Sonya Moomaw, cello

Meet Sonya

Sonya performs on Show 440.

Sonya Moomaw (cello), 12, hails from Cincinnati, Ohio, and is an eighth grader at The School for Creative and Performing Arts (SCPA). She was inspired to play cello at a young age. At three years old, she started her formal cello training with Dr. Sarah Kim, who she has been studying with for the last nine years.

Throughout her musical journey, Sonya has participated in and won several competitions, including the Cleveland Cello Society (CCS) Elementary Division in 2018, and the CCS Junior Division in 2022. She was also a first-place winner with judges’ distinction in the Fall 2018 American Protégé Music Talent Competition, which awarded her the opportunity to play at Carnegie Hall in New York City. She won first place in the 2020 Julia Bartles Concerto Competition, and was the 2021 Music Teachers National Association (MTNA) Junior Strings Competition winner for the state of Ohio. In 2023, she was the national winner of the MTNA Junior Strings Competition.

In December 2019, Sonya made her orchestral debut with the University of Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, where she performed the first movement of the Haydn C Major Cello Concerto. In March of 2023, she performed the Saint-Säens Cello Concerto No. 1, with the Seven Hills Symphony Orchestra. She is currently a member of the SCPA Chamber Orchestra under the direction of Brian Siekmann, and the Seven Hills Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Dr. AikKhai Pung.

In addition to classical music, she also loves playing and listening to jazz and bluegrass. She began studying jazz in 2020 and continues to learn under the guidance of Joe Policastro and Erwin Stuckey. She enjoys playing in the jazz jams at The Lounge in Cincinnati and with the jazz ensembles at SCPA. When she was six years old, she started playing at a local bluegrass jam. She has since been invited to play with the Missy Werner Band at the Cincinnati Appalachian Festival, the Taste of Cincinnati, Flight 88, and at local bars and breweries like Mad Tree, The Comet, High Grain, and Molly Malone’s.