Sonja Bosca-Harasim

Concertmaster

Sonja Bosca-Harasim, performer and educator, has been described as an “undeniably impressive” performer (James Chute of the San Diego Union-Tribune), who “commands the stage and creates compelling music,” (John Lamb of the Fargo Forum), and hailed for her attention to detail, making “every note count deliciously” (Joel Luks of Culture Map Houston). The 2024-25 season marks Sonja’s seventh season as concertmaster of the Fargo-Moorhead Symphony Orchestra. Having just relocated with her family to Michigan, she recently concluded her tenure as associate professor of violin and viola at Concordia College in Moorhead, MN, where she taught for more than a decade. While at Concordia, she served as head of the string area and both director and co-founder of the North Star Chamber Music Festival and Concordia String Preparatory Program. 

Sonja maintains an active performing career locally, nationally, and internationally as a solo, chamber, and orchestral musician, including performances as guest principal 2nd violin with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra and the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music in Santa Cruz, CA, as well as at the “Grieg in Bergen” concert series in Norway, the Library of Congress and the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., La Jolla SummerFest in California, and at the Soiva Music Camp in Järvenpää, Finland. Prior to joining the faculty at Concordia, she performed regularly with the Houston Symphony, Houston Grand Opera, River Oaks Chamber Orchestra and Da Camera of Houston. Sonja has performed at numerous preeminent music festivals, including Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music, Lakes Area Music Festival, Schleswig-Holstein, International Holland Music Sessions, Sarasota, Tanglewood, Aspen, Round Top, Brevard and Interlochen. In addition to her solo and orchestral performances with the Fargo-Moorhead Symphony this season, chamber music engagements include performances featuring sonatas by Beethoven, Franck and Smythe with pianist Julia Siciliano at the Kerrytown Concert House (Ann Arbor, MI), Pleyel Piano Series (Detroit, MI), and Michigan Music Teachers Association 2024 Annual Conference (Grand Rapids, MI), as well as frequent performances with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra and Detroit Opera.

A sought-after educator, Sonja has been invited to perform and teach throughout the United States and Canada, giving masterclasses and recitals at Southern Illinois University, University of Manitoba, Georgia State University, University of South Florida, University of North Florida, University of Nevada-Las Vegas, Valparaiso University, St. Olaf College, University of North Dakota, North Dakota State University, among others. She has performed and served on the teaching faculty at various summer music festivals, including Concordia’s North Star Chamber Music Festival and Symposium, International Music Camp, Soiva Music Camp, Dakota Chamber Music, Minnesota All-State Camp, NDSU Chamber Music Festival, and Chamber Music of the Rockies. Her students have won numerous competitions and participated in prominent music festivals all over the world, and have gone on to become successful music educators, performers (many of whom play in the FMSO violin and viola sections), and attend distinguished graduate programs in music performance and other fields of study. 

Sonja is dedicated to the performance of contemporary music, with several composers, including Karim Al-Zand, Daniel Breedon, Doug Harbin, Benjamin Krause, Richard Lavenda, Russell Peterson and Christopher Walzcak, having written pieces for her. She feels equally at home as a soloist, chamber and orchestral musician, and enjoys performing music from popular genres in addition to a wide variety of repertoire established in and/or neglected from the classical canon. She began her violin studies at the age of five and went on to attend Houston’s renowned High School for the Performing and Visual Arts. Sonja completed her undergraduate studies at the Cleveland Institute of Music and her Master of Music and Doctor of Musical Arts degree at Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music, where she frequently led as concertmaster of their symphony and chamber orchestras, and was winner of their concerto competition. Sonja performs a violin she commissioned in 2011 by Altadena, CA-based luthier, Mario Miralles, modeled after the famed “Titian” Stradivarius.