Born in San Francisco, to a mother of Romanian descent and an American father, she grew up in New York and Paris. She entered the Conservatoire National Supérieur at a very young age, in Maurice Gendron’s class. At 19 years old, she crossed the iron curtain and went to live in Moscow where she studied with Natalia Shakhovskaïa at the Tchaïkovski Conservatory. When she came back to France 6 years later, she won the famed Rostropovitch Competition.
With music, Sonia Wieder-Atherton seeks to communicate in a language open to the world. This search has led her over time from one repertoire to another, from one discovery to the next one in a state of permanent exploration. She turns and flips trajectories, deviates borders, thwarts presuppositions in a tireless search for meaning.
Sonia Wieder-Atherton collaborates with many contemporary composers (Betsy Jolas, Pascal Dusapin, Francesco Filidei, Georges Aperghis, Wolfgang Rihm, Bernard Foccroule, Edith Canat de Chizy) for whom she has become preferred performer. As a soloist, she plays under the direction of many conductors. She has performed as a soloist with the Orchestre de Paris, the Orchestre National de France, the Orchestre National de Belgique, the Liège Philharmonic, the Israel Philharmonic, the Gulbenkian Orchestra of Lisbon, the Luxembourg Philharmonic and the NDR Orchestra of Hanover.
Her musical universe draws its inspiration from the art of the Hazans, from the East, from Russia to Mittel Europa. Her universe is a journey with multiple voices and materials. Named Chevalier de l’ordre des Arts et des Lettres in 2015, she also played for the nation’s solemn tribute to Simone Veil at the Pantheon in 2018.
Charlotte Rampling and Sonia Wieder-Atherton opened the ABS 2023 cultural season in a poetical dialogue combining Shakespeare’s verses and Bach’s suites. A clever mix where the voice of Charlotte Rampling echoed the cello of Sonia Wieder-Atherton.
