Cellist Sophie Webber enjoys an active career as soloist and chamber musician, in performances that have taken her to England, Australia, Brazil, Spain, and the United States, in venues that include Oxford's Sheldonian, Holywell Music Room, Jacqueline du Pre Building, Magdalen College, and Oxford Town Hall, as well as in Regent Hall and Charlton House in London, Pershore Abbey in Worcestershire and Indiana University, Ball State University, Iowa University and Southeast Missouri State University in the USA, among many others. She has also performed on several occasions for Wallingford's "Music at St.Peter's" chamber music series, for the "Abbey Chamber Recitals" (Abingdon), and most recently, for Chicago's classical and folk music radio station, 98.7 WFMT.

Sophie gained her Bachelor of Music with first class honors from Trinity College of Music, London, in 2001. She has since attained a Masters and Doctorate degree (August 2010) from the Jacobs School of Music, Indiana University. Sophie is the recipient of the Sir John Barbirolli Memorial Prize for Cello (2001). She was a prizewinner in the 2008 Indianapolis Musicale Matinee Competition as well as for the Thames Valley Young Musicians' Platform (2004), and was awarded First Prize for chamber music in "Zumaia International Music Festival” (2000,< Spain), the Leonard Smith Strings and Piano prize and the John Ireland Chamber Music Prize (both from Trinity College). Her principal mentors include Richard Markson, Tsuyoshi Tsutsumi, Helga Winold, Menahem Pressler and Janos Starker.

An ardent new music enthusiast, Sophie engages in numerous collaborations with composers, including several recent mixed media performances. As solo cellist with choir, she has recently performed Rudi Tas’s “Miserere”with Indiana University's highest ranking choir, the “University Singers” as well as Jocelyn Morlock’s “Exaudi”with the Southeast Missouri chamber choir. In March 2010, she will perform with the Chicago Chorale. Her recording of “Until the Sea” (live cello with electronics)by Iddo Aharony was recently used in the premiere of “The Attic” at the Oxford Playhouse Theatre. Aharony also wrote music for recorded cello (played by Sophie) and electronics for the play "A.H. (Before he changed our history)" , written and directed by talented Israeli playwright, Yagil Eliraz (the play was recently nominated for the best Fringe Theatre Show 2008 (Tel Aviv)). Compositions dedicated to and premiered by Sophie include Aharony's "Wing" for solo cello, Aharony's piano trio, "Narrow Road" and Adam Haw's "Then Sudden Back" for solo cello. Her current projects include a collaboration with ballet dancer, Ben Delony, and a number of performances of contemporary works for solo cello and choir in Indiana and Illinois. The following You Tube clip is from a live collaborative performance of Britten's Suite for Solo Cello No.1, Op.72, with dancer (Ben Delony) and lighting (Baltazar Pena Rios): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R6qaHUuEIAA

In high demand as a teacher, Sophie has taught at a number of different institutions. She is currently Lecturer in "World Music" and Associate Teacher of Cello for Lake Forest College, Chicago. She also teaches musicianship classes for the Music Institute of Chicago. In 2007, she served on the adjunct faculty at Southeast Missouri State University. She has held faculty positions at Wychwood High School for Girls and Cothill School for Boys in Oxford, and has been a guest teacher for Oxford Cello School Summer Festival, Oxfordshire County Music, as well as a chamber music and musicianship coach for Trinity College of Music’s Junior Department in London. Sophie also taught for four years as an Associate Instructor in Music Theory at Indiana University.