Sofía Torres Durán

Cellist

Sofía Torres Durán has been described as "a confident and daring performer with a powerful, grounded sound that ranks her among the most promising Andalusian cellists of her generation" by the Styriarte Festival.

Highlights of the 2024/25 season include her solo debut at the Mozartwoche festival with the Mozarteum Academic Symphony Orchestra in the Golden Hall of the Stiftung Mozarteum in Salzburg, as well as concerts with the Philharmonie Salzburg Orchestra performing Antonín Dvořák's Cello Concerto.

Sofía has performed with renowned musicians such as her mentor Cibrán Sierra-Vázquez (Quiroga Quartet), Lluis Claret, Pablo Ferrández, Javier Perianes, and Gregory Ahss.

In addition to her work as a performer, Sofía Torres composes and arranges music for solo cello and cello ensembles. As a member of the cello sextet CelloVersum, she had the opportunity to premiere her arrangement of A. Dvorak's "Lasst mich allein" for six cellos.

Sofía Torres, a native of Jerez de la Frontera (Cádiz), began playing the cello at the age of five, having received music lessons from her mother since she was three. Her early studies with Álvaro Serrano, Benjamín Rodríguez, Orna Carmel, and Israel Fausto in Jerez and Seville, and later with Fernando Arias in Zaragoza, led her to complete her Bachelor's and Master's degrees with the highest honors at the Universität Mozarteum in Salzburg, under the guidance of cellist Matthias Bartolomey. She is currently pursuing postgraduate studies with cellist Enrico Bronzi at the same university.

Torres has also received guidance from professors such as Heidi Litschauer, Suzanne Stefanovic, María de Macedo, Gary Hoffman, Wen-Sinn Yang, Reinhard Latzko, Troels Svane, Julian Steckel, Clemens Hagen, and Giovanni Gnocchi, among others.

She has won numerous awards, including at the "Jaime Donato Benavente" Young Cellist Promises Competition, the "Soncello" Competition for Young Cellists, and the Gustav Mahler Cello Competition, among others. This has led her to perform at venues and festivals such as the Teatro Maestranza in Seville, the Mozart Hall of the Zaragoza Auditorium, the MuTh in Vienna, the Festspielhaus Grosses Saal in Salzburg, the Brucknerhaus in Linz, the Cello Biënnale Festival in Amsterdam, the Styriarte Festival in Graz, and the Herbsttöne Festival in Salzburg.

Sofía plays a "Canon Paganini" style cello by luthier Urs W. Mächler, built in 2018.