Sōra
" A bird that sings as it takes flight "
Of Native American origin, also means "Sky" in Japanese. A name that travels the world without losing its poetry — and since 2015, the heart of a musical adventure where nothing has been left to chance.
It began with three. Three musicians who chose chamber music as a way of life: high standards, curiosity, absolute trust. They worked tirelessly, traveled the world, entered one competition after another — and watched the awards pile up almost without realizing it. Fourteen international prizes in five years. Not trophies to display, but milestones on a road they know is still long.
Yet this is only the beginning.
“Think big. Look far ahead”. A motto they have never stopped putting into practice — from the very first day.
Their debut album? They chose the grandest possible door: Beethoven. And because they have a taste for risk and don't do things haphazardly , the complete trios. Released by naïve in 2020, the album has since earned the highest honors. A masterstroke!
Sora kept thinking big. Two years later, they commissioned Canadian composer Kelly-Marie Murphy — not for a trio, but for a triple concerto — and premiered it with the Radio France Philharmonic Orchestra under Mikko Franck. Now a new recording is taking shape at La Dolce Volta: Brahms's trios, warmly acclaimed by critics.
As their passion grew, so have their horizons. Today, Les Sōra is a flexible ensemble of six musicians. True to the standards that have shaped its identity from the start, the ensemble cultivates the same attentiveness, the same pursuit of sound, the same chemistry — expanding into quartets and quintets without ever abandoning what gave it birth: the trio.
For Sōra has never been about numbers. It is a way of listening. Of breathing together. Of seeking the right tone before the effect, meaning before display.
A way of believing great works come alive only when one dares to hear them as if they had just been written.
The name, in the end, was not a lie. From day one, Sōra was already a promise of flight.
Pauline Chenais is the pianist, artistic and musical director of Les Sōra — which she created in 2015 as Trio Sōra. Winner of numerous international awards, she is recognized above all for the ensemble's Beethoven and Brahms recordings, which have earned several major prizes, including Classica's CHOC awards. She performs on major international stages,
and in 2025 released her first solo album,
Motherhood. She is also artistic director
of the Un Concert à la Maison season in
La Rochelle.
Clémence Dupuy is a violist with the
Radio France Philharmonic Orchestra
and a professor at the Conservatory of
the 10th arrondissement of Paris. A
graduate of the CNSMDP with two
master's degrees — in viola and chamber music — she studied with Antoine Tamestit, David Gaillard, Jean Sulem, and François Salque, among others.
Passionate about chamber music, she
performs in ensembles from duo to octet at international venues and festivals. She joined Les Sōra in 2026.
Sylvia Huang is a Belgian violinist
and winner of the 2019 Queen
Elisabeth Competition, where she
also took both Audience Awards.
After playing with the Belgian
National Orchestra and then the
Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in
Amsterdam, she has been
concertmaster of the La Monnaie
Symphony Orchestra in Brussels
since 2023. A passionate chamber
musician and member of the Goya
Quartet, she performs on major
international stages. She joined Les Sōra in 2026.
Abigél Králik
is a Hungarian-Nicaraguan- American violinist named to Forbes Hungary's "30 Under 30" list in 2020. A graduate of The Juilliard School, where she studied with Itzhak Perlman and Laurie Smukler, she has built an international career as a soloist and chamber musician, with several international first prizes to her name. Formerly an Artist-in-Residence at the Queen Elizabeth Music Chapel, she released her critically acclaimed debut solo album in 2025. She is also founder and co-artistic director of the Tara Chamber Concerts series in Brussels.
She joined Les Sōra in 2026.
Maria Andrea Mendoza Bastidas Maria Andrea Mendoza Bastidas is A
Venezuelan cellist trained through El
Sistema with Gustavo Dudamel and later with François Salque at the Haute École de Musique de Lausanne. In 2019 she won the Metz National Orchestra's solo cello competition, which she subsequently left to devote herself to chamber music. She has
since founded the Fidelio Quartet and
regularly performs as a guest soloist with international orchestras. She is a laureate of the Villecroze Music Academy, the Ravel Academy, and the Alexandre Tharaud Foundation. She joined Les Sōra in 2026.
Laure-Hélène Michel Laure-Hélène Michel is A cellist and winner
of several national and international
competitions, as well as the Banque
Populaire Corporate Foundation Award
and the Max D. Jost Prize. Trained at the
CNSMD in Lyon, the Mozarteum in
Salzburg, the HEMU in Lausanne, and the Jarrousky Academy, she performs on
major international stages and has
recorded several albums praised by the
press. She was also a resident artist at the Singer-Polignac Foundation in Paris as part of an ensemble. Laure-Hélène is an ambassador for the Musifolia Festival in Romans-sur-Isère. She joined Les Sōra in 2026.