Sophie Dunér is a singer, songwriter, composer, arranger and visual artist from Sweden with a past in the United States and Spain. Originally a jazz singer, her writing and performing have evolved into a realm of wild, risky, passionate and exhilarating music for vocals and string quartet, which she has rendered pristine arrangements, stylistically in a fusion between jazz and classical idioms – yet something brand new and unbrandable!

 Her CD The City Of My Dreams (2008/09), produced in Spain, stirred a tremendous response from the international music press and radio, and caught the ear of Grammy award winning classical music producer Michael Haas (Coralfox), who testified to Sophie Dunér’s uniqueness.

 The latest effort from Miss Dunér is an outstanding collection of original songs (plus two traditionals) recorded by the singer and the revered young British/Irish Callino String Quartet at All Saints Vicarage in East Finchley, London, UK in May 2010. The CD has been produced by Michael Haas, and engineered by Neil Hutchinson of Classic Sound.

 Critics have described Sophie Dunér’s music as “…Brecht and Hendrix with strings in a jazz club” (Massimo Ricci, Touching Extremes), and Cadenze Magazine, N.Y.C., stated that “…as a composer, lyricist & vocalist, we have to acknowledge that Sophie is a genuine triple threat”, while Frank Becker of Musenblätter was overwhelmed by what he heard, confessing that he found that “Sophie Dunér has attained the most unattainable, namely to be at eye-level with Kurt Weill, Lennon/McCartney, Gordon Sumner, Ricky Lee Jones and Kate Bush”.

In September 2005 she recorded The Rain in Spain / Sophie Dunér Quartet -A CD of her own theatre inspired jazz tunes with the American jazz label C.I.M.P (produced) by Bob Rusch who has been producing artists such as Cecil Taylor & Chet Baker) in New York, USA ( www.cimprecords.com ) with musicians Rory Stuart, Matt Penmann & Kahlil Kwame Bell. Sophie is also featured on C.I.M.P´s CIMPOSIUM compilation CD together with various artists from C.I.M.P such as Dominic Duval, Joe Fonda, Burton Greene, Steve Swell, and George Schuller etc.

Apart from jazz, Sophie has also been involved in music projects of modern classical music, touring Spain, Holland & Puerto Rico with composers such as Manuel Cede, Francis Schwartz, and Eduardo Kusnir & Henk Alkema. In 2004 she spent one week studying vocal interpretation at the Stockhausen Music Course in Kuerten, Germany under suggestion of composer Karlheinz Stockhausen. In 2005, she returned to the course supported by a grant of € 3000 from the Arts Council in Sweden.

Sophie’s familiarity with jazz, ethnic and 20th century classical music has led many composers and musicians to ask her to join them in musical collaboration as well as working as a leader during recent and past years. Apart from collaborations mentioned above, Sophie started during the 90´s, touring and recording with The Sophie Dunér Orchestra in Boston, USA which brought her to Sapporo Snow Festival in Japan & Stockholm Jazz Festival etc. While at Berklee, she was featured in various prestigious big bands such as Herb Popery’s Big Band and Phil Wilson’s Rainbow Band. She recorded and collaborated with Guillermo Klein & The Big Van at Small’s in NYC alongside musicians such as Sten Höstfält, Aaron Goldberg and Seamus Blake etc. She recorded with Fernando Tarrés & The Arida Conta Group in CT alongside Don McCaslin, Dan Rieser and Fernando Huergo etc. She was also hired as a singer for The Composers of The New England Collectives, touring Boston & Spain.

In Europe she toured & recorded with Juerg Wickihalder´s big band The Interplay Collective in Switzerland. In London she worked with Paul Clarvis, Martin France etc at The Pizza Express Jazz Club and in Spain she had steady groups performing at Circulo de Bellas Artes, Café Central, Getxo Jazz Festival, Jazz en la Costa etc with jazz musicians such as Gere Gerenu, Victor Merlo and Dan Rochlis etc (apart from The Sophie Dunér String Quartet which included musicians such as Carles Fibla, Elena Borderías, Emilio Robles & Guillermo Martínez among others.) On the Swedish scene, she’s been collaborating with composer Leif Jordansson of The Great Learning Orchestra at The Stockholm New Music Festival, other venues has been the Galleri Gummeson in Stockholm, The Stockholm Jazz Festival, Scandinavium Arena, Gothenburg Symphony Hall etc etc.

" The music of Sophie Dunér may be described as a blend of the romantic and spiritual with a dissonant, bold and parodic edge. It plays with tense colours resolving into romantinc harmony. This goes for the music as well as the lyrics, which are mostly tragicomical. Coming from jazz, Sophie has evolved towards a direction mainly created by herself. You may find a blend of influences such as jazz, contemporary classical and world music. The bold lyrics are of great importance, creating colours and rhythms that relate to the story as much as possible. A lot of satire reminding you of the 30´s but set in a contemporary arrangement. Sophie personally relates very much to a variety of composers such as Kurt Weill, Thelonious Monk and Stravinsky. Sophie has a very visual concept in relation to her music, which is strongly connected, to her paintings. "