Sophia Bernitz is a Boston- based freelance violinist and violist as of Fall 2022. In May 2022, she completed her fellowship at New World Symphony, America’s Orchestral Academy, under music director Michael Tilson Thomas. She hails originally from Lexington, Massachusetts.

As an orchestral musician, she won a position in the second violin section of New Bedford Symphony Orchestra. She has served as Concertmaster and principal second of New World, The Orchestra Now (TON), Brookline Symphony and the Oberlin Orchestra, as well as a section member of Boston Philharmonic. She is currently a member of New Bedford Symphony and Cape Cod Chamber Orchestra, Dubois Orchestra and Boston Opera Collaborative. She has served as a substitute with Indianapolis and Jacksonville Symphonies, Rhode Island Philharmonic, and Cape Symphony in MA among others. She is also a frequent substitute in the Charleston Symphony. 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 curated a quartet concert entitled “Eurasian Folk Traditions” at New World Symphony, and played as a guest in the Wells Fargo Chamber Music Series at Spoleto Festival in 2022. She is also part of Boston Annex Players, a sinfonietta style chamber group under Ken Yanagisawa, as well as first violinist of Beacon Ensemble. Her most influential coaches have been Merry Peckham, Darrett Adkins, and Peter Slowik. She spent most of her childhood attending Kinhaven Music School, where she first fell in love with chamber music. 

As an educator, she has trained taught at National Youth Orchestra 2 (NYO2) at Carnegie Hall Weill Institute in the summers of 2019 and 2022. She also is in the process of getting her Suzuki Certification, as well as El Sistema training. Teaching is part of her core value as a musician, teaching students of all ages. She currently teaches privately from her home.

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 also enjoys jigsaw puzzles, knitting, coding, playing with dogs and singing.