Sonoko Miriam Welde is one of the most exciting young violinists to emerge from Norway in recent years. Born in Bergen in 1996 she made her debut with the Bergen Philharmonic aged nine and has since gone on to win the Norwegian Soloist Prize and Virtuos competition, as well as representing Norway in the European Broadcasting Union’s Young Musicians Competition. She is currently on the Crescendo programme, being mentored by Janine Jansen, and a recipient of a Statoil Talent Scholarship.
Her appearances include concertos with Oslo Philharmonic, Bergen Philharmonic, Trondheim Symphony, Norwegian Radio Orchestra, WDR Sinfonieorchester Köln, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Bournemouth Symphony, Orquesta Sinfonica de Tenerife, Aalborg Symphony Orchestra, Combattimento Consort Amsterdam, Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne, Kremerata Baltica, Zagreb Soloists, Oslo Camerata, and the Estonian Chamber Orchestra with conductors including Andrew Litton, James Gaffigan, Tabita Berglund, Han-Na Chang, Marta Gardolinska, Johannes Gustavsson, Peter Szilvay, Joshua Weilerstein, Edward Gardner, Gianluca Marciano and Eivind Aadland.
An enthusiastic chamber musician, Sonoko has been championed by Leif Ove Andsnes, with whom she performs regularly, and has also worked with Tabea Zimmermann, Clemens Hagen, Sergio Tiempo, Enrico Pace, Gidon Kremer, Alisa Weilerstein and Jonathan Biss. She appears frequently at the Bergen International Festival and has given recitals at Grachtenfestival Amsterdam, Risør Chamber Music Festival, ArtLink Belgrade, Oslo Chamber Music Festival, Bad Ragaz “Next Generation” Festival, Harpa Festival Reykjavik, Rosendal Festival, and International Chamber Music Festival Utrecht. She is part of the Opus13 String Quartet, who took second prize in the 2022 Banff International String Quartet Competition.
In 2021, she released her debut album, of Bruch and Barber violin concertos and The Lark Ascending with the Oslo Philharmonic on LAWO Classics. It was an instant success, receiving superlative reviews from critics, and catching the attention of Classic FM who made it Album of the Week and featured Sonoko as one of Charlotte Hawkins’s Young Classical Stars. BBC Music Magazine named her a ‘Rising Star’ and Gramophone Magazine ‘One to Watch’.
Sonoko currently studies with Janine Jansen in Switzerland, and formerly studied with Stephan Barratt-Due in Oslo and Kolja Blacher at the Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler Berlin. She has also benefitted from regular lessons with Vilde Frang and Henning Kraggerud.
She plays an Antonio Stradivarius from 1736, the "Spencer Dyke", on loan from Anders Sveaas' Almennyttige Fond.
This biography is for information only and should not be reproduced.
Recital with Ole Christian Haagenrud
Palau de la Musica Valencia, December 2023
Welde and Haagenrud's [Bartok Rhapsody No. 1] was neat and clear, always balanced...Souvenir and Berceuse [from the Six Pieces op. 79 by Sibelius] were delivered with outstanding musicality. From their countryman Grieg, they offered the first of his three sonatas for violin piano...once again in total communion, Welde and Haagenrud were enthused by their dedication, ample technique and elegant phrasing. The recital was completed by the always appreciated Brahms Sonata No. 2 in which Welde wielded her 1736 Stradivarius with mastery and precision, and Haagenrud tackled the keyboard part - which goes far beyond being a mere accompanist - playfully, one moment energetic, another delicate, and pedal applied judiciously. They were greatly applauded, and responded with a beautiful version of Dvorak's Songs my mother taught me that moved the audience... A more than rewarding evening.
Jose Domenech Part, Levante EMV
Bruch, Vaughan Williams, Barber
LWC 1222, released November 2021
It may be more unusual for a young artist to dip their first toes in the recording waters with a recital disc than with a concerto programme. Listen, though, to the opening seconds of this Bruch First Violin Concerto from Norwegian violinist Sonoko Miriam Welde and you're unlikely to need any convincing over the logic of her diving straight in with the latter... in this particular reading with Tabita Berglund and the Oslo Philharmonic you instantly notice the silvery, slender, mellifluous, lyrical freedom of her sound and the way that her first double-stopped presentation of the theme is both firm and fiery, running like quicksilver...The Lark Ascending provides further opportunity for Welde to show how she can make her violin effortlessly dip and soar, and she tips from a notably improvisatory initial ascent into one of the most weightlessly floating, effortlessly legato first statements of the principal theme I've yet heard on disc...Welde herself constantly draws on what appears to be an endless well of fresh colouristic possibilities...The Barber equally hits all the right spots, with its Andante a particular knockout for an ardently lyric Welde, who delivers the expressive goods while bringing tonal beauty and all manner of colours to the writing across every register of her instrument...A hugely impressive debut for Welde
Charlotte Gardner, Gramophone
Sonoko Miriam Welde really comes into her own. For while she lacks nothing in excitement when the notes start flying, she produces a velvety sonority at low dynamic levels that constantly beguiles the senses...In the slow movement of the Bruch, Welde times her phrases to perfection with an unforced tenderness and touching simplicity that radiates contentment. Yet arguably it is Welde's ravishing performance of Vaughan Williams's The Lark Ascending that is the stand-out performance here. Here she achieves an exquisite purity of line and tonal radiance absolutely at one with the lark's delicate flutterings and soaring eloquence...For Welde, this is an auspicious debut disc.
Julian Haylock, BBC Music Magazine, performance **** recording ****
A quality debut that includes perhaps one of the finest Larks you’ll ever hear...I hear the influence of Vilde Frang, one of her mentors, in the way the notes bubble up, ineffably birdlike, in the outer sections of The Lark Ascending. Welde is one of the few since Hugh Bean to realise fully how vital the double-stops are in creating the pastoral atmosphere. Tabita Berglund and the orchestra are in accord and this is one of the finest Larks I have heard. The Barber’s first two movements, with Joshua Weilerstein a positive partner, are also beautifully done...you will not hear this work much better performed.
Tully Potter, The Strad
Welde delivers thoroughly musical flawless playing with technical surplus...Welde has a surplus of virtuosity that allows her to play the lark's complex song with lightness, and a bright tone...[In Barber's violin concerto] the first movement challenges with melody that must be concise in parts. Welde responds with care, and even gets a Barber skeptic like me to listen. In the second movement, she performs beautiful melodic art, and Weilerstein shapes and inspires the orchestra in swellingly warm progress, before Welde gives the final movement the energetic playful, yet hard-hitting, lightness required
Magnus Andersson, Klassekampen
If there is a better recording of Bruch's G minor concerto, I do not know it... I was amazed from the very first note. Sonoko Miriam Welde gives a fantastic interpretation...The two outer movements are full of energy and the middle one speaks elegantly of real feeling. All tempi are fast, but without putting rhythmic precision from the soloist or orchestra at stake. Such a performance played live in the concert hall, would have the audience up in standing ovations and jubilant excitement
Martin Anderson, Klassiskmusikk.com
Startlingly good... Sonoko Miriam Welde is one of the great violin talents in Norway...Welde embarks on an interpretation that emphasizes the lyrical and poetic, which shows that we are dealing with a great artist, and not just a skilled technician...Together with Tabita Berglund and the Oslo Philharmonic, tehy bring out a fullness and depth in Bruch's concerto that I have rarely heard before...It is difficult to imagine a more solid record debut
Ola Nordal, Ballade.no
This album is most definitely a fine showcase of Welde's incredible artistry. Her energy, tone, even the skillful deployment of her vibrato (which is capable of both subdued and glowing hues) all speak to the years of work she has done. As a soloist of this highly emotive repertoire, Welde absolutely leans into the emotionality of these violin standards, but then again, she has earned that lean...Welde's harmonics are absolutely perfect - bright and breathy and sustaining the tension of the piece - and again, she is very comfortable deploying the tools at her disposal: her clean articulation, consistent and dynamic bowing, her anticipation of the overall structure of the solo part within the grander work. Welde's extreme tonal control in her seemingly effortless movement from pianissimo to forte, feels as though she is able to shift dynamics within a single bow...I'm looking forward to what is next for Welde.
Jacqueline Kharouf, Fanfare Magazine
Astor Piazzolla's Four Seasons with Camerata Bergen
Bergen Festival, May 2021
It was simply terrific and impressive, what Welde achieved here. She played the solo voice singingly and triumphantly - and with sparkling virtuosity. It was in full swing in all registers. There was rhythmic surplus. There were tight tango lines and laid-back, sensual phrasings. And there were electrical dialogues with the ten strings around her, and beautiful interactions with Frida Fredrikke Waaler Wærvågen's cello...What a string party, and what a debut as a tango violinist
Peter Larsen, Bergens tidene
Tchaikovsky's 'Souvenir d'un lieu cher' with Stavanger Symphony Orchestra
Stavanger, June 2020
She impressed with a wide colour palette in her silky violin playing, especially her mature richness in the lowest and highest registers, as well as the rhythmic virtuosity in the middle movement
Eirik Lodén, Stavanger Aftenblad
Bergen Festival Online chamber concerts with Leif Ove Andsnes and Crescendo
May 2020
Youth and experience perfectly blended in three outstanding chamber concerts... the Crescendo performers excelled themselves in the second concert, from the state-of-the-art small hall built on Grieg’s Troldhaugen estate with its window out on to trees and water... stylishness and elegance in Mozart’s “Hunt” Quartet – Welde properly found her well-turned feet for the sudden depths of the Adagio... We had Welde and Gudim in a wide-ranging selection of violin duos from Bartók’s set of 44, the pair’s sparkling engagement and eye-contact a joy to watch.
David Nice, The Arts Desk *****
Barber Violin Concerto with Joshua Weilerstein & the Oslo Philharmonic
Filharmonien Oslo, Feb 2019
There are so many young Norwegian musicians who hold such a high level that I could almost call it a miracle. But I will not because I do not want to reduce Sonoko Miriam Welde to just one of many. Her way of making music in Samuel Barber's Violin Concerto op. 14 is effortless, fervent, natural, convincing and virtuosic.
Magnus Andersson, Klassekampen
Brahms Piano Quartet in A major -alongside Leif Ove Andsnes, Tabea Zimmermann and Clemens Hagen
Oslo Opera House (April 2016)
Christian Tetzlaff was replaced by young Sonoko Miriam Welde , Virtuos winner of 2014 and this 19 year-old is already an established soloist . Welde convinced to such a degree that we quickly forgot that she was a substitute. We look forward to following her for many, many years to come.
Tori Skrede, Verdens Gang
One might think that such a young musician would be the weak link the ensemble, but instead, she made the concert one of those rare highlights… Andsnes, who had played the Brahms with her before, knew exactly what he was working with. She lifted the music to unpredictable heights and drove it to the final chord through a plethora of emotions.
Astrid Kvalbein, Aften Posten
Mozart Violin Concerto No. 3
Norwegian National Youth Orchestra (August 2014)
It was a delight to hear Welde's natural contact/relation with her instrument.
Magnus Andersson, Klassekampen
Bruch Violin Concerto at Virtuos Norwegian Broadcasting Competition
Norwegian Radio Orchestra (February 2014)
The winner demonstrates a physical and technical surplus and has a natural, effortless relationship with her instrument. She has a great understanding of the different characteristics of the piece - and shows a special ability for making music together with the orchestra and to capture the audience (and jury) with an infectious presence.
Virtuos Jury 2014
Sonoko Miriam Welde Concerto Repertoire
| J.S BACH | Concerto for Oboe and Violin in D minor, BWV 1060 |
|---|---|
| BARBER | Violin Concerto, Op. 14 |
| BERNSTEIN | Serenade after Plato's "Symposium" |
| BRAHMS | Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 77 |
| BRUCH | Violin Concerto in G minor, Op. 26 |
| MENDELSSOHN | Violin Concerto in E minor, Op. 64 |
| MOZART | Violin Concerto No. 3 in G major, K216 |
| PIAZZOLLA | Four Seasons (arr. Leonid Desyatnikov) |
| PROKOFIEV | Violin Concerto No. 1 in D major, Op. 19 |
| SHOSTAKOVICH | Sonata, arrangement with string orchestra and percussion |
| SINDING | Suite in A minor, Op. 10 |
| TCHAIKOVSKY | Souvenir d’un lieu cher, Op. 42 |
| VAUGHAN WILLIAMS | The Lark Ascending |
| VIVALDI | Four Seasons |
Sonoko Miriam Welde Chamber Repertoire
| J.S BACH | Partita No. 2 in D minor, BWV 1004 |
|---|---|
| BEETHOVEN | Violin Sonata No. 1 in D major, Op. 12 |
| BRAHMS | Sonata No. 1 in G major, Op. 78 |
| CHAUSSON | Poème, Op. 25 |
| DEBUSSY | Sonata in G minor, L140 |
| DVORAK ARR. KREISLER | Songs My Mother Taught Me |
| ELGAR | Sonata in E minor, Op. 82 |
| FAURE | Violin Sonata No. 1 in A major, Op. 13 |
| GRIEG | Sonata No. 1 in F major, Op. 8 |
| HANDEL ARR. HALVORSEN | Passacaglia for Violin and Viola or Cello |
| KREISLER | Liebesleid, Tempo di Menuetto, etc |
| LUTOSLAWSKI | Subito |
| R. SCHUMANN | Sonata No. 1 in A minor, Op. 105 |
| SHOSTAKOVICH | Sonata for Violin and Piano, Op. 134 |
| SINDING | Suite in A minor, Op. 10 |
| STRAUSS | Violin Sonata in E-flat major, Op. 18 |
| THOMMESSEN | Cantabile (Etude-Cadenza) |
| YSAYE | Sonata No.4 in E Minor, “Fritz Kreisler” |
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