Biography

Violinist LIVIA SOHN performs widely on the international stage as concerto soloist, recitalist, and festival guest, and has given solo appearances with over 70 orchestras on five continents. The Strad Magazine says “Livia Sohn possesses a remarkably lithe and transparent tone of exceptional purity. [Her] virtually blemishless accounts … are nothing short of remarkable. Even when under the most fearsome technical pressure at high velocity, every note rings true with pinpoint accuracy.”

Highlights from this season sees Livia playing the Britten Violin Concerto in a return appearance with the Edmonton Symphony, a recital presented by Lively Arts at Stanford University, and a tour in Colombia, South America. Last fall Naxos released the disc “Opera Fantasies”, which features Livia and pianist Benjamin Loeb playing opera arrangements and includes three world premiere transcriptions.

Livia has been a guest soloist in North America with the symphony orchestras of Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Seattle, Milwaukee, Edmonton, Rochester, Austin, Phoenix, San Antonio, Oregon, Dayton, Winston-Salem, Hartford, Cheyenne, Louisville, I Musici de Montreal, Aspen Festival Orchestra, New York Chamber Symphony, Boston Pops, and Brooklyn Philharmonic, among others. She has performed with many eminent conductors, including Yehudi Menuhin, Jesus Lopez-Cobos, James DePreist, Gerard Schwarz, Myung-Whun Chung, William Eddins, Grant Llewellyn, Lukas Foss, Jane Glover, Junichi Hirokami, Murry Sidlin, and Jorge Mester.

Internationally, she has performed as soloist with the Budapest Philharmonic, Cologne Philharmonic, Iceland Symphony Orchestra, Mexico City Philharmonic Orchestra, Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra, Czech National Symphony Orchestra, Limburgs Sinfonie Orkest in Holland, The City of London Sinfonia, Asia Philharmonic Orchestra, and Korea’s Seoul and Pusan Philharmonics. She performed a multi-city tour with South Africa’s National Symphony and KwaZulu-Natal Philharmonic Orchestras and has performed concertos and recitals in Nicosia, Cyprus, and Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, and Haifa, Israel.

An avid chamber musician, Livia has been a guest artist at festivals such as the Kuhmo Chamber Music Festival in Finland, Cartagena International Music Festival in Colombia, Aspen Music Festival, Caramoor International Music Festival, Edmonton Chamber Music Society, Newport Music Festival, Bay Chamber Concerts, Maverick Concerts, Brevard Festival, Sewanee Summer Music Festival, Prince Albert Music Festival in Hawaii, Festival of the Sound in Canada, and Festival de San Miguel de Allende in Mexico.

Livia has appeared in recital at New York City’s Mostly Mozart Festival, Chicago’s Ravinia Festival, Washington D.C.’s National Gallery of Art, Stanford University’s Lively Arts series, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum and Jordan Hall in Boston, Gwinnett Performing Arts Center in Atlanta, Xavier University in Cincinnati, University of Connecticut, Peace Center for the Performing Arts in South Carolina, and the Bing Theatre and the Alfred Newman Recital Hall in Los Angeles.

In 1999, National Public Radio’s “Performance Today” hosted Livia as an Artist-in-Residence for five days, during which she and pianist Benjamin Loeb gave live interviews and performances of a different program each day. Other career highlights include performing at the inaugural concerts of Harris Hall at Aspen, and her performance with Lukas Foss and the Brooklyn Philharmonic Orchestra at the “11th Annual New Year’s Eve Concert for Peace”, held at New York City’s Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine before an audience of 10,000.

Livia gave her first public performance at age eight. In 1989, at the age of 12, she won First Prize in the Yehudi Menuhin International Violin Competition, where she was also awarded the Audience Prize. She attended the Juilliard Pre-College Division from the age of seven, at which time she began her studies with Dorothy DeLay and Hyo Kang. She continued under their tutelage at the Juilliard School, where she also studied chamber music with the legendary Felix Galamir.

Livia plays on a J.B. Guadagnini violin crafted in 1770 and a Samuel Zygmuntowicz made in 2006. She has been on faculty at the Music Department of Stanford University since 2005, and makes her home in the Bay Area with her husband, violinist Geoff Nuttall, and their young son Jack. Livia can also be heard on Naxos’ American Classics series in a CD entitled “Miracles and Mud”, featuring works by Jonathan Berger.