Sonja Bosca-Harasim, performer and educator, is associate professor of violin and viola at Concordia College and concertmaster of the Fargo-Moorhead Symphony. Additionally, she coaches chamber music and serves as string area coordinator and director of Concordia's North Star Chamber Music Festival and Symposium, as well as its String Preparatory Program. Bosca-Harasim maintains an active performing career locally, nationally, and internationally as a solo, chamber, and orchestral musician, including performing as guest principal 2nd violin with the Detroit Symphony and the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music in Santa Cruz, Calif., as well as chamber music performances 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 Jarvenpaa, Finland. Upcoming solo engagements include performances of Samuel Coleridge-Taylor's Violin Concerto with The Concordia Orchestra on their fall tour in November 2022 and Jaakko Kuusisto's Violin Concerto with the Fargo-Moorhead Symphony in January 2023. 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. She has performed at numerous preeminent music festivals, including Schleswig-Holstein, International Holland Music Sessions, Sarasota, Tanglewood, Aspen, Round Top, Brevard and Interlochen and has been invited to perform and teach throughout the United States, 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. Bosca-Harasim is dedicated to the performance of new music, with several composers, including Karim Al-Zand, Daniel Breedon, Benjamin Krause, Richard Lavenda, Russell Peterson and Christopher Walczak, having written pieces to her. She began her violin studies at the age of 5 in the Suzuki program at Parker Elementary in Houston, Texas, with Karen Somer, Kathy Karpicke, and Rosemary Jodeit and went on to study with Albert Muenzer, while attending Houston's critically acclaimed High School for the Performing and Visual Arts. Bosca-Harasim completed her undergraduate studies with David Updegraff at the Cleveland Institute of Music and returned to her hometown to continue her studies with Kenneth Goldsmith and Cho-Liang Lin at Rice University's Shepherd School of Music, where she received her Master of Music and Doctor of Musical Arts degrees. She plays a violin made in 2011 by Mario Miralles, modeled after Mr. Lin's "Titian" Stradivarius.
Photo credit: Kensie Wallner Photography
