Sophie is a music historian whose freelance work as a writer and speaker on classical music complements formal roles in the arts and higher education.​

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She specialises in music since 1900, with particular expertise in ballet, opera, and musical theatre. A key focus of her research is North American music, and she is especially known for her work on the life and music of Leonard Bernstein.

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Sophie currently teaches at the University of Nottingham and over the past decade has held lecturing positions at the University of Edinburgh, King's College London, University of Sheffield, and Liverpool Hope University. She has also supported research at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire and worked as a distance learning tutor with mature students at the Open College of the Arts. She is a Visiting Fellow at King's College London. ​

 

Her first book, Bernstein and Robbins: The Early Ballets, was published in 2021 as part of the Eastman Studies in Music series and named a 2022 CHOICE 'Outstanding Academic Title'. A paperback edition followed in 2023. In recent years she has also contributed to The Cambridge History of Music Criticism, The Cambridge Stravinsky Encyclopedia, and written on the relationship between Leonard Bernstein and Aaron Copland for Leonard Bernstein in Context. Current projects include research on American Ballet Theatre's 1946 London tour and a reconsideration of Walton's postwar output. Additionally, she is writing commissioned chapters on the Broadway designers Jo Mielziner and Oliver Smith, and on choreographer Michael Bennett's collaborations with Stephen Sondheim.

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A consistent thread across her work is a commitment to engaging audiences and sharing knowledge and research. She regularly writes programme notes for organisations such as the BBC, Royal Ballet & Opera, Wigmore Hall, and Aldeburgh Festival, and has delivered talks across the UK. She has appeared as a guest expert for BBC Radio 3's Opera on 3 and Proms coverage, and for the Royal Ballet & Opera Insights series.

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She had a long-standing collaboration with the European Opera Centre, and as the Centre's Curator developed The Audland Talks, an adult opera education series. She also trained animateurs for the Centre's learning programme based on Janáček's The Cunning Little Vixen. Her experience in opera additionally includes dramaturgical work, most notably on a production featuring the music of Ernst Toch and Hanns Eisler at the Nationaltheater Mannheim.

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Sophie is also an experienced arts manager, having recently been Head of Music and Learning at Benslow Music, where she oversaw the programming and delivery of over 150 residential music courses annually. Her previous roles include marketing and communications positions with Music in the Round and City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. 

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