onia Wieder-Atherton, the french-American cellist, is considered one of the finest and most original musicians today.

A former star pupil of Russian maestri Mstislav Rostropovitch and Natalia Shakhovskaia, her tone and style are unique. Having studied in Paris and in Moscow, she perfectly combines both French and Russian styles of cello playing. At the Paris Conservatory, where she studied with Maurice Gendron, she was awarded first prizes for both cello and chamber music and is a prize-winner of the Rostropovitch International Cello Competition.
In addition to performing most of the great classical cello repertoire, Sonia Wieder-Atherton is also passionate about contemporary music and has premiered many works, often dedicated to her, including Betsy Jolas’ Episode Cinquieme, Ohana’s In Dark and Blue and Pascal Dusapin’s Incisa and his cello concerto Celo.
She has worked with many great orchestras including the Orchestre de Paris, Orchestre National de France, Orchestre National de Belgique, Liege Philharmonique, the UNAM Mexico, Orchestre National d’Ile de France and performs regularly at many international music festivals such as Flanders, Shangai, Jerusalem, Strasbourg, Kuhmo, Monte Carlo, Aix-en-Provence, Sintra, Ars Musica, IRCAM, and Bath.
Prompted by the success of her first disc for the BMG/RCA Red Seal label, Jewish Songs, Sonia Wieder-Atherton was signed to a recording contract with BMG-France. A CD of duos with violinist Raphaël Oleg was released in 1998, followed by a double CD with Schubert masterpieces: the Trios and the Arpeggione Sonata, with Raphaël Oleg and Imogen Cooper. The recording of Beginning with Monteverdi combines contemporary works for cello with Monteverdi transcriptions for two cellos (performed with Natalia Shakhovskaia) and is considered one of the major recording events of 2001. Apres un Reve, which includes Rachmaninoff and Franck cello sonatas with Imogen Cooper was released in July 2002 and a double CD with various works has just been released and is making quite an impression on the international press.
Sonia Wieder-Atherton is also involved in many diverse artistic projects. She collaborated with the Israeli composer André Hajdu and the actor Sami Frey to create a programme based on the Old Testament. She created a Mediterranean-influenced programme, From Aleppo to Seville, which features traditional and classical music from mainly Arabic sources as well as three newly-commissioned contemporary works. This received its UK premiere at the Bath International Festival in 2002 and was broadcast on BBC Radio 3.
A cinematic artist portrait of the musician by the Belgian director Chantal Akerman received its television premiere on ARTE in September 2003 and was shown around Europe as part of the festival Temps d’ Images.
Acknowledging Sonia Wieder-Atherton as one of the most powerful musical personalities of today, the French Academy of Fine Arts awarded her the Del Duca Grand Prize from the French Academy of Fine Arts in 1999.
Sonia Wieder-Atherton plays a cello by Matteo Goffriller.

January 2004