CELLIST

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"outstanding... every note has meaning rather as a look or a touch does; the resulting conversations she has with the music are endlessly absorbing... Her subjective narrative suggests the freedom with which Pablo Casals brought the music back to life a century ago."

— Laurence Vittes | Gramophone

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British-born and San Diego–based cellist Dr. Sophie Webber is an internationally acclaimed soloist and chamber musician, praised as "an exceptional and creative musician" (Interlude), "sublime to hear" (Time Out Chicago), and "an extraordinary musician and a first-rate cellist... consistently compelling" (Dale Warland).

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Sophie has received numerous awards and prizes for her playing, including the Sir John Barbirolli Memorial Prize for Cello, the Indianapolis Matinee Musicale Graduate Strings Prize, the Zumaia International Chamber Music Festival's First and Public Prize, and finalist standing for Oxfordshire Young Musician of the Year.

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Recent engagements include featured-artist appearances at the Cello Festival of Southern Utah (2026, alongside Dr. Helga Winold) and the FIV León Cello Festival in Mexico (2026), where she premiered a solo-cello-and-dance program with choreographer Tlathui Benavides.

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She has released three critically acclaimed albums, all internationally distributed:

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• Escape: Bach's Six Suites for Solo Cello (2018) — recorded at St. Paul's Cathedral, San Diego

• B2C: Bach to Choir (2020) — featuring Bach's Cello Suites Nos. 1 and 3 with Sophie's original choral arrangements, recorded with Chicago's Choir of the Ascension

• Roots: Transcriptions of Romantic Works for Cello and Piano (2022) — with pianist Ines Irawati

 

Escape and B2C were both engineered by multi-Grammy-winning audio engineer Chris Willis.

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Sophie's music has been featured on BBC Radio 3, Los Angeles's KUSC 91.5, Chicago's WFMT 98.7, Seattle's King FM 98.1, and classical stations across the United States.

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COMPOSER / ARRANGER

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Sophie's work as a composer and arranger sits alongside her life as a performer, and shapes much of the repertoire she brings to the stage.

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Original compositions and arrangements. In 2016, Sophie composed Journey Home, a work for live solo cello and electronics developed with substance-abuse survivor and counselor Amanda Longe, giving voice to the colorful life and struggles behind Amanda's own story. In 2018, she performed Paganini's Theme and Variations on One String alongside her own orchestral arrangement, premiered by San Diego's New City Sinfonia. She has also composed a number of ballads for voice, piano and voice, and cello.

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EDUCATOR

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Sophie completed her Doctorate at Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, studying with Janos Starker, Tsuyoshi Tsutsumi, and Helga Winold. She previously studied with Richard Markson at Trinity College of Music, London, where she earned a First Class Honors degree and the Sir John Barbirolli Memorial Prize for Cello.

 

A dedicated and passionate educator, Sophie has served as cello faculty at Southeast Missouri State University, the Jacobs School of Music Summer Clinic, the Oxford Cello School, Trinity College of Music Junior Department (London), Lake Forest College, and the Music Institute of Chicago. She is a keen music theorist and pianist, and held a position as Music Theory Instructor at Indiana University for four years, teaching a variety of university-level courses. She has given guest masterclasses at universities across the United States and in Mexico.

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In 2024, Sophie created Dr Sophie Cello Lab — an online cello course featuring group and individual instruction, international guest cellist clinicians, and a strong community component. The Lab runs in three-month cycles focused on a single foundational topic (recent themes have included The Quiet Art of a Beautiful Sound on tone production, and The Quiet Art of Resonance on intonation).

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Sophie's students have served as section and principal cellists in the Chicago and San Diego Youth Symphony Orchestras, have won and placed in regional and national competitions (including the State Youth Concerto Competitions, the Society of American Musicians Competition, the MidWest Young Artists Discover National Chamber Music Competition, the Confucius Chinese Fine Arts Society Competition, and the Walgreen National Concerto Competition), and have gone on to study cello performance at some of the nation's top music schools.

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Teaching reviews can be found [here].

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COMMUNITY & CARE

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Music, for Sophie, has always extended well beyond the concert hall.

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Fused Muse Ensemble. In 2009, she founded Fused Muse Ensemble, an Illinois-based 501(c)(3) nonprofit dedicated to raising awareness of social issues through new artistic works that integrate music with other media, and to amplifying voices too often left unheard. The ensemble has explored themes including homelessness, domestic violence, human trafficking, and engagement with the environment. Recent projects include Breaking Ice, an exploration of the intersections between music and science. More at fusedmuseensemble.com.

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Music in medical and end-of-life care. Sophie will soon be serving as a contributing musician on a Northwestern University neurology research project, supported by the National Endowment for the Arts, collecting data on how music can measurably reduce anxiety and support patients with anxiety and dementia through lowered heart rate and blood pressure. Alongside this research, she performs at hospices and assisted-living communities across San Diego — carrying the cello into the places where it is most needed, and most deeply received.

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FOR PRESENTERS

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