Sofia Will

This girl is moving to NEW YORK to study jazz composition at @msm.nyc this september! 🗽❤️Writing this in a whole sentence feels surreal! I feel soooooo lucky to have been given this craaaaazy opportunity to learn, experience and discover so many new things – be it in music or in life. ✨ Slide 2 is my mood when i got the news So that means I‘m looking for a place to live, so if anyone knows something, please let me know! 🫂 Last slide is me visiting this beautiful city for the first time in 2018 🥺 #newyork #jazzcomposition #music #jazz #saxophone #omg #msm #womeninjazz

MEDITATIONS - first single of an upcoming ARBORIA album is out now 😭🧡 shout out to all the incredible artists: @sofiahpwill arrangement, conducting @alvaro.ocon trumpet @ferbrox flute @marta.wajdzik alto saxophone @tiborpernarcic tenor saxophone @corrado.o guitar @alexandre_cahen piano #joancodina bass @lucishaker drums @pippasieppala violin @jennifer_armor violin @y__yunnnnn viola @_davidliamroberts cello @d_zenko1972 (@bejsmen_studio ) mix & master @jonacevedosax recording #guillemsalles recording @clara_nabi cover art big thanks to @stsstsrecords @jazzcampus & Sulger Stiftung for making this possible and to all of you, who will take the time, listen and support our music 🧡

OUR ALBUM „MOGUNTIA“ IS ONE YEAR OLD! 🌹❤️❗️ I can‘t believe it‘s been this long, and as you know this journey starts much earlier than the release date – I‘m so grateful I got to do this album with amazing musicians and friends in my large ensemble VOLO, that I admire so deeply, to have support from so many, from my label @unitrecordsofficial , from @loftkoeln and @jazzfestbonn and @tonkultmainz and my family and my friends. This album tells stories from my life in Mainz, and if you haven‘t yet, give it a listen, it would mean a lot to me! ❤️ Anyways here are some behind the scenes and favorite moments of the process of creating MOGUNTIA! Slide away! Thank you: #paulwalke @lukaswoegi132 @luciegraehl @carlotta.ar @toepperlars @leonhattori @tabea__kind @maltewst @aitzilein @lena.lorberg @adrian.gallet @evaswi #largeensemble #compostion #music #womeninjazz

moments from the first quarter of this year🌷 1 @hanauwai takes the best coffee photos! 2 composers when they’re not layouting or taping parts 3 & 4 rainy easter and cold spring (one of them is a town) w/ @nathankeowen 🥰 5 pov: you‘re a glass of modelo at craftsman 6 did a lot of exploring 7 flatmate sunset selfie (no Ben :( ) 8 did a lot of music exploring 9 coolest pic I took until 10 this became the coolest Also: I’m excited to be part of a concert with the DAAD (my scholarship that made this crazy nyc dream even possible) at Carnegie Hall next week. It‘s surreal to me to say this out loud, because they‘re also gonna play a string quartet piece that I arranged AND I get to play with friends and amazing musicians from Germany! 🥰 My practice routine since focussing on composition has been near nonexistent so I‘m also a little scared and excited at the same time to connect with my instrument again (she almost forgot my name 🎷)!!!!! #newyork #musician #recap

Send this reel to your crush as the first move 😎 It‘s been a few weeks since these amazing musicians at @msm.nyc performed my piece „Zerdrückt“ (= crushed) alongside other amazing pieces for our composer‘s concert ✨ This is the first swing composition I ever wrote (if you don‘t count arrangement exams in undergrad). I always shied away because there have been endless amazing swing pieces for big band that are a thousand times better than anything I‘ll write – it feels like I‘m reproducing something and creating a bad version of it (I know you could say the same for any time feel style but that’s just how it is in my brain). So I wanted to find my own take on a big band swing number, just to finally get over that mental barrier! I hope your crush likes you back! ❤️ #music #composition #womeninjazz #bigband

Sounds of 2025 ❤️ this year has been such a whirlwind and I‘m still processing, but this how my year sounded. It was full of music and most of all my large ensemble VOLO and I released our first album „Moguntia“. I said goodbye to @bundesjazzorchester , played concerts I’m still dreaming about with VOLO, organized the album release and everything around it and finished my master at @jazzcampus in Basel – feels like a lifetime ago. In August I moved to New York to do another master (because I love studying so much) and the last four months were just a complete 180 of my life, but so worth it! I‘m still processing living there, it‘s just something 11-year old me that wanted to play in the school big band would never have predicted… I‘m so excited for the next year! ♥️ Aaaand there is something coming soon! We recorded a large ensemble & strings album with @patricijaskof ‘s music back in June and you will be able to hear it soon! ✨ See you all next year and GUTEN RUTSCH ⭐️♥️ #recap #2025 #music #womeninjazz #jazz

Finally finding time to reflect my first semester here at @msm.nyc and the biggest highlight was definitely our Composers‘ Large Ensemble concert, which we also played at Dizzy‘s (whatttt?). ♥️ I wrote this piece because the pace and distances of the city kept making me late to class (okay I was making myself late I know) and I started renting the electric Citi bikes but they ended up not helping. MSM is uphill so the electric bikes just end up losing battery and getting slower – I was still late and lost 10 dollars on the way… This is how I felt here at first, I just finished my master in Basel and two days later I was here, I was still processing moving my life across the ocean. Now, I don‘t use the city bikes anymore and I‘m less late (I try)! When we played this, I realized how grateful I am to be studying here with these wonderful musicians that play my music and amazing teachers, like @darcyjamesargue , that take the time to really show us as much as they can. Thank you for playing my music, this is „CITY BIKE“ 🫶 @cam.sewell @_colemanrose @peterhossmusic @jordanguldman @williamxumusic @lawson.00 @evananderzon #albertwaitdløw @saulinko_ @cam.fermoyle #music #composition #jazz #largeensemble #womeninjazz #concert #nyc #manhattanschoolofmusic

FIRST CONCERTS IN NYC! ✨ Together with the MSM composition students I have two concerts coming up, which makes me so happy! We will present our nonet (and some tentet) works tomorrow at Miller Hall, MSM, and Monday at Dizzy’s (my tune is in the second set but you should listen to the others as well, they‘re amazing!!). This concert also features Mark Shim and Scott Wendholt. I mean what the hellyoncé??????? Getting to rehearse and try out so many things only 2 months in the program is such a privilege and I learned so much! 🥹 See you on one of these dates? It would mean a lot to us! 🥰🫂 Swipe for times (and composer memes)! 😎 📸 @hanauwai (who will also bring an amazing piece!) #composition #newyork #nyc #composer #largeensemble #jazzorchestra #jazz #womeninjazz #msm #dizzys #music

I can‘t believe it‘s been two months already since I moved: I had to post a Basel appreciation post because this city and all the people I met there were so wonderful and it‘s been two of the most intense and beautiful years of my life. I have such a deep appreciation for the Swiss culture and the beauty of its land and nature, I miss it so much! But life‘s about moving on, so I tried to find 20 slides to reminisce, you‘ll find me scrolling to them all day today. 😭❤️ 2 concert with ARBORIA, my composer colleagues @corrado.o and @alvaro.ocon and I arranged @patricijaskof ‘s music for large ensemble with strings 3 my amazing flatmates who I miss very much @lauuramgr @svenja_schuerpf ❤️ 4 one of the big band tunes I wrote for the jazzcampus big band 5 Guillermo Klein saying my tune is a classic (can you hang videos on a wall?) 6 deep appreciation face of @patricijaskof when she sang my song about wishing patriarchy was dead at my master recital 7 my favourite places, most of all Margarethenhöhe behind my house 8 another big band tune I wrote about the migrating storks living on the „Margarethen“-hill 9 me petting the cows that live on the hill 10 playing with Laura Jurd at @jazzcampus 11 composer dinner with chef @corrado.o 12 we recorded an album together (more sooooon) 13 when I drove over Grimselpass (over 2000m!) 14 when we played Mike Holober‘s amazing music 15 my favourite Swiss food things 16 summer in Basel means swimming in the Rhine 17 fall in Basel means Herbschtmäss 18 winter in Basel means snowy wonderland (actually not that often) 19 spring in Basel means Räppli everywhere because of Fasnacht 20 during these two years my body was always 5% schoggiweggli So many things didn‘t fit in here, I got to play at @birdseyejazzclub , at Montreux Jazz Festival (what), started conducting, learned so much from Guillermo Klein (and other amazing teachers) and wrote & recorded a lot of music! 🥹 Merci vielmol for sliding through this memory lane with me ❤️ I can‘t wait to go back! 🇨🇭🧀⛰️📯 📸 first pic @merle.kubasch.design ✨ #basel #carousels #switzerland #swiss #memories #master #jazzcampus #composition #musician #student #jazz #music

This was the last song we played at my recital and listening to it again makes me really happy and sad at the same time, what an honor to end the night and my time in Basel with one of my favourite goodbye songs, written by one and only @jimmywebbmusic 😭❤️ For my bachelor recital, I also picked an arrangement as my last song and as a person from the Rhineland, two times makes a tradition! I wanted to emulate a train with this arrangement (deeply inspired by Steve Reich) and can you hear the phone that keeps on ringing? Also I asked the audience to sing a drone for us during this song and you can‘t really hear it here but this made everything so magical. Anyways, @patricijaskof sings this song soooo beautifully and this band made this such a special song for me, so thank you ❤️ note to self: left hand has to chill more #jimmywebb #bythetimeigettophoenix #arrangement #music #composition #womeninjazz #largeensemble #saxophone #concert #live #jazz #songwriter

Finally found the time to listen back to my master concert after the crazy last few weeks of packing up my life and moving to NYC! 🚀 I was sooo excited to play this concert and even happier after it. And I don‘t always feel this way after concerts, it‘s easy to judge and dissect everything, especially after an exam. I wanna share some moments of the concert with you because to me they were like magic. ✨❤️ I‘m not ready for a Basel memory carousel, because I will cry, but for now: thank you Basel and to everyone that made the last two years so special, and of course thank you to this band! ❤️ More clips following soon 👀 #music #largeensemble #saxophone #concert #womeninjazz #composition #jazz #live #master

FINAL MASTER CONCERT, see you today at 18h – livestream in story! ❤️ My beautiful band and I will play songs I wrote in Basel and some covers that I love, it will be a LARGE event haha! By the way, the program is called CICONIA, that‘s Latin for stork. Storks were rare birds for me before I moved to Basel, but it so happens that they nest just behind my house so during spring I saw a lot of them flying over my house, which is such a magical sight 😭 Last slide is my first pic of Basel on my audition, can‘t believe it‘s over already! So come to the concert tonight or watch the stream, I will give you one last huraaaahhh for my master concert, I promise!! ✨ CICONIA 24.8. / 18h / H9 Jazzcampus @matthis.p_ @robertwypasek @charlyyylang @alvaro.ocon @fsilberg @patricijaskof @m.skwierczynski @clara.vetter.official @dingusdoingus @lucishaker 📸 @merle.kubasch.design #master #exam #recital #basel #jazzcampus #jazz #music #composition #womeninjazz #largeensemble #concert #basilea #piano