Sophie Dunér

Sophie Dunér is a Swedish singer, improviser, and composer who travels and performs internationally. Her performances span from the infamous ‘CBGB’s’ to the ‘13th & 14th Annual Charles Mingus Festival’ in NYC, the ‘Buenos Aires Festival de Música Contemporánea La Plata,’ and the ‘Festival O/Modernt’ in Sweden. She has been a composer in residence with the US-based new music group ‘Present Music.’

CD recordings include ‘The City of My Soul’ (2013) together with the UK-based string quartet ‘The Callino Quartet,’ produced by legendary Grammy award-winning producer Michael Haas (PARMA). She is also a collaborator with ‘Composers Concordance’ in NYC. During fall 2021, she toured with Dutch composer Jacob TV, premiering his ‘The Freedom Songs’ at the ‘Concertgebouw’ in Amsterdam. She is a four-time award winner from The Swedish Arts Council.

Sophie studied jazz improvisation with horn players Hal Crook, George Garzone, and Ed Tomassi, and she has a degree in vocal performance from Boston’s ‘Berklee College of Music.’ She has also studied at the Stockhausen summer courses in Germany, awarded a grant from The Swedish Arts Council.

Apart from musicians already mentioned, Sophie has collaborated with Guy Livingston, Francis Schwartz, Paul Clarvis, Don McCaslin, Guillermo Klein, Aaron Goldberg, Dick Griffin, Mark Turner, Seamus Blake, Steve Hamilton, Daniel Schnyder, Eric Segnitz, Gerry Brown, Craig Harris, Steve Swell, José Luís Greco, Hugo Ticciati, Valery Ponomarev, Tommy Campbell, Sébastién Dubé, Eleonor Sandresky, and others.

Previous CDs include her solo album ‘Strictly Business’ produced by Darren Allison (2022), ‘The City of Dizzy’ together with electric cellist Jeremy Harman (2016), ‘Songs Eclectic’ together with guitarist Gene Pritsker (2020), and ‘The Rain in Spain’ with guitarist Rory Stuart, bassist Matt Penmann, and percussionist Kahlil Kwame Bell (CIMP). Sophie has also recorded a duo CD with the late iconic avant-garde jazz bassist Dominic Duval Sr (previously in free jazz legend Cecil Taylor’s band) in 2014, which is finally set for release in 2024. Her new CD ‘Modern Mingus’ together with Bertram Lehman on percussion and electronics is also to be released in 2024.

Sophie was recently awarded SKR 50,000 ($5,000) as a composer from The Swedish Performance Rights Organisation. Last year, she participated as one of the female composers contributing to Clarice Assad’s composition ‘TAPESTRY,’ as part of ‘The Mosaic Project,’ premiered in November 2023 in San Diego during the ‘Mainly Mozart Festival’ directed by Anne-Marie McDermott.

Other performances include appearances at venues such as Concertgebouw, Tivoli Vredenburg, November Music (NL), Confidencen, Festival O/Modernt, Stockholm Jazz Festival, Stockholm New Music Festival, Scandinavium, Gothenburg Symphony Hall, Glenn Miller Café (SE), EMX / Sowieso Neukoln (DE), Circulo de Bellas Artes, Jazz en La Costa, Getxo Jazz Festival, Bimbache Open Art Festival (ES), Moods (CH), Baltic Jazz Festival (SF), Pizza Express Jazz Club (UK), Sapporo Snow Festival (JP), Carnegie Hall, Symphony Space, Cornelia St. Café, ShapeShifter Lab, Small’s, The Bop Shop, The LilyPad, PARMA Music Festival, NPR, NBC, and Harlem Jazz Boxx (USA).

Upcoming engagements include a new duo collaboration with acclaimed pianist Steve Beck.

For more info, visit www.sophiedunermusic.com