SUUVI 唐凝智
As a performer, producer, communicator, creator, speaker, and educator, Cuban-Chinese musician, composer, and interdisciplinary artist SUUVI (fka Sophia Bacelar) combines her background as a classically trained cellist with a passion for technology, innovation, storytelling, and change to create works and experiences for the contemporary culture. Through music, art, and film, she activates spaces, brands, and ideas in the physical and digital world.
Her performances and work are acclaimed for their expressivity and disruptive, exploratory spirit and have been featured at Carnegie Hall, La Fondation Louis Vuitton, The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA NY), The Fashion Institute of Technology, Lincoln Center, The Tel Aviv Museum of Art, The Berliner Philharmonie, Alice Tully Hall, Le Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, The Tonhalle Zürich, Victoria Hall, The Chicago Cultural Center, St. Martin-In-The-Fields, Victoria Hall, Accor Arena (Paris), LA Dance Project, The Donum Estate, Le Poisson Rouge, The Midway, SubCulture, and other renowned concert halls, museums, galleries, arenas, and nightclubs worldwide.
Suuvi’s musical language builds on her classical training as a solo cellist, pianist, and composer and allows her to collaborate and perform with artists ranging in genres from classical, jazz, Latin, and film to pop, R&B, hip-hop, and electronic. She has toured as the solo cellist in Hans Zimmer’s “World of Hans Zimmer”, commissioned and debuted works by Paul Leonard-Morgan, Steve Hackman, Dan Tepfer, and Pedro Osuna, and collaborated and performed with artists including Teyana Taylor, SAYGRACE, Ambré, Baby Rose, and Time for Three. She has also collaborated on and scored several films, as well as live theater and dance productions premiered in venues including The Getty Villa, The Wallis, and The Salesforce Tower.
As a speaker, writer, and artist, she has created content, performed, and hosted broadcasts for Amazon Prime, Twitch, Live Nation, The Grammy Music Education Coalition, Radio France, Medici.tv, The Violin Channel, WQXR, WFMT, Primephonic, IDAGIO, and other digital platforms. Often recognized for her idiosyncratic and fluid style, she has acted as brand ambassador and performed for various global luxury brands, including Harry Winston, Salvatore Ferragamo, Pomellato, Alexis Bittar, and Morgane Le Fay. As a GEWA Official Artist, she designed a custom-painted cello case that has appeared in advertising campaigns and trade shows around the world.
Suuvi is highly committed to education and philanthropy and has served on the board of BODYTRAFFIC, as well as an artist ambassador for The Grammy Music Education Coalition and Opus 1 Foundation, artist in residence at The San Francisco Conservatory of Music’s Technology and Applied Composition Department, and resident performer at UCLA. Beyond her artistry, she is dedicated to donating a large portion of her time as a performer and consultant to raise money and awareness for various nonprofits and organizations supporting education, climate change, mental health, prison reform, LGBTQ+, women’s, and animal rights, AAPI and Hispanic heritage, and other significant issues in today’s cultural climate.
Suuvi is conversant and active in various artistic disciplines, including fashion, film, photography, and visual art. Her multimedia projects draw from her diverse artistic vocabulary and often feature her as both a producer and performer. She frequently collaborates with contemporary dance and ballet companies and has performed with, directed, and appeared in multiple short films and performances with dancers and choreographers from American Ballet Theater, San Francisco Ballet, Sacramento Ballet, Atlanta Ballet, SF Danceworks, BODYTRAFFIC, Jacob Jonas The Company, The National Ballet of Canada, The Dutch National Ballet, and Ballet22.
Suuvi began studying cello and art at age two, following the influence of her father, a cellist and luthier, and grandmother, a painter. She was accepted to Juilliard at age ten, studying cello, piano, and composition, and also studied art at The Museum of Modern Art (NY) during this time. After finishing high school at age 15, she entered the undergraduate program at Le Conservatoire National Supérieur de Paris and completed her degree two years later. While pursuing her graduate studies at the Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler (Berlin), she held a c-suite community, marketing, and partnership executive position at Swiss Federal Institute of Technology startup “Classeek”, which sparked her interest in branding, creating engaging content, and communicating with a global audience via technology. In 2019, she was awarded a Celia Ascher Fellowship to Juilliard’s Artist Diploma program, where she studied cello and acting, and Columbia University, where she studied film. She graduated in 2021 after being awarded the Leo B. Ruiz Prize and three career development grants.
Suuvi currently lives in Los Angeles with her Havashu, Cuba. She is a dedicated bibliophile, her first job being a bookseller at literary landmark Shakespeare and Company (Paris), an avid fitness enthusiast and martial artist, and a lover of nature and the outdoors. She can most often be found with a book, in a gym, or exploring the deserts and mountain ranges of California.