Sophia Bacelar

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Sophia Bacelar
Pronunciation	So-fee-a Bar-cell-ah
Born	Sophia Alexandra Betancourt-Bacelar (唐凝智) January 31, 1996
🏳️ Nationality	Cuban-Chinese-American
🏫 Education	Conservatoire de Paris, Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler Berlin, The Juilliard School & Columbia University
💼 Occupation	Professional Cellist & Interdisciplinary Artist
🌐 Website	www.sophiabacelar.com

Sophia Bacelar

Sophia Alexandra Betancourt-Bacelar (唐凝智) (born 31 January, 1996) is a Cuban-Chinese-American cellist and interdisciplinary artist who lives and in New York City.

Sophia Bacelar holds cello performance degrees from the Conservatoire de Paris, the Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler Berlin, and The Juilliard School.

She made her Carnegie Hall solo recital debut on December 8th, 2021 at Weill Hall — as the recipient of The Juilliard School's Leo B. Ruiz Recital Prize.

She has a vision for integrating classical music with visual art, film, photography, fashion, and dance.

In 2018, she was appointed a GEWA Music Artist, in Germany, and designed her own distinctive hand-drawn GEWA Air cello case .

She is also an Artist Ambassador for The GRAMMY Music Education Coalition.

Early Life

Sophia Bacelar was born in in Martinsville, New Jersey, United States to a Cuban-born father and Chinese-born mother.

Her father, Alejandro Bacelar, is a violin maker, luthier and professional cellist.

She began taking cello lessons with her father at age 2.

“I grew up around instruments and musicians. I don’t actually remember a time when music wasn’t a part of my life, so it was almost an inevitable decision for me to play too,” she has said.

Education

Bacelar was accepted into The Juilliard School Pre-College Program in New York, at age 10, where she studied cello with Minhye Clara Kim.

She also also took private lessons with cellist Bernard Greenhouse, for several years, before he died in 2011.

After graduating high school, Bacelar moved to Paris to study at the Conservatoire de Paris with cello pedagogue Philippe Muller. She undertook chamber music study with Claire Désert, Ami Flammer and Michel Strauss. She graduated with her Bachelor’s degree in Cello Performance. In 2017, she worked under the mentorship of cellist Gautier Capuçon at the Louis Vuitton Foundation “Classe d’Excellence de Violoncelle”. The specialized cello program allowed her to take part in public masterclasses and concerts — which were broadcast on medici.tv, Radio France Internationale and the internet.

Bacelar later pursued postgraduate studies at the Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler Berlin, with cellist Nicolas Altstaedt, receiving her Masters Degree. Throughout her music university studies she also undertook classes in fashion, film, photography, and visual art — which she now integrates into her performances.

In 2021 Bacelar completed a combined Artist Diploma degree at The Juilliard School and Columbia University in New York — studying cello, with Joel Krosnick and Minhye Clara Kim, and film studies at Columbia University.

During her study at Juilliard, she was a Celia Ascher Artist Diploma Fellow scholarship holder, and was awarded the school's Leo B. Ruiz Carnegie Hall recital debut prize.

Awards & Recognitions

• 2019 - The Juilliard School Leo B. Ruiz Carnegie Hall Recital Debut Prize
• 2019 - 2nd Prize The Juilliard School Cello Concerto Competition
• 2018 - The Juilliard School Celia Ascher Artist Diploma Fellowship
• 2017 - 2nd Prize The Berliner International Competition
• 2016 - 2nd Prize The Janigro International Cello Competition
• 2015 - Mondavi Center’s Career Development Award
• 2010 - 1st Prize Bravura Philharmonic Young Artists Concerto Competition
• 2010 - 1st Prize New Jersey Intergenerational Orchestra Young Artists Concerto Competition
• 2009 - 1st Prize Goldblatt Music Scholarship Competition
• 2008 - 1st Prize Juilliard School Pre-College ‘Dvorak Silent Woods and Rondo’ Competition
• 2007 - 1st Prize The American String Teacher Association Competition
• 2007 - 1st Prize New Jersey Exceptional Young Musician Prize
• 2007 - 1st Prize Juilliard School Pre-College Competition
• 2007 - 1st Prize The New York Young Musicians Competition
• 2007 - 1st Prize New Jersey Solo Competition

Career

Bacelar has performed as a soloist and well as in chamber ensembles and orchestras throughout Europe, North America, South America, and Asia in venues including Carnegie Hall, the Berliner Philharmonie, the Tonhalle Zürich , Le Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, Cité de la Musique Gyeonggi Arts Center, La Salle François-Bernier and Alice Tully Hall. She has also been invited to perform at international festivals, including The Kronberg Academy Cello Festival, The Seiji Ozawa International Academy, and The Piatigorsky International Cello Festival.

Bacelar was one of three soloists, along with British violinist Charlie Siem and Belarusian percussionist Mitya Nilovto, invited to perform at the ‘Grand Cru Concertos’ concert with conductor Joel Revzen and the Festival Napa Valley Blackburn Music Academy Orchestra at the 2019 Festival Napa Valley. “This showcase concert brought together three gifted young instrumentalists who are making a splash internationally,” Solano County's Daily Republic wrote. In 2019 she also performed a recital with pianist Samuel Parent, in London, at the invitation of Saint Martin In The Fields.

Throughout her career she has worked with contemporary dance and ballet — including recent projects and collaborations with dancers and choreographers from the American Ballet Theater, San Francisco Ballet, Sacramento Ballet, and Atlanta Ballet. She also regularly collaborates with the San Francisco-based queer ballet troupe Ballet22 — who’s focus is on breaking dance’s ingrained gender identity, body type, and race normative traditions — and in 2019 founded the cello/dance ensemble Duo Femaura. Bacelar was also invited to perform with dancer and choreographer Jamaii Melvin and pianist Noreen Cassidy-Polera in the opening season of The Violin Channel Vanguard Concerts in 2020 and has also been a featured on the French DailyMotion website — a local division of Vice Media.

In 2020, she was one of 200 New York City artists to perform a recital as part of the Kaufman Music Center’s COVID Musical Storefronts Pop-Up Concert Series. The series provided work to musicians severely impacted by the cancellation of live performances in a format that took into account all necessary health and safety measures for both artists and audiences. In October 2021 Bacelar performed as a soloist as part of the “World of Hans Zimmer Tour” show in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The movie composer transformed many of his soundtracks into a concert suite stadium show supported by large-scale projections of film sequences. The same month she was also streamed internationally as part of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra and The Violin Channel’s United Nations ‘International Day of The Girl’ celebration.

Bacelar is an Official GEWA Music Artist - and designed her own personalized cello case, She is also an Artist Ambassador for The GRAMMY Music Education Coalition.

Instrument

Bacelar performs on a 1914 Giulio Degani cello

Personal Life

Bacelar is an active social media user on Instagram and has more than 28,000 followers.

She describes herself as an “interdisciplinary artist”, “avid reader” “heath & fitness freak”, “podcast junkie” and a “wandering nomad”.

She also has additional Instagram pages dedicated solely to her visual art and her dog, Cuba.

“I used to be very conservative in my fashion choices because I felt that I needed to fit a certain image in order to be taken seriously as a classical musician. But over the last few years, I’ve increasingly let go of this mindset and have found it very liberating,” Bacelar recently told Herbert Magazine. “My style is constantly evolving and reflects my mood, what’s going on in my life, and what and who are influencing me at that moment. Some days I wear sequins, loud prints and colors; others its clean lines, monochrome palettes, and classic cuts,” she said. Bacelar has collaborated with fashion photographers Dovile Sermonkas and Dario Acosta, clothing designer morgane le fay and jewelry brands Harry Winston and Pomellato.

Bacelar trains in MMA (Mixed Martial Arts) and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and practices yoga. “The two most impactful things I’ve done to help me physically at the cello have been strength training and yoga. Yoga gives you flexibility and mobility and weightlifting increases the strength you need to have stamina and power as a player,” she has said.

“I studied film classes at Columbia University last year and now I want to try out my music with modern dance in short films," Bacelar told German newspaper Der Spiegel, when asked if there were any positives for her during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Bacelar speaks English, Spanish, Chinese, French and German. "I'm Spanish and Chinese and I grew up running around New York, Paris, and Berlin," she recently told Spanish news outlet qhobonews.com.

See Also

Philippe Muller

Bernard Greenhouse

Further Listening

Idagio Classical Revolution

External Links

Official Website

Instagram

GEWA Music Artist

The Violin Channel Young Artist

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