Sonja Grossner, Composer & musician
"This gift to create, it was just there. Something I want to share."
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Sonja Grossner was born in Maidenhead, Berkshire. Her first attempts at composition were made at the same time she started to learn to play the violin at the age of eight.
At eleven she attended the Berkshire School of Music in Reading on Saturdays.
A holiday trip 1960 turned into a permanent stay in former East Germany and she subsequently studied violin at the Carl Maria von Weber Hochschule fur Musik in Dresden as well as composition with Manfred Weiss, prior to working as a violinist in the Freiberg Theater Orchestra and the Dresden Operetta Theater. Then later as an instrumental tutor. Following her return to the UK in 1984 she continued to work as an instrumental tutor.
She is also a member of the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors.
1995 she completed her MA in composition at Leicester´s De Montfort University, studying with Gavin Bryars. June 2004 she completed her PhD at the Birmingham Conservatoire and was awarded graduation composition prize, and performance of the fifth movement of 2nd symphony in June.
She has written approx 200 works that include 6 string quartets, two symphonies, various songs, one ballet The Little Match Girl, various pieces for children, sonatas for flute, piano and violin, pieces for string orchestra and full orchestra.
Within Reflecting Echoes (piano concerto) in 3 movments
Within Reflecting Echoes (piano concerto) orchestra University of Leicester Sinfonia with piano soloist Duncan Honeybourne
Many of my compositions especially these last years are dedicated to my parents in loving memory. In this piano concerto I have told their tale in a musical way, as well as my experiences in the previous GDR, and the devastating experiences we had under that Stalinist dictator regime.