As an interpreter of a very broad repertoire reflecting her imaginative world, a designer of projects, and a musician sought after by many contemporary composers, Sonia Wieder-Atherton occupies a special place on today’s musical scene.

After graduation from the Paris Conservatory under Maurice Gendron and classes with Rostropovitch, she left for Moscow and two years of study with Natalia Chakhovskaia at the Tchaikovsky Conservatory. In 1986, shortly after her return, she was laureate of the Rostropovitch Competition.

She has played as soloist with the Orchestre de Paris, the Orchestre National de France, the Belgian National Orchestra, the Liege Philharmonic, the Israel Philharmonic, the Gulbenkian Orchestra of Lisbon, the Luxemburg Philharmonic Orchestra, the orchestra of the NDR in Hanover….

Pascal Dusapin and Georges Aperghis have written numerous works for her as have Henri Dutilleux, Wolfgang Rihm, Betsy Jolas and Ivan Fedele. Her latest premiere, Bloody Luna by Georges Aperghis with the REMIX Ensemble, was given at the Casa da Musica in Porto, Portugal this spring.  Wolfgang Rihm is composing a work for cello and orchestra for her (premiere scheduled for the MUSICA 2008 festival).

She regularly plays with pianists Imogen Cooper, Georges Pludermacher, Laurent Cabasso and Elisabeth Leonskaja, violinists Jan Talich, Raphaël Oleg and Sylvia Marcovici, the Accentus choir and percussionist Françoise Rivalland.

She has been invited to perform her projects, of which she has overseen both the conception and the staging, in numerous festivals and in venues such as the Cité de la Musique, the Théâtre de la Ville, Musica à Strasbourg (France), the Bath Music Festival and the Cheltenham festival (GB), the Houston Opera (USA), the Dortmund Opera (Germany): for instance Beginning with Monteverdi, a concert which interweaves in a highly original manner Monteverdi duets and contemporary solo works (Berio, Kurtag, Dutilleux,…) and  D’Est en musique, a “visual” concert performed with images from  Chantal Akerman’s film D’Est.

Songs from Slavic Lands: Journey Down a Long-lost Path is the latest production by Sonia Wieder-Atherton: a concert for cello and chamber orchestra ranging from Russia to Mittel Europa (music by Rachmaninov, Janacek, Prokofiev, Martinu, Lutoslawski, Dohnanyi, Mahler). This event has been held at the Théâtre de la Ville in May 2007, and currently goes on tour.

Arte devoted several episodes of the television series Maestro to Sonia Wieder-Atherton.

Her numerous recordings bear witness to the development of her career: Jewish Songs, Beginning with Monteverdi, Schubert Trios, En sonate (works for cello and piano with Imogen Cooper, duets for violon and cello with Raphaël Oleg), En concerto (with the Sinfonia Varsovia conducted by the late Janos Fürst, works by Ravel, Bartok and Shostakovitch), Pascal Dusapin’s cello concerto.

Her new recording Songs from Slavic Lands: Journey Down a Long-lost Path has been released in February 2009 by Naïve, record company with whom she recently signed an exclusive recording contract.