie runs a small private teaching studio in San Diego, "Dr. Sophie Cello Lab." Her students have served as section and principal cellists in the Chicago and San Diego Youth Symphony Orchestras, have won or been placed in regional and national competitions (such as State Youth Concerto Competitions, the Society of American Musicians Competition, MidWest Young Artists Discover National Chamber Music Competition, Confucius Chinese Fine Arts Society Competition, and the Walgreen National Concerto Competition) and have gone on to study cello performance at some of the nation's top music schools.

Teaching reviews can be found here.

SOCIAL OUTREACH

An ardent pioneer in social outreach, awareness of marginalization, and healing through the arts, Sophie founded Fused Muse Ensemble (FME) in 2009. This Illinois 501c3 has a mission to increase awareness of social issues through new artistic works that integrate music with other media, and to amplify voices too often left unheard. Topics that the ensemble has been exploring to date include homelessness, domestic violence, trafficking, and engaging with the environment. For further information about FME, please visit www.fusedmuseensemble.com.