Sophie Mathieu is a composer and cellist based in Austin, TX. She specializes in creating ambient, ethereal, and immersive works about vast, expansive places in the natural world. Her music has won her numerous awards, including her orchestral work, moons, which recently received an ASCAP Morton Gould award. Sophie has collaborated with ensembles across the US, including Alarm Will Sound, yMusic, and Eighth Blackbird. She is the 2024 Draylen Mason Composer in Residence at KMFA Classical 89.5, Austin’s classical music radio station.
As a performer, Sophie eagerly engages with any type of music making that is hands-on and fun. She is passionate about the (small but mighty) new music scene in Austin and appears regularly with ensembles Less Than Ten and Density512. During her time pursuing a masters in composition at the University of Texas, she served as the principal cellist of UT New Music Ensemble and the director of the CLUTCH concert series, a series of performances showcasing works composed by students.
Sophie plays in the Austin-based queer folk band Middle Sattre and the indie-alternative band Maru Haru. She also loves early music and studied baroque cello and viola da gamba during her undergraduate studies, receiving the Colburn Scholarship in Early Music Performance for her work with USC’s Baroque Sinfonia. Sophie also enjoys performing theatrical and non-traditional musical works, having recently performed Mayke Nas and Wouter Snoei’s I Delayed People’s Flights by Walking Slowly in Narrow Hallways. She is also an amateur choral singer and enjoys singing in the Austin-based choir Panoramic Voices.
In addition to her completing masters in composition at UT Austin’s Butler School of Music, Sophie completed her undergraduate studies in composition at the University of Southern California. Her primary teachers include Ted Hearne, Andrew Norman, Alyssa Weinberg, Omar Thomas, and Donald Crockett. Sophie is passionate about teaching and is currently the Youth Director at Golden Hornet.
Outside of music, Sophie enjoys cooking plant-based food, playing Sid Meier’s Civilization, and watching psychological horror films in her free time.