Sophie Dunér is a highly versatile singer, composer & improviser from Sweden. Her CD 'TIERKREIS' (by Karlheinz Stockhausen) was placed as nr. 1 on ’Best Recorded Jazz of 2025’ in the cathegory ’Best Vocal Recordings’ by George Grella (Kill Yr Idols/Substack) as well as nr. 2 on his 'TOP 10 New Releases in 2025’, stating 'What Sophie Dunér does reinventing Stockhausen is mind boggling.' CD was also among The Wire’s Releases of the Year chart for 2025. The release was recently featured on WKCR89.9 FM Afternoon New Music in NYC. The CD was also featured on the one hour radio show/interview “Sophie and Stockhausen” (New York Festivals Radio Award 2026) co-produced together with legendary radio host/producer Steve Robinsson & narrated by NEA Jazz Master Awardee 2025 Rhonda Hamilton. It was recently aired on the L.A radio station KKJZ.org
With her roots in jazz, she is influenced by avant garde and contemporary classical writing. As a composer, she blends the romantic and the spiritually elevated with a dissonant, bold, edgy and satirical edge. Sophie is inspired by a variety of composers such as Kurt Weill, Thelonious Monk, Dimitri Shostakovich, Charles Ives, Charles Mingus, Hans Werner Henze, Dizzy Gillespie, Igor Stravinsky & Frank Zappa. Her music has been called “polytonal.”
Sharing her time between Sweden, Europe and mostly NYC, she has sung her own take on ‘TIERKREIS’ by Karlheinz Stockhausen at NYC's NUBLU as well as Brooklyn's SPECTRUM together with pianist Steve Beck. A collaboration that resulted in a CD that was released in 2025 with the NYC based record label Urlicht-Audiovisual. The 'TIERKREIS' idea was inspired by her version of ‘Leo’ (one of it's movements) that she performed at Carnegie Hall during fall 2023. This, as a result of her award winning audition for a competition. Selected for the second round, she returned to CH in 2024 on July 1 to premiere Francis Schwartz's ‘The Neon Pterodactyl', accompanied by Jennifer Savage on piano & Vladimir Dyo on violin.
At the recommendation of KH Stockhausen, Sophie studied vocal interpretation at the Stockhausen summer Courses in Kuerten (DE) for two years, supported by a grant from The Swedish Arts Council. She also studied at Berklee College of Music in Boston, earning a degree in performance, specializing in jazz improvisation with Hal Crook, George Garzone & Ed Tomassi for 4 years.
Appearances include concerts at venues such as NYC’s legendary CBGB´s, Small’s, Symphony Space, Birdland, Players Theatre, The Bop Shop, Cornelia St Cafe, ShapeShifter Lab, The 13th & 14th Charles Mingus Virtual Festival, AddAmovie Film Festival, The 11th Annual CompCord Festival, Boston’s The LilyPad, Sculler’s (MA) PARMA Music Festival (NH), Composer residency with Present Music for In The Avant Garden of Love / Jan Serr Studios (WI) Buenos Aires Festival de Música Contemporánea La Plata. European appearances include Festival O/Modernt, Stockholm New Music Festival, Stockholm Jazz Festival, Gothenburg Symphony Hall (SE), Concertgebouw, November Music Festival, Tivoli Vredenburg (NL), Jazz en La Costa, Getxo Jazz Festival, Circulo de Bellas Artes (ES) Moods Jazz Club (CH), Pizza Express (UK), Sowieso Neukoln (DE) Baltic Jazz Festival (SF) Sapporo Snow Festival (JP) etc.
CD’s include the self produced jazz take on Karlheinz Stockhausen's ‘TIERKREIS’ together with pianist Steve Beck (Urlicht-Audiovisual), the solo work ‘Strictly Business’ produced by iconic producer Darren Alisson (CD Baby), ‘The City of My Soul’ together with The Callino string Quartet, produced by legendary producer Michael Haas (PARMA), ‘The City of Dizzy’ together with Jeremy Harman on electric cello (CD Baby),‘Songs Eclectic’ together with Gene Pritsker on guitar & programming, ‘The Rain in Spain’ in trio with guitarist Rory Stuart, bassist Matt Penmann & percussionist Kahlil Kwame Bell (CIMP) & ‘Standards’ together with the ex Cecil Taylor bassist Dominic Duval Sr (CIMP) for upcoming release in 2026 TBA. ‘Modern Mingus’ in duo with Bertram Lehman on percussion & electronics is also for upcoming release during 2026.
Except for musicians already mentioned, other collaborations include appearances with Anthony Coleman, Jonathan Powell, Dominic Duval Sr, Ken Filiano, Gene Pritsker, Guy Livingston, Eleonor Sandresky, Dick Griffin, Valery Ponomarev, Hugo Ticciati, José Luís Greco, Francis Schwartz, Daniel Schnyder, Steve Swell, Craig Harris, Tommy Campbell, Franz Hackl, Sébastien Dubé , Gerry Brown etc. Earlier collabs include Guillermo Klein, Aaron Goldberg, Donny McCaslin, Mark Turner etc. During 2021, she premiered Jacob TV’s The Freedom Songs at Concertgebouw in Amsterdam.
The Swedish Arts Council has awarded Sophie grants on 4 occasions. In 2023, she received $ 5000 composer scholarship from STIM, The Swedish Performing Rights Society.
TV & Radio appearances include NPR Wisconsin, WJFF Radio Catskill, Arts Avenue (WISN), WMSE’s Dr. Sushi’s Free Jazz BBQ , BOLD TV, Talk Music Talk with Boice (NYC), Radio Guy Live (NL), TV4, SR (SE), Como Lo Oyes (RNE) Beneath the Underground with John Pietaro/XX-Centric Behaviour with Laurie Towers/WFMU (NYC) etc.
Some of Sophie's engagements include a composer feature in Clarice Assad’s ‘TAPESTRY’ / The Mosaic Project, premiered at the ‘Mainly Mozart Festival’ in San Diego, USA. Composer/singer features include ‘The Jazz Influence with Strings’ / ‘Harlem Jazz Series’ and a collaboration with the acclaimed ‘Ethel String Quartet’ where her piece ‘Kairo’ was selected to be performed during an event in Tribeca, NYC, both events produced by ‘Composers Concordance.' Sophie has presented several solo shows at SPECTRUM & Silvana in NYC, including her ‘Art Film Noir’. March 2025 included a guest singer appearance with Guillermo Klein & UMO Helsinki Jazz Orchestra in Helsinki, Finland. UK engagements include 2 concerts of Stockhausen's ‘TIERKREIS’ & music by Morton Feldman together with the late acclaimed British pianist Jonathan Powell & violinist Leora Cohen at London's 1901 Arts Club & Brighton Fringe in the UK on May 27 & 28 2025. During summer 2025, Sophie completed a CD recording of the piece ‘Checkmate my Love’ (written for her by the acclaimed Spanish/American composer Jose Luis Greco) together with the Madrid based duo ‘Nectar Project Music’ (Ana Maria Alonso, viola & Miguel Egido, baritone sax).In 2025, she also gave a CD release concert of her jazz take on Karlheinz Stockhausen's ‘TIERKREIS’ together with the outstanding pianist Steve Beck at ShapeShifter Lab in Brooklyn, N.Y. This was followed by another avant garde jazz concert in duo together with the acclaimed bassist Ken Filiano at Silvana in Harlem, N.Y as well as a duo collab of her new “messed up stride” repertoire together with the iconic and long time John Zorn collaborator; pianist Anthony Coleman, at ShapeShifter Lab. Sophie just recorded her new jazz CD together with Anthony at Atlantis Studios in Stockholm, Sweden. For upcoming release on the Manhattan based record label Urlicht-Audiovisual late summer 2026. The Swedish premiere of Sophie's jazz take on Stockhausen's ‘TIERKREIS’ recently took place at UMA Gallery in Stockholm where she collaborated with Olof Wendel on vibraphone & Pascal Jardry on guitar - members of the contemporary quartet Mimarob.