sophia bernitz, violin

Violinist Sophia Bernitz originally hails from Lexington, MA. As an orchestral musician, she recently won a position in the second violin section of New Bedford Symphony Orchestra. She is also a core member of Cape Cod Chamber Orchestra and Fermata Chamber Soloists, both in the greater Boston area. She has served as Concertmaster and principal second of the New World Symphony (where she completed her 3-year fellowship in 2022 under Michael Tilson Thomas), The Orchestra Now (TON), Brookline Symphony and the Oberlin Orchestra, as well as a section member of Boston Philharmonic and a substitute with Indianapolis, Jacksonville, Charleston Symphony, and Rhode Island Philharmonic, among others.  Summer festivals attended include Spoleto Festival U.S.A, Festival Napa Valley, NRO, Brevard, Oberlin-in-Italy, and the Fellowship Quartet Program at Madeline Island. 

As a chamber musician, Sophia has worked and performed with members of the Borromeo, Pacifica, Dover, Muir, Cavani, Jupiter, and Miro quartets. She spent most of her childhood attending Kinhaven Music School, where she first fell in love with chamber music. 

As an educator, she taught at National Youth Orchestra 2 (NYO2) at Carnegie Hall in the summers of 2019 and 2022. Teaching is part of her core value as a musician, teaching students of all ages.  She currently teaches at the Chestnut Hill School and privately.

She received her BM in violin and viola performance in 2016 from Oberlin College and Conservatory and her masters in violin performance in 2018 from New England Conservatory. Her principal violin teachers have included Kristopher Tong, David Bowlin, Peter Zazofsky, and Carlough Faulkner-Carroll. In a past life, she was a nationally ranked Competitive figure skater. She has most recently gotten into coding and is an avid knitter, as well as being a die-hard Celics fan and dog lover.