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The American violist and mezzo-soprano, Sophie Choate, began violin with Linda Duncan at age 5, adding viola at age 10. As a Suzuki graduate, she studied both instruments with Dr. Elizabeth Wallace and played viola in the Gifted Music School’s Conservatory Program for two years. She studied viola with Dr. Claudine Bigelow and piano with Joanna Oshida, and she sang n Timpview High School's A Cappella and Madrigals choirs. In 2015, she received Honorable Mention in the Utah Symphony's Salute to Youth Competition. In summer 2015, she attended Interlochen Arts Camp on full scholarship, where she performed in the Advanced String Quartet Program and as rotating principal violist of the World Youth Symphony Orchestra. Sophie spent the previous two school years in Versailles, France; there she excelled in public school and received highest honors at the conservatory on both violin and viola. In fall 2016, she performed on viola with the Utah Valley Symphony as a winner in their Young Artists Competition. She obtained her Bachelor of Arts degree in Music and Government from Harvard University (Class of 2023), where she studied with Mai Motobuchi. Since August 2023, she studies for her Master of Music degree in Viola Performance at Indiana University Jacobs School of Music. She earned First Prize in the 2018 American Viola Society Festival Youth Solo Competition.
Sophie Choate has been Violist at National Youth Orchestra of the USA (July 2017-August 2019), including tours of Europe, Latin American and Asia; Choir Manager and Soprano Choral Fellow at Harvard Memorial Church (September 2018-May 2023); Principal Violist of the Harvard-Radcliffe Orchestra (September 2018-May 2023); Viola Fellow at Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara, California (since June 2022); Assistant Principal Viola at Terre Haute Symphony Orchestra (since September 2023). She also attended the Madeline Island Chamber Music and National Symphony Orchestra festivals. She was the principal violist of the Harvard College Opera Orchestra for W.A. Mozart's Die Zauberflöte 2020 and assistant principal for Cendrillon 2019. In 2021, She gave two solo viola recitals and performed with the brand-new Harvard New Music Ensemble.
Also an accomplished vocalist, Sophie Choate has sung several principal soprano roles in opera productions and is equally at home in choral, new music, and early music settings. She made her debut as a vocalist with HCO, singing the role of Barbarina in W.A. Mozart's Le Nozze di Figaro (February 2022). She works with many of her HCO castmates as a Choral Fellow and Junior Choir Secretary for the Harvard University Choir, where she studies voice with Frank Kelley. In May 2022, she sang the role of Dido in the Harvard Ferris Choral Fellows's concert performance of Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas. During the pandemic, she performed in Utah Valley University’s productions of Lucia di Lammermoor and The Importance of Being Earnest as a chorus member, as well as various roles in the scenes show Opera-Con. |
