Sofie Royer combines violin, piano, and vocals in her performance at the Science Ball at 1:00 a.m. in the discotheque. How the multi-instrumentalist breaks down barriers in music while remaining true to her roots.

A wanderer between worlds: Sofie Royer was born in California to a couple who worked in computer science. In 2012, she moved to Vienna and later returned to the US for music. Now, the multi-instrumentalist and producer with Austrian-Iranian roots is back home in Vienna.

Her talent became apparent at an early age. Vienna, as a city of music, was the perfect place to immerse herself in the world of classical music: she trained in composition and concert violin at the Music and Arts University of the City of Vienna (MUK for short). This was followed by engagements with the Vienna Youth Philharmonic and the Vienna Academic Philharmonic. And then came the role reversal: in 2020, Royer released her debut album “Cult Survivor,” followed two years later by “Harlequin.” In 2024, she followed up with “Young Girl Forever,” her third album, released in 2024 on the renowned US label Stones Throw Records. Here, she oscillates between gentle, melancholic sounds and electro-pop. And she shows that pop can also ask big questions while remaining dazzling and danceable.

She also paints and is a DJ. So why choose when there’s so much to do? And because Sofie Royer sets no limits for herself, science should also be mentioned at this point: she completed a teaching degree in psychology and philosophy. This is also where Sofie Royer found the inspiration for her third album, “Young Girl Forever.” . In it, she refers to the book “Preliminary Materials For a Theory of the Young Girl” by the anarchist collective Tiqqun – a book she read during her studies, as she once revealed in an interview with “Die Presse.” Sofie Royer doesn’t want to commit herself, and so her songs always remain a bit ambivalent.