Canadian violinist Dr. Sophia Szokolay is celebrated for her “stirring and singing tone” (Martha’s Vineyard Gazette), captivating audiences across Canada, the United States, and Europe. Based in Boston, she combines a vibrant performance schedule with a deep commitment to pedagogy and musical scholarship, teaching violin and chamber music at Brandeis University. 

Sophia appears regularly with ensembles such as the Boston Ballet, Delirium Musicum, Palaver Strings, and the Rhode Island Philharmonic Orchestra. A passionate advocate for new music, she has premiered works by György Kurtág, James Lee III, Shulamit Ran, and JörgWidmann. This season, Sophia debuted Collective Voices, a recital of newly commissioned music for violin and piano centered on themes of migration and belonging. Premiered in New England Conservatory;’s Jordan Hall and supported by a grant from the New England Conservatory, the project amplifies the perspectives of composers whose voices are shaped by diasporic experience and intergenerational memory.

Sophia earned her Doctor of Musical Arts degree from The New England Conservatory where she served as Donald Weilerstein's teaching assistant and taught an undergraduate history course on Bartók’s string quartets. She previously studied at The Juilliard School with Catherine Cho and with Miriam Fried.

Beyond music, she enjoys distance running and cycling, and is training for the 2026 Chicago Marathon.