British–Swiss violinist Sophie Branson was born in Tokyo in 2006. In September 2026, she will begin her Bachelor of Music studies at HEMU Lausanne with Professor Svetlana Makarova. Sophie has studied violin since the age of four in the studio of Liana Tretiakova at the Zakhar Bron School of Music in Zurich, Switzerland, and since 2021 has also studied with Professor Zakhar Bron at his Academy in Interlaken.

 

At twenty, Sophie is a prize-winner of the 2024 Wieniawski and Lipinski International Competition in Poland and the 2023 Competition in Memory of David Oistrakh. She has received numerous awards at national and international competitions as a soloist and chamber musician, including first prizes at the Zurich Youth Classical Competition (2026) and the Swiss Youth Music Competition (2026, 2021, 2019).

 

Sophie made her debut at the Tonhalle Zurich in 2022, performing Mozart’s Violin Concerto in G major, K.216 with the Zurich Symphony Orchestra. She returned to the Tonhalle in 2025, performing Brahms’ Violin Concerto with the Bodensee Philharmonie, Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto with the Zurich Symphony Orchestra, and appearing in a duo recital.

 

The 2025/2026 season included appearances as a soloist with the Bodensee Philharmonie performing Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante, with the Südwestdeutsche Kammerorchester Pforzheim performing Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto, and a recital at the Tonhalle Zurich. Upcoming engagements in the 2026/2027 season include Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto with the Ensemble Symphonique de Genève under the direction of Sergey Ostrovsky and Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto in E minor with the Zürcher Symphoniker, both at the Tonhalle Zurich.

 

Sophie has participated in internationally recognised masterclasses and academies, including the Kronberg Academy Masterclasses in 2021 in the class of Professor Pavel Vernikov. In 2023 and 2026, she received full scholarships to attend the Liechtenstein Music Academy, where she worked with Professor Latica Honda-Rosenberg and Professor Ingolf Turban. She has also participated in Academia Santa Cecilia with Professors Pavel Vernikov and Svetlana Makarova.

 

Alongside her studies, Sophie has also received artistic impulses from violinists including Vadim Gluzman, Maxim Vengerov and Kirill Troussov.

 

Her concert experience began at the age of eight, when Sophie became a prize-winner of the international “Crescendo” Competition in Geneva and made her solo debut with the chamber orchestra Soloists of Neuchâtel under the direction of Sergei Ostrovsky, performing Bach’s Violin Concerto in A minor.

 

Since then, Sophie has appeared regularly as a soloist with orchestras including the Zürcher Symphoniker, Bodensee Philharmonie, National Philharmonic Orchestra of Moldova, Camerata Tchaikovsky and Sinfonietta Sofia, as well as with the Gringolts Quartet and ZKO Quartet. Her repertoire includes concertos by Bach, Brahms, Bruch, Mendelssohn, Mozart, Wieniawski and Sibelius, alongside virtuoso works by Wieniawski, Sarasate, Tchaikovsky, Stravinsky and Waxman.

 

In 2018, Sophie participated alongside Vadim Repin, Alexander Buzlov and Ilva Eigus in the world premiere of Daniel Schnyder’s Concerto Grosso “iGeneration” at the Trans-Siberian Art Festival. With the Novosibirsk Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra, she also performed Stravinsky’s Italian Suite. Both performances received excellent reviews in The Strad.

 

Since 2021, Sophie has performed on a violin made by Stefan Peter Greiner.