Sophie Gent

Violinist Sophie Gent focuses on early music and has appeared on albums with leading Baroque-oriented ensembles. She is a longtime member of Canada's Ensemble Masques. Gent is also an educator who teaches at several institutions in France, where she lives. In 2025, she was the featured soloist on the Ensemble Masques album Bach, Telemann, Albinoni: Concerti. Gent was born in Perth, Western Australia. She attended Mount Lawley Senior High School in Perth's suburbs, graduating in 1994 and later earning the Lawley Legend Award from the school. Gent studied the traditional violin in Perth but moved to The Hague in the Netherlands in 1999 for studies in Baroque violin at the Royal Conservatory there. She earned a bachelor's degree in 2003 and a Diploma of Advanced Studies with honors in 2005. Her principal teacher there was Ryo Terakado. Gent quickly found opportunities with early music ensembles, and in 2006, she made her recording debut on a group of albums by harpsichordist Michael Borgstede, devoted to the keyboard music of François Couperin. That year, she also made her first recording with Ensemble Masques, Mensa Sonora: Biber and His Contemporaries; that album appeared on the Analekta label, and she would go on to record frequently with the group. Gent remains in demand among leading European Baroque ensembles. She has served as concertmaster or leader with such groups as Ensemble Pygmalion, the Ricercar Consort, the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra, and (appropriately enough) Collegium Vocale Gent. She has performed chamber music with Ensemble Arcangelo, Le Caravansérail, fortepianist Kristian Bezuidenhout, and harpsichordist Jean Rondeau, among others. Gent remains active in Australia and joined that country's Genesis Baroque ensemble in 2019; she has recorded several albums with the group and serves as its principal guest director. Her recording catalog includes work with not only Ensemble Masques but also with Arcangelo, Rondeau, the Irish Baroque Orchestra, and the Retrospect Trio (of which she was a member), among others. In 2025, she was heard on the Alpha label with harpsichordist Olivier Fortin on the album Bach, Telemann, Albinoni: Concerti. Gent taught for several years at the Amsterdam Conservatorium and at the Conservatoire Boulogne-Billancourt (CRR) in France, and in the 2020s, she served on the faculty at the Early Music Academy in Vannes, France. ~ James Manheim, Rovi