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Sonja Kraus, cello
Sonja Kraus, a native of Germany, is an internationally acclaimed cellist, teacher, and music scholar, whose concertizing and teaching career has taken her through Europe, Asia, Latin America, and the United States. Currently, Kraus holds the position of Assistant Professor of Cello at the University of South Dakota and is the cellist in the renowned Rawlins Piano Trio. Prior to joining the faculty at the University of South Dakota, Kraus was the Cello Professor at the Universidad de Especialidades Espíritu Santo as well as the principal cellist of the Orquesta Filarmónica Municipal de Guayaqil in Ecuador.
Kraus holds her bachelor’s in Cello Performance and Pedagogy from the State University of Music and Performing Arts in Stuttgart (Germany) as well as a master’s degree from the Jacobs School of Music – Indiana University Bloomington where she is currently completing her doctorate in Cello Performance. While in Bloomington, Kraus was the winner of the Popper Competition and received the 1st prize in the Indianapolis Matinee Musicale Competition.
During the past few years, Kraus participated as a teacher and performer in several music festivals and is a sought-out clinician and instructor of masterclasses throughout the US, Latin America, and Germany. Her latest performances as a soloist included Orquesta Sinfónica de Loja – Loja, Ecuador, Camerata Romeu – Havana, Cuba, and University Orchestra of Indiana University – Bloomington, IN.
As a researcher, Kraus focuses on broadening the cello repertoire by identifying manuscripts and creating editions of unpublished cello works from the classical era. So far, she has found three cello concertos by Franz Anton Hoffmeister and is in the process of creating scholarly editions and first recordings for these works. .