ABOUT

Sophia J. Bass is a 2020 graduate of Oberlin College and has experience writing film and chamber music and has produced original works for albums.  

 

In 2017, Bass was hired to compose the soundtrack to a graduate thesis film from Chapman University's Dodge College of Film and Media Arts. She pioneered the biggest film scoring project, and the only one of its kind, in the history of Oberlin College and Conservatory by recruiting a 45-member orchestra to conduct a live recording of her 22-minute soundtrack. 

 

She is a two-time alumna of the Palomar Film Music Workshop where she worked with notable industry professionals Roger Neill (20th Century Women, Mozart in the Jungle), Larry Groupé (Straw Dogs), Jason LaRocca (The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, The Nevers) and others to create original soundtrack cues to motion picture.  

 

In 2019, Bass took on professional work collaborating with film director, Carl Kriss, who had worked as editor with National Geographic, the History Channel and Amazon, to compose the soundtrack for his documentary Bring It Home.

 

At Oberlin, Bass worked as the Assistant Conductor to the visiting Music Director and Principal Conductor of the Michigan Philharmonic, Nan Harrison Washburn. 

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Bass' creative work includes collaborations with Students for Gender Inclusivity in Music (SGIM), Bass Players for Black Composers (BPBC), the New World Symphony and the Toledo Opera. 

 

In Spring 2022, Bass collaborated with cellist Angelique Montes to create a 10-minute original work for Montes' solo cello album Refraction. 

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Bass was awarded a 2020 Fulbright-Nehru Scholarship to research Hindustani and Carnatic Classical Music in Karnataka, India, under the combined guidance of internationally-renowned musicians, Dr. Mysore Manjunath and Pt. Udayaraj Karpur. She successfully completed her grant in 2022 after more than a one-year postponement of her grant due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

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In December 2023, Bass will be scoring the soundtrack for a commercial short film Advent produced by the Old Coat Society (OCS) in association with DePaul University.

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Bass currently attends the Royal College of Music in London to pursue a two-year master’s degree in Composition for Screen. 

 

Her plans after graduating from the RCM include a continuation of her work in film, potentially as a composer’s intern, and her ethnomusicological research.