Season Soloists
Sophia Werner
Sophia Werner, 20, is pursuing her B.M. in Violin Performance at The Juilliard School, where she studies with Laurie Smukler. Other influential teachers include Linda Case, Rebecca Fischer and Robert Lipsett. An avid chamber musician, Sophia has performed in a variety of ensembles under the tutelage of Ms. Smukler, Simone Dinnerstein, Rebecca Fischer, Samuel Rhodes, Natasha Brofsky, and Joel Krosnick among others. She cultivated her love of chamber music at Greenwood Chamber Music Camp (2016-19), Oberlin's Baroque Performance Institute (2019), and Kneisel Hall (2022) as a Young Artist fellow. This summer, Sophia will return to Kneisel Hall with her piano trio, the Apollo Trio.
Recently, Sophia was selected as a semifinalist of the Stulberg International String Competition, and a finalist of the Juilliard Concerto Competition. Other accomplishments include two solo appearances with the Cayuga Chamber Orchestra, one with the Orchestra of the Southern Finger Lakes, and two with the Ithaca Community Orchestra. She has also enjoyed two solo performances with the Binghamton Youth Symphony Orchestra and one with the Binghamton Community Orchestra.
Orchestrally, she performs with the Juilliard Orchestra and Chamber Orchestra, where she has held leadership positions. In 2021, she expanded her orchestral experience as a recipient of the Dorothy Richard Starling Foundation fellowship at the Aspen Music Festival and School, where she was a first violinist of the Aspen Festival Orchestra. More recently, Sophia performed as a Fellow with the Apex Ensemble. A proponent of new music, Sophia was selected to perform twice during Juilliard's inaugural new music series, the New Series, and performed with her string quartet during Juilliard's final Focus Festival.
Sophia plays on a 1864 J. B. Vuillaume violin, generously on loan to her through Juilliard's Stringed Instrument Collection.
Bethany Bobbs
Bethany Bobbs is currently a scholarship student at The Juilliard School under the tutelage of Joel Krosnick and Astrid Schween. She has attended the Perlman Music Program and PMP Suncoast since 2017 where she studied with Clara Kim, Paul Katz, and Zvi Plesser. Bethany has won numerous prizes, including winner of the Lynn Harrell Competition, LISMA International Competition, Houston Symphony Concerto Competition, and an award at the National YoungArts Competition. Already a seasoned soloist, she has performed with orchestras such as the Missouri Symphony Orchestra, Houston Symphony, Georgia Philharmonic, Yonkers Philharmonic Symphony, Delaware Symphony, Ocala Symphony, among many others. Bethany is currently a Jupiter Symphony Chamber Player, where she performs each month alongside musicians such as Paul Neubauer, Brannon Cho, Stella Chen, and Stefan Jackiw. Besides performing, Bethany enjoys using her musical talent to help others. In 2020, Bethany and her twin sister, Susanna, founded a non-profit organization known as Harmony for Healing to provide funds for the Artist Relief project that financially aids unemployed artists during COVID-19. Recently, Bethany and her friends at The Juilliard School put together a benefit concert for Ukraine to help fund the shipment of medical supplies and humanitarian aid to the people of Ukraine. Bethany is a current recipient of the Arkady Fomin Scholarship Fund.