Canadian cellist Sonya Nanos Hodgson charms audiences with her impassioned, imaginative playing. Her diverse career has included performances with ensembles such as the Orlando Philharmonic and Quartetto Gelato, as well as artists like Michael Bublé and Andrea Bocelli.

Sonya has been featured in The Walleye Magazine, the Thunder Bay Chronicle Journal, and has been broadcast nationally on CBC Radio. Her recording highlights include the JUNO-nominated album of Canadian works with the Thunder Bay Symphony Orchestra and an album of chamber orchestra works by American composer Paul Reale, where she can be heard as a soloist. 

As an active chamber musician and recitalist, Sonya has been featured on the Lumina series, Symphony in the Barn, Consortium Aurora Borealis, and as a guest on Western University’s faculty chamber series. She has also premiered several chamber works by composers such as Greg Sandow (in Suk Hall, Prague), and Scott Wheeler. 

Sonya is committed to inspiring students of any age or background to find joy and community through music. She has instructed at El Sistema Aeolian in London, ON and has also taught at Lakehead University, adjudicated local and provincial festivals, and the Festival Internacional de Música in Loja, Ecuador. This fall, Sonya begins her third season as a member of the Niagara Symphony Orchestra. Previously, she was section cellist with the Thunder Bay Symphony Orchestra. 

Sonya holds a Master of Music from Lynn University where she was awarded the M. Elizabeth Maddy Cumpton Endowment Award for the “outstanding conservatory student of strings”, an Artist Diploma from the Glenn Gould School, and a Bachelor of Music from McGill University.has