Sonya Knussen

Sonya Knussen is a unique and energetic force in the world of music education. She has always considered music to be her first language. While she remembers learning to read words, she can’t recall a time she didn’t understand music on the page. Encouraged by two musical parents, she started composing at a young age, and music quickly became her primary academic focus.

Singing is a key element of Sonya’s varied musical career, both as a soloist and as an ensemble musician. She focuses predominantly on music composed before the classical era and after the start of the 20th century. She has appeared as featured soloist with the Baltimore Symphony, Washington Cathedral Choral Society, and Washington Bach Consort, and was the narrator for Britten’s Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra at the Queen Elizabeth Hall, London in collaboration with the Purcell School.

Noted for her musical grace by the New York Times and her confidence by the Washington Post, Sonya is equally at home on the stage and in the classroom. She cultivates imaginative and skillful young vocalists, composers, and instrumentalists. Sonya shares her love of composition and new music with a new generation of composers through Go Compose North America. She leads and administrates a variety of workshops and programs for school-aged composers around the world. She is also the founder/director of hexaCollective, an ad hoc vocal ensemble based in Baltimore, MD. 

She holds degrees from Boston University, Trinity College of Music (London), Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, and the Peabody Conservatory.

For more information, please visit Sonya Knussen's website at www.sonyaknussen.com