Biography

Sophia Kunxu Dou (b. Dec 2007) is a composer based in New York City. She is currently studying composition under Professor Valerie Coleman at Juilliard and has studied with Dr. Daniel Felsenfeld at Juilliard Pre-College since 2022. She is a winner of the 2023 ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composer Awards, The American Prize in Composition–Orchestra 2024 and The 2025 First Commission Awards, a two-time finalist of National Young Composers Challenge and The American Prize in Composition--Chamber, and a three-time recipient of Luna Composition Lab honorable mention. She has been a member of New York Youth Symphony since 2022, and selected for Boston University Tanglewood Institute, Yellow Barn and Dolphins Quartet Young Artists Composition Programs.

Sophia’s works have been performed at Kennedy Center, National Sawdust, Composers Now Festival, An Evening with Tania León, 14th Busan Maru International Music Festival, Sounds of US Festival, etc. She has collaborated with Grammy Award-winning conductor David Miller with the Little Orchestra Society in eight concerts, as well as New York Youth Symphony, Juilliard Pre-College Orchestra, International Contemporary Ensemble, Harlem Chamber Players, Aizuri Quartet, the Dolphins Quartet, Avec String Quartet, Parhelion Trio, etc.

Sophia has received awards in piano, violin, voice, poetry and Mathematics. She is also a visual artist whose work has been honored by the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards and awarded in art competitions. She aspires to challenge artistic expressions through interdisciplinary collaborations where music, dance, visual arts, and theatre collide.