Dr Sofia Yatsyuk is a Ukrainian-British concert violinist, a highly sought-after performer, and an active collaborator. As an award-winning violinist, she made her orchestral debut with the Ternopil Symphony Orchestra in 2014, and has enjoyed a varied performance career as a soloist and chamber musician since. Sofia has performed in Ukraine, Italy, Slovenia, Poland, China, Canada, France, the United States, and the United Kingdom, including performances at Giuseppe Tartini’s house in Slovenia, the Parliament building and the Wigmore Hall in London, and Carnegie Hall in New York. In 2024, Sofia was the recipient of McGill’s Graduate Excellence fellowship award, the Heinz Saueressig award for academic excellence, the Josephat Jean Foundation’s doctoral award and the Marusia Yaworska scholarship award. A graduate of the Purcell School of Music and the Royal Academy of Music, Sofia completed her masters and doctorate degrees at McGill University’s Schulich School of Music. 

Orchestrally, Sofia frequently plays with The Hallé, the most recent performance being Mahler’s Second Symphony at the BBC Proms, as well as recently co-leading the Chineke! orchestra at the Queen Elizabth Hall for their 10-year anniversary concert. Other orchestras have included the Lviv National Philharmonic, United Strings of Europe, the Montreal Symphony Orchestra, Chromatica, the London Concertante, Orchestre Nouvelle Génération, Oktoécho, and Orchestre Métropolitain in Montreal.

Sofia’s recently released debut solo album Silent voices, Intertwined Paths features Ethel Smyth’s and Rebecca Clarke’s sonatas for violin and piano. In their day, these women were influential pioneers in their field; now they are ghostly presences in our music histories, on the margins of the classical canon. As a violinist, and a Clarke and Smyth scholar, Sofia continues to expose audiences to the works of these important composers, creating space for marginalised voices to be heard.

Equally at home in the recording studio, Sofia frequently works for film, TV and record producers, recording for a multitude of commercial artists, including Celine Dion and Andrea Bocelli. Live performances include The Graham Norton Show and Strictly Come Dancing with Dame Shirley Bassey, Andrea Bocelli’s 30th anniversary concert at The Bell Centre in Montreal and a recording for Celine Dion’s 2024 Olympic Games performance.

While completing her doctorate, Sofia was a violin teacher at McGill University, where she also coached chamber music and led orchestral sectionals. As a passionate educator with twelve years of teaching experience, Sofia’s teaching philosophy is built on adapting her methods to nurture every student’s individual creativity. She focuses on the development and the continuous evolution of a strong technical base, the understanding and implementation of deliberate practice methods, and their relationship to performance practice techniques. As a yogi, Sofia incorporates the importance of physical awareness and breath work into her teaching, addressing injury prevention and warm up techniques. She has recently founded The Young Violinist Algarve International Summer Academy, which is a unique opportunity for young violinists to develop and elevate their playing in the magical setting of Praia da Luz, Portugal. 

Sofia joined the Royal Academy of Music under Professor Mateja Marinkovic and completed her masters and doctorate degrees with Professor Axel Strauss. Additional inspiration has come from masterclasses with Michael Frischenschlager, Tasmin Little, Zakhar Bron, James Ehnes, Leonidas Kavakos, Maxim Vengerov, Violaine Melancon, Levon Chilingirian, Victor Danchenko, Ani Kavafian, Felix Andrievsky, and Ani Schnarch.

As a writer, Sofia focuses on twentieth-century cultural history and women in the arts. Her doctoral research was on Women composers and their critics in the era of first-wave feminism: gender and the classical music canon in Britain, 1850-1950. Sofia was invited to present her research at Dublin City University’s 2024 Ethel Smyth Symposium, titled Dame Ethel Smyth: Connections, Culture, And Context and has recently written an article for The Strad magazine, titled What Dame Ethel Smyth and Rebecca Clarke can teach us this International Women’s Day.

In addition to being a passionate yogi and completing her 200-hour yoga teacher training, Sofia enjoys tennis and all things Wimbledon. She is a passionate animal rights activist, loves to bake, garden, write, and marvel at the stars. Sofia volunteers in Ukraine and raises money for a variety of Ukrainian charities. Since 2021, she has been organising benefit concerts in Montreal, London, and New York to raise funding for Ukrainian orphanages, where she continues to regularly volunteer. As of August 2024, Sofia is based in London, England.