Concertmaster
Elnora Toldo Milliken Founder’s Chair
Paul Sonner is Concertmaster of the Traverse Symphony Orchestra. In addition to his performance with the TSO he is Instructor of Violin at the Interlochen Arts Academy and Concertmaster of The Great Lakes Chamber Orchestra.
Formerly Principal Second Violin and Associate Concertmaster of the Alabama Symphony Orchestra, he has held positions of first violin in the Birmingham String Quartet, solo violin for Capriccio Concerts, violin in the Amabile Trio, and concertmaster for many other venues. He continues to be a featured soloist and has participated in a number of festivals including the Ojai (CA) Festival Orchestra and Des Moines Metro Opera. Mr. Sonner has served as Concertmaster and Soloist for the Bermuda (UK) Bach Festival as well as the Manitou (MI) Music Festival. He has recorded, as a “session” violinist and with the ASO, for a number of studios and labels in Los Angeles, Chicago, Birmingham and Muscle Shoals as well as for PBS and NPR.
His principal teachers were soloist Alice Shoenfeld and Chicago Symphony Orchestra Concertmaster Samuel Magad. Mr. Sonner studied in the preparatory department of the University of Southern California and has a degree in violin performance from Northwestern University (IL).
