Sophia Zhang

Sophia Zhang, 11, is a sixth-grader at Tenafly Middle School. She began her beginning four years of violin studies with Dorothy Roffman, continued with Avi Nagin for a year, currently studies with Krzysztof Kuznik, and plays in a chamber music group coached by Francesca Silos. She was selected to play in the Handler Master Class Series consecutively from 2015 to 2020, taught by Alvita Vamos, Daniel Phillips, David Chan, Sharon Roffman, Weigang Li, and Grigory Kalinovsky. She performed the opening piece at the Thurnauer School’s Gift of Music Gala Benefit Concert at BergenPAC in 2016 and was chosen to play in the Thurnauer’s Kaplan Honors Recital in 2018, 2019, and 2020. Sophia won first place in the Elite International Competition in 2018 and the Crescendo International Youth Competition in 2019, where she performed at Weill Recital Hall in Carnegie Hall. Most recently, Sophia won the 2020 Thurnauer Symphony Orchestra Concerto Competition. As a soloist, she will perform the Kabalevsky Concerto with the orchestra. In addition to her interest in the violin, Sophia loves reading, writing, sketching, studying Greek Mythology, and is an avid tennis player. She also enjoys partaking in Mathcounts and AMC8 math competitions.