Ania Safonova is a Russian-Israeli violinist, the Associate Concertmaster of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden.
Safonova was born in Tomsk, Russia and began her violin studies at the age of five with Svetlana Goffman.
She made her solo debut at the age of six with the Omsk Philharmonic Orchestra and the following year was a prizewinner at the Novosibirsk Violin Competition.
She was a member of the Mishkenot Sha'ananim Israel Chamber Music Unit (1991–1995), She won regular scholarships from the America-Israel Cultural Foundation and recorded for German Radio.
In 1996, she came to the UK and attained a full scholarship to study at the Purcell School of Music with Felix Andrievsky,[2] followed by four years at the Royal College of Music (1997–2001) with Andrievsky and Yossi Zivoni[3] Safonova was the associate Leader of the Halle Orchestra in Manchester from 2001 to 2006, and in 2008, was appointed Associate Concertmaster of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden.