Sophia Ines Valenti
Instrument:
Viola
Studies:
USC Thornton School of Music, Yura Lee Studio
Biography:
In 2012, Sophia became the principal violist of the Santa Rosa Symphony Preparatory Orchestra. At the age of 10, she became principal violist of The Santa Rosa Symphony Repertory Orchestra and was also accepted as the youngest member of The Young People’s Chamber Orchestra. That year she won first place in The Sonoma County Etude Competition, and as a member of the Young People’s Chamber Orchestra, had the honor of performing on the stage of Weill Hall with Midori Goto. At the end of the summer of 2014, after a competitive audition process, Sophia at the age of 11 (and with only 2 years of training) was asked to join the internationally renowned San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra and participated in the 2015 San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra’s European Tour. In 2016, she performed with her quartet on “From the Top” and won the Santa Rosa Symphony Youth Orchestra 2016 Concerto Competition. She also performed as a featured musician in The Art of Possibilities with Benjamin Zanders. Currently, Sophia attends SFCM Pre College, she was a finalist in the 2017 Mondavi Young Artist Competition, won first place at the Asta San Francisco 2017 junior division, first place at the 2018 Asta San Francisco senior division, and won first place in the ASTA State Competition. In addition, she attended Music@Menlo 2017 and 2018, had the honor of becoming a 3rd place Laureate in the renowned national Sphinx Solo Competition, won 2nd place in the American Viola Society Senior Division National Solo Competition, and won First Place in the Northern California Viola Society Solo Competition. In 2018, Sophia Ines was a featured soloist on the hit radio show From the Top and had the honor of performing on the stage in a Viola Ensemble with Kim Kashkashian for a Music for Food performance at SFCM. During this time, she was also part of the Locke Quartet at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. In 2019 she joined the Young Chamber Musicians and became part of the Scorpius Quartet which advanced to the semifinals in the Galante Competition and The Pasadena Chamber Competition. She was also awarded a 2019 MPOWER Grant from the Sphinx Organiztion. She has participated in master classes with Hsin-Yun Huang, Paul Silverthorn, Steven Tenenbom, Jodi Levitz, The Telegraph Quartet, The Kronos Quartet, and Yura Lee. Sophia also had the honor of playing her viola for the ending scene and credits of the Documentary short film “Americart 2019”.
Sophia Ines lives in Santa Rosa California with her family and loves watching baseball and scary movies. Sophia Ines plays on a contemporary Raymond Schryer viola and an Emile Auguste Ouchard bow all generously provided to her by the Virtu Foundation.
