About sophie

Praised for her “technicolor” sound (Gramophone), harpist Sophie Baird-Daniel is in high demand as a soloist and collaborator.  She has been featured at numerous series and festivals, including Tanglewood Music Center, Seattle Symphony, Aspen Music Festival, Bellingham Music Festival, Seattle Modern Orchestra, Philharmonia Northwest, and North Corner Chamber Orchestra.  As an orchestral musician, Sophie has performed with the Seattle Symphony, Seattle Opera, San Francisco Ballet, Houston Symphony, and the Minnesota Orchestra.

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A champion of new music, she has given premiers of works by Freya Waley-Cohen, George Benjamin, Megan Bledsoe-Ward, Iman Habibi, and Marc-André Dalbavie. 

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Sophie was a participant in the prestigious 2018 International Harp Contest in Israel, a quarter finalist in the 2016 International Dutch Harp Competition, and won the silver medal at the 2017 Vancouver international Music Competition.  She was the 2015 winner of the Frances Walton Competition, which culminated in an outreach tour of rural Eastern Washington reaching thousands of school-aged children. The experience has continued to inspire her work in outreach and education.

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Alongside her performing career, Sophie is the artistic director of Archipelago Collective, a dynamic and forward thinking chamber music festival on San Juan Island, Washington. 

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Sophie has been mentored by some of the world’s leading harp pedagogues including Isabelle Perrin, Nancy Allen, Elizabeth Fontan-Binoche, Mariko Anraku, Valerie Muzzolini, and Jessica Zhou.  She completed her Artist and Performance Diplomas at the Glenn Gould School of the Royal Conservatory of Music under the tutelage of world-renowned harpist Judy Loman.