Sophie Branson is a British–Swiss violinist, born in Tokyo in 2006. In September 2026 she will be starting her BM with Prof. Svetlana Makarova at HEMU Lausanne. She has studied since the age of four in the violin studio of Liana Tretiakova at the Zakhar Bron School of Music in Zurich, Switzerland and from 2021 also with Prof. Zakhar Bron at his Academy in Interlaken.
At nineteen, Sophie is a prize-winner of the Wieniawski and Lipinski International Competition in Poland (2024) and the Competition in Memory of David Oistrakh (2023), as well as a winner of numerous national and international competitions as a soloist and chamber musician, including Zurich Youth Classical Competition 2026 and SJMW in Switzerland (2026, 2021, 2019).
In 2022, Sophie made her debut at the Tonhalle Zurich, performing Mozart’s Violin Concerto in G major, K.216 with the Zurich Symphony Orchestra. She returned to the Tonhalle in 2025, appearing with the Bodensee Philharmonie with Brahms’ Violin Concerto and with the Zurich Symphony Orchestra with Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto.
In 2021, Sophie was accepted as an active participant at the Kronberg Academy Masterclasses in the class of Prof. Pavel Vernikov, and in 2023 and 2026 she received full scholarships to attend courses at the Liechtenstein Music Academy with Prof. Latica Honda-Rosenberg and Prof. Ingolf Turban.
Further highlights of the 2025/2026 concert season included appearances as a soloist with the Bodensee Philharmonie with Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante, with the Südwestdeutsche Kammerorchester Pforzheim with Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto and a duo recital at the Tonhalle Zurich.
At the age of eight, Sophie became a prize-winner of the international “Crescendo” Competition in Geneva, where she made her debut as a soloist with the chamber orchestra Soloists of Neuchâtel under the baton of Sergei Ostrovsky, performing Bach’s Violin Concerto in A minor. In the same year, she appeared as a soloist with the Pskov Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Arif Dadashev, performing concertos by Bach and Vivaldi.
Since then, Sophie has appeared regularly as a soloist with symphony and chamber orchestras such as Zürcher Symphoniker, Bodensee Philharmonie, National Philharmonic Orchestra of Moldova, Camerata Tchaikovsky and Sinfonietta Sofia, performing concertos by Bach, Brahms, Bruch, Mendelssohn, Mozart, Wieniawski, and Sibelius, as well as virtuosic works by Wieniawski, Sarasate, Tchaikovsky, Stravinsky and Waxman. 

In 2018, Sophie participated together with 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 has also performed Stravinsky’s Italian Suite. Both performances received excellent reviews in “The Strad”.

Since 2021 Sophie is playing on a violin by Stefan Peter Greiner.