Julie Scolnik & Sophie Scolnik-brower
Biography Julie Scolnik & Sophie Scolnik-brower
Julie Scolnik
Scolnik’s tonal enchantment and communicative gifts have captivated audiences in America and France. The Boston Globe writes that “she plays with an urgency full of fire that melts into disarming delicacy,” and a French critic from La Provence praises “her vast palette of sultry colors and magical phrasing.” Scolnik has enjoyed a diverse musical career as a soloist, chamber musician, and orchestral flutist. As a guest flutist at festivals across the United States and France, Scolnik has collaborated with countless world-class artists and chamber groups that include the Brentano, Arabella, and Borromeo String Quartets. She is active as a soloist and for many years presented an annual fall recital at the Salle Cortot in Paris. She currently offers concerts each summer in Provence.
Scolnik is the artistic director of Mistral Music, a series and ensemble she founded with her husband, physicist Michael Brower, in 1997. The concerts have brought her accolades not only for the high caliber of the artists, but also for the imaginative programming and the deeply personal connection she establishes with her audiences.
In earlier years, Scolnik performed as principal flute with many of Boston’s leading orchestras and is a frequent featured guest on Boston’s WCRB Radio, having made over three dozen radio appearances. She lives in Boston with her husband and two cats, Daphne and Chloë. Besides her daughter, Sophie, with whom she recorded this disc, she also has a son, cellist and conductor Sasha Scolnik-Brower. The three of them perform frequently together.
Since her treatment and recovery from breast cancer in 2005, Scolnik has found ways to play and organize benefit concerts which raise funds for support of underserved women with the disease. The most recent include two full orchestral concerts with the world-renowned Sir Simon Rattle in Boston’s Jordan Hall, and at the Hotel de Ville de Paris, for the Ligue Contre le Cancer. She has been a guest speaker at the Harvard Medical School twice a year since 2009.
Scolnik has released two other solo albums, one entitled Salut d’Amour & Other Songs of Love, with her daughter, and the other, Bejeweled: Short Concert Gems with harp. This recording marks her first with PARMA Recordings.
In October 2021, Scolnik’s award-winning memoir, Paris Blue, was published by Koehler Books and is available online and at all independent booksellers.
Sophie Scolnik-Brower
Scolnik-Brower’s innate grace and musical sensitivity have moved audiences across the United States and abroad. Her playing has been called “soulful artistry that underlines gorgeous harmonic change.” She has performed extensively at the Perlman Music Program, La Jolla Music Festival, Aspen Music Festival, the American Conservatory at Fontainebleau, and the Pablo Casals Festival. She is a member artist of Mistral Music and a frequent guest on WCRB Radio in Boston.
Scolnik-Brower has performed with the Borromeo String Quartet and the Alianza String Quartet, and with such luminaries as Cho-Liang Lin, Itzhak Perlman, Don and Vivian Weilerstein, Kim Kashkashian, Lucy Chapman, and the late Roger Tapping. She continues to collaborate with numerous distinguished artists including the Associate Concertmaster of the Philadelphia Orchestra, Juliette Kang, Metropolitan Opera Baritone Justin Austin, and Steinway Artists Aurelien Pontier, Max Levinson, and Gloria Chien.
Scolnik-Brower graduated magna cum laude in 2012 from Harvard University with a B.A. in Psychology, and earned her Masters in Social Work from Boston College in 2022. Her social work focuses on addressing mental health challenges among people impacted by systemic inequity.
