about
"Ghostly, delicate, elegant..." (Independent Clauses)
For Sophia Subbayya Vastek, as a second-generation pianist and third-generation musician, the piano has always been home. With a reverence for her collective history, coupled with a restless, exploratory ear, she moves quietly between musical worlds. Over the years she has developed an intuitive, dynamic playing style that’s rooted in tenderness, improvisation, her classical background, and importantly – deep curiosity.
Described as performing with "passion and profound tenderness” (Second Inversion) and “serene strokes and lyrical beauty” (Brooklyn Rail), her music is cinematic and quietly devastating, blossoming into ambient-inspired soundscapes that range from whisper-soft echoes to expressive cascades.
Her most recent LP, In Our Softening (2022), produced by Sam Torres (Polymouth Music), features nine of her own beguiling piano compositions, each track a part of a thoughtfully woven tapestry. Recorded entirely on an upright built in 1902 – complete with a giant crack in the soundboard – the album draws listeners in with its vulnerable and vibrant intimacy. Exploring themes of loss, rebirth, and finding softness within an increasingly hard world, the album has been called “a tender and revelatory balm" by editors at I Care If You Listen, “heaven on earth” (Sun 13), and “one of the very best things I've heard all year” by longtime music journalist Steve Smith (Night After Night).
Her debut album, Histories (Innova Recordings, 2017), was produced by Grammy-winning engineer Adam Abeshouse, and described as “a beautiful mosaic of the larger cultural intersections of our world” (Second Inversion). She has also released an EP of the complete solo piano works by composer Lili Boulanger (1893-1918), entitled Lili (2020, reissued 2023).
Equally important to the music itself are the spaces in which Sophia’s music exists. Whether she is performing, curating, or presenting, she is dedicated to creating musical experiences that are grounded in care and intentional gathering. In that spirit, she is a co-curator of the popular Lift Series at the Troy Savings Bank Music Hall. She also hosts concerts in her home – a converted church-space in South Troy called Troy Listening Room.
In 2022, Sophia was recognized as a composer by the New York State Council on the Arts and New York Foundation For the Arts (NYSCA/NYFA) as a Music/Sound Fellow, a statewide program focused on the evolution of contemporary art. Her music has been featured on NPR, BBC, and KEXP, and she has performed across three continents.
For Sophia Subbayya Vastek, as a second-generation pianist and third-generation musician, the piano has always been home. With a reverence for her collective history, coupled with a restless, exploratory ear, she moves quietly between musical worlds. Over the years she has developed an intuitive, dynamic playing style that’s rooted in tenderness, improvisation, her classical background, and importantly – deep curiosity.
Described as performing with "passion and profound tenderness” (Second Inversion) and “serene strokes and lyrical beauty” (Brooklyn Rail), her music is cinematic and quietly devastating, blossoming into ambient-inspired soundscapes that range from whisper-soft echoes to expressive cascades.
Her most recent LP, In Our Softening (2022), produced by Sam Torres (Polymouth Music), features nine of her own beguiling piano compositions, each track a part of a thoughtfully woven tapestry. Recorded entirely on an upright built in 1902 – complete with a giant crack in the soundboard – the album draws listeners in with its vulnerable and vibrant intimacy. Exploring themes of loss, rebirth, and finding softness within an increasingly hard world, the album has been called “a tender and revelatory balm" by editors at I Care If You Listen, “heaven on earth” (Sun 13), and “one of the very best things I've heard all year” by longtime music journalist Steve Smith (Night After Night).
Her debut album, Histories (Innova Recordings, 2017), was produced by Grammy-winning engineer Adam Abeshouse, and described as “a beautiful mosaic of the larger cultural intersections of our world” (Second Inversion). She has also released an EP of the complete solo piano works by composer Lili Boulanger (1893-1918), entitled Lili (2020, reissued 2023).
Equally important to the music itself are the spaces in which Sophia’s music exists. Whether she is performing, curating, or presenting, she is dedicated to creating musical experiences that are grounded in care and intentional gathering. In that spirit, she is a co-curator of the popular Lift Series at the Troy Savings Bank Music Hall. She also hosts concerts in her home – a converted church-space in South Troy called Troy Listening Room.
In 2022, Sophia was recognized as a composer by the New York State Council on the Arts and New York Foundation For the Arts (NYSCA/NYFA) as a Music/Sound Fellow, a statewide program focused on the evolution of contemporary art. Her music has been featured on NPR, BBC, and KEXP, and she has performed across three continents.