SUUVI is a Cuban-Chinese artist, composer, and producer whose work sits at the intersection of electronic music, contemporary composition, and immersive storytelling.
Rooted in a foundation of classical cello performance, her practice evolved into a bold, genre-fluid sonic language that blends cello, electronics, and voice to create emotionally resonant, cinematic worlds.
After entering Juilliard at age ten, SUUVI spent 15+ years performing internationally as a cello soloist, appearing in venues including Carnegie Hall, La Fondation Louis Vuitton, and the Berlin Philharmonie, and touring globally as the solo cellist in Hans Zimmer’s live show. Following this extensive performance career, she expanded beyond the concert stage to focus on writing and producing original music across mediums.
She has since created music for feature films; Amazon Prime, Netflix, and Apple TV series; international brands; multimedia installations; immersive experiences; and major theater and dance companies, with work premiering on stages including National Sawdust, The Getty Villa, The Wallis, and The Baryshnikov Center—while also writing, producing, and performing as a solo artist and collaborating across genres including pop, hip-hop, R&B, jazz, electronic music, and beyond. She is frequently sought out across these spaces for her distinctive voice, bridging technical virtuosity with contemporary production and emotional depth.
Conversant across the full spectrum of contemporary music and art—from mainstream pop culture to experimental and avant-garde practices—SUUVI moves fluidly between intimate, concept-driven works and large-scale global productions incorporating sound, visual art, film, and technology. Her performance experience spans revered cultural institutions and experimental spaces as well as major arenas, giving her a rare perspective that bridges high art and mass audience engagement. This dual fluency informs her work as a composer and producer, blending artistic rigor with broad contemporary appeal.
As an electronic artist and composer, SUUVI bridges post-classical sensibility with avant-electronic and cinematic forms. Her debut album, Dark Therapy, pushes acoustic cello into immersive electronic terrain, inviting listeners into a space of introspection, healing, and sensory immersion.
Beyond music, SUUVI is a multidisciplinary artist, public speaker, educator, and social-impact advocate exploring mental health, identity, and collective transformation. Informed by a multicultural and multilingual background, her practice is driven by a deep curiosity about humanity and a commitment to self-actualization, connection, and cultural dialogue (full bio below).
SUUVI (aka Sophia Bacelar/唐凝智) was born in 1996 in the United States to a family of Cuban and Chinese political refugees. Being raised in a multicultural and multilingual environment deeply impacted her sense of identity and place in the world and later informed her artistry and career path.
Her journey began as a child prodigy. Influenced by her father, a cellist and luthier, she began studying cello at age two and was accepted to Juilliard at ten years old, where she studied cello, piano, and composition and embarked on the rigorous pursuit of becoming a classical soloist. During this time, she also studied visual art and curation at The Museum of Modern Art, as well as traditional Chinese painting and calligraphy.
As a teenager, she began traveling to Europe and Asia to compete in international competitions and, after graduating from high school with honors at age 15, moved alone to Paris where she completed an undergraduate degree at Le Conservatoire de Paris in two years, followed by a postgrad at the Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler Berlin. During this time, she also held a C- Suite executive position at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology startup, Classeek, where she focused on community, marketing, and partnerships in the development of tools for artists through artificial intelligence and technology.
At age 20, she was given her first yearlong residency at La Fondation Louis Vuitton, which marked the start of an international career performing on some of the world’s most renowned stages, including Carnegie Hall, The Berlin Philharmonie, Le Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, The Tonhalle Zürich, Victoria Hall, Lincoln Center, St. Martin-In-The-Fields, The Tel Aviv Museum of Art, and more.
In 2019, she was the only cellist awarded a Celia Asher Fellowship to Juilliard’s prestigious Artist Diploma program and returned to NY where, in addition to music, she studied acting in Juilliard’s drama department and film at Columbia University. During this time, her interest in cross-disciplinary, collaborative work was born and resulted in her winning Juilliard’s Leo B. Ruiz Prize.
She was also the recipient of three career development grants, through which she developed her early multidisciplinary projects including collaborations with San Francisco Ballet and The Fashion Institute of Technology.
Following a sold-out Carnegie Hall debut in 2021, SUUVI was scouted by Hans Zimmer and moved to Los Angeles, where joined the cast of his live show and began touring as his featured soloist in arenas worldwide. During this time, she also developed an interest in education, social impact, advocacy, and philanthropy and served as ambassador for The Grammy Music Education Coalition, board member of BODYTRAFFIC, and artist-in-residence at San Francisco Conservatory’s Technology and Applied Composition Department (SFCM). She is currently Chair of Music and Performing/Fine Arts for The Impact Guild.
Through her work at SFCM, she began experimenting with the application of contemporary technology to her musical sound and collaborated with several composers in the creation of original works, eventually resulting in a BMI Composer Award for “Riven”, a piece for cello and electronics and her first EP, “TRANSITION”.
As her artistic voice and sonic palette expanded, SUUVI began working with artists across a wide variety of mediums and is now frequently called upon as a cross-disciplinary collaborator, producer, composer, and speaker in addition to her work as a solo cellist.
In recent years, she has created original works and short films with dancers and choreographers from San Francisco Ballet, American Ballet Theater, New York City Ballet, The Dutch National Ballet, The National Ballet of Canada, Jacob Jonas The Company, and more. She also created original live scores for dance and theater companies BODYTRAFFIC and Theatre Roscious, both of which premiered in Los Angeles at The Wallis and The Getty Villa in 2023.
She has spoken and performed alongside prominent political figures, thought leaders, and artists including former U.S. Vice President Al Gore, former Chair of the U.S. Federal Reserve Ben Bernanke, former Mayor of the City of West Hollywood Sepi Shyne, and artists Shantell Martin and Ashlyn So.
As a speaker and advocate for equality and mental health awareness, she has appeared on national television and prominent stages—including Google X and The Javits Center—and has presented her work at major conferences, foundations, and universities such as The Milken Institute, The Climate Reality Project, Bloom, BrainMind, The Impact Guild, UTA Foundation, and NYU, using her platform to amplify conversations around technology, identity, inclusion, and healing.
She has also acted as ambassador and performed for global brands including JP Morgan, Harry Winston, Salvatore Ferragamo, Dries Van Noten, Alexis Bittar, Pomellato, NYFW, and GEWA—who also commissioned her to design a custom-painted cello case featured in their worldwide advertising campaigns.
Her musical versatility as a performer, producer, and composer has led to collaborations with artists from a variety of genres ranging from classical, jazz, Latin, and film to pop, R&B, hip- hop, rock, and electronic that have been broadcast by Apple TV, Amazon Prime, Live Nation, The Violin Channel, Medici.tv, WQXR, Radio France, and more.
Known for her genre-fluid approach and emotional depth, she is an in-demand composer and producer, sought after for projects that blend sonic sophistication with cultural relevance.
In 2024, she debuted NXIS, her post-classical duo with Natalie Tenenbaum, whose first release featured a collaboration with rapper D Smoke, and released a collection of Twelve Etudes for cello and piano with Paul Leonard-Morgan, with whom she collaborates closely.
Most recently, she launched Dark Therapy, an interdisciplinary project combining neuroscience, music, and immersive storytelling to explore healing through sound, silence, and self-reflection.
