Biography
Sophia Aretz is an internationally active as a flutist and regularly performs with renowned ensembles on the early music scene. In 2022, her debut CD Prussian Blue with harpsichordist Alexander von Heißen was released on the Hänssler Classic label, followed by their debut concert with the program at the Konzerthaus Berlin (2025). She was awarded First Prize at the International Johann Heinrich Schmelzer Competition 2022 in Austria and was accepted into the musician pool of the British ensemble Arcangelo. She appears as a soloist on the Ensemble Harmonie Universelle’s recording of works by Johann Wilhelm Wilms, performing in two concertante symphonies, and can be heard as principal flute on numerous other recordings with the Kölner Akademie. Solo engagements in the last year include concerts with L’Orfeo Barockorchester, Dorothee Mields, and Mayumi Hirasaki.
As an ensemble musician, Sophia Aretz has been invited to perform with f.e. the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment (UK), Hofkapelle Stuttgart (Frieder Bernius), Musica Eterna Brugge, Concerto Köln, Ensemble 1700 (Dorothee Oberlinger), Das Neue Orchester (Christoph Spering), Harmonie Universelle (Florian Deuter & Mónica Waismann), Cölner Barockorchester, Neue Hofkapelle Osnabrück, La Banda, Kantorei Weilburg/Capella Weilburgensis (Doris Hagel), and Kantorei St. Michael Mondsee (Austria). She is also co-founder of the ensemble Lantana Camara, performing in flexible formations with musicians such as Jonas Zschenderlein, Amarilis Dueñas, Jakob Wagner, and Alexander von Heißen.
Sophia Aretz completed her Bachelor’s degree with Prof. André Sebald at the Robert Schumann Hochschule Düsseldorf and her Master’s degree with Prof. Leonard Schelb at the Hochschule für Musik und Tanz Köln. In 2020 and 2021, she studied abroad (Erasmus) with Lisa Beznosiuk at the Royal Academy of Music in London and with Prof. Marcello Gatti at the Mozarteum Salzburg.
She has been a long-standing scholarship holder of the Deutsche Stiftung Musikleben and has received further support from institutions such as the Lyra Foundation, Stiftung Jugend & Schlösser NRW, Richard Wagner Verband Düsseldorf, Bürgerstiftung Düsseldorf, the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research, the Friends of the HfMT Köln, the Gretel-Sütterlin-Stiftung, and Yehudi Menuhin Live Music Now Rhein-Ruhr. At a young age, she was a five-time First Prize winner at the national competition Jugend musiziert and received First Prize at the International Flute Ensemble Competition in Freiburg as well as Second Prize at the International Competition at the Adams Flute Festival in the Netherlands.
Early in her artistic career, she was a member of the Junge Norddeutsche Philharmonie and the Landesjugendorchester NRW. Further engagements included productions at the Kammeroper Köln, ART Ensemble NRW, performances as a stage musician at Oper Köln, and as a guest player with the WDR Funkhausorchester in 2019. In 2021, she joined the TONALi Orchestra on its BeEnigma tour, which included her debut performance at Hamburg’s Elbphilharmonie.