Biography
Selected as one of the "Cool 100" by Houston CityBook Magazine alongside icons such as Simone Biles and Megan Thee Stallion, composer Nicky Sohn has emerged as one of the most compelling and distinctive voices in contemporary classical music. With a style characterized by jazz-inspired, rhythmically driven themes and vivid orchestration, her music has been praised internationally as "undoubtedly the crowd pleaser of the evening" (YourObserver), "dynamic and full of vitality" (The Korea Defense Daily), and evoking "elegant wonder" (Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung).
Sohn's work has been commissioned and performed by leading orchestras and institutions including the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra of St. Luke's, Minnesota Orchestra, Atlanta Symphony, Annapolis Symphony, Albany Symphony, Sarasota Orchestra, and the National Orchestra of Korea. Her music spans orchestral, chamber, vocal, and ballet repertoire, including a large scale ballet for BalletCollective premiered at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City, and has been featured by Stuttgart Ballet.
In 2026, the American Academy of Arts and Letters selected her to receive the Charles Ives Fellowship, a prestigious honor awarded annually to only two young professional composers of extraordinary gifts. Recent highlights include the premiere of her Guitar Concerto No. 1 with the Albany Symphony featuring guitarist Bokyung Byun, performed to sold out audiences and later presented in a sinfonietta version at the 2025 Tanglewood Music Festival. Additional projects include a cello concerto commissioned by the University of Iowa and recorded by the Czech Chamber Philharmonic Orchestra, and Galaxy Back to You for the Balourdet Quartet, commissioned following their Avery Fisher Career Grant and featured on their debut album.
This spring, Sohn premieres three new orchestral works in quick succession, a rare and defining moment in any composer's career. Two of the works, written for the Atlanta Symphony and Knoxville Symphony, draw from Korean folktales, bringing stories unfamiliar to American concert halls to life through her signature rhythmic language and vivid orchestration. For Sohn, who has now spent more than half her life in the United States, music is the vessel through which she carries her background, her heritage, and the stories of where she comes from into the spaces she now calls home. The third work, premiered by Orchestra Lumos, turns inward, tracing her own childhood shaped by Disney films and the promise of the American dream, and the more complicated truth she found beneath it. Together the three pieces are a portrait of an artist who believes deeply that new music does not have to be distant or difficult, but can speak directly, honestly, and urgently to the lives of its listeners.
Sohn has held fellowships and residencies at some of the most respected institutions in the United States, including the Tanglewood Music Center as a Composition Fellow, the DACAMERA Young Artist Program, MUSIQA Houston, the Hambidge Center, and the UCross Foundation. A recipient of the Druckman Prize, she has also been commissioned by Robert Spano and the Aspen Music Festival. She works closely with performers to shape projects that bridge artistic excellence and human connection, building lasting relationships with the soloists and ensembles who bring her music to life.
Born in Seoul, Korea, Sohn began piano lessons as a toddler and started composing at the age of seven. She graduated from high school at fourteen and holds degrees from Mannes College of Music, The Juilliard School, and The Shepherd School of Music at Rice University, where she earned her Doctor of Musical Arts. Her mentors include Gabriela Lena Frank, Anna Clyne, Chris Theofanidis, and Richard Danielpour, composers whose influence is reflected in her own dedication to craft, voice, and artistic integrity.