Sofia Högstadius
About Sofia Högstadius
Sofia Högstadius is a Swedish violin player and teacher with her roots in northern Sweden and heart deep in the Bulgarian folk music. She is dedicated about equality, musical expression, improvisation, teaching. Energised by her love for music, challenges, groove, meeting with new audiences and communication with her fellow musicians.
Sofia is a freelancing violin player, teacher and program director for the Bachelor's programme in world music at the Academy of Music and Drama in Gothenburg. As a violinist she can be seen in a variety of contexts, such as the scandibalkan-folkpunk band Trio Katastrofa, the duo Vladimirov-Högstadius, left wing feminist swing collective Cats and Dinosaurs, pop band Winhill/Losehill, as well as metal band In Flames and more.
At the world music program, Sofias is a teacher of violin, ensemble, big band projects, folk music methodology (with Mia Marine), and project courses in Community Music.
Besides playing, Sofia loves to connect musicians and is organiser and initiator of several projects and camps in Sweden and abroad. Rila Music Exchange - a folk music camp in Bulgaria started in 2012 - is one of her favorite projects. She is often hired as guest teacher in other educations and festivals in Sweden and abroad, such as Etno Histeria in Slovenia where she has been artistic leader since 2011 up till 2019, Fiddlers on the move in Belgium together with Vladimir Vladimirov, and together with Sten Källman during the Side by Side-camp in Gothenburg June 2022.
Sofia has a teachers degree in classical violin from the Academy of Music and Drama in Gothenburg, as well as exchange studies at the folklore department at the Academy of Music, Dance and Fine Arts in Plovdiv, Bulgaria.