‘I totally still want to be a cellist’, Sophie Kauer laughs. Speaking with the 21-year old cellist in Dalston’s Red Hand bar, between East London’s creative spaces and pioneering music venues, feels remarkably congruous. Her white cello case is on the floor next to us, but she decides to prop it up in sight instead. ‘I get quite paranoid when I can’t see it.’

The night before the UK premiere of Todd Field’s latest film, Tár, the excitement is tangible as we pore over the plans for tomorrow. Kauer shares the excitement with open arms: ‘Do you want to see the dress?’ She opens her phone to show me the Giles Deacon stunning ‘Cynge Gown’ of white cotton with a tulle skirt that she’ll wear on the red carpet.

How is she feeling about the premiere? First and foremost is gratitude. To her stylist and designer, to everyone that’s supported her through the movie. Perhaps the most gratitude is for the film’s Director, Todd Field, who was immediately struck by Sophie when she sent in her self-tapes towards the end of the casting process:

‘He’s such a kind, humble and thoughtful human being’, she tells me, describing the very first day of filming, having never walked to a cue or acted in front of a film camera before. ‘There was a lot of trust developed early on - we didn’t have the time to do loads of takes, so I had to go for it and trust that if he didn’t like something, he would say. Todd also took me through the backstory, helping me to understand what my character was feeling and why he wrote her the way he did.’

It’s been three years since I last saw Kauer. In that time has been a pandemic, she’s learned Norwegian, moved to Oslo and taken on the role as a cellist in Tár, her debut acting role alongside Cate Blanchett. Our lives overlapped through learning cello with Melissa Phelps and thinking back to that time, I’ll never forget Kauer aged 15, being so sincere, kind and dedicated to the cello - never failing to tap into the strength and potential of its sound.

Sophie Kauer won't let her cello out of her sight (Photo: Michael Shelford)

Kauer’s character, Olga, enters a top Berlin orchestra as a trial member, a young cellist from Russia with brown hair, a flippant attitude to life and a comical way of interacting with the severity of Blanchett’s character, Lydia Tár. Olga is far from the cellist I know in Kauer, demonstrating her incredible ability to enter into a character’s psyche and not only act, but play the cello in a different mind, shown in the film’s live recording of the Elgar Cello Concerto.

She explains how often musicians are told to ‘put themselves into the music’, but this wasn’t the case in Tár: ‘The hardest part was learning to play the cello like someone else. Todd Field is a musician himself so had a very clear idea of how Olga would play. She’s Russian and quite light-hearted and rude, so thinking about how the character would play was really challenging.’

An opportunity to showcase her own musical voice in the Elgar came through the TÁR Concept Album released on Deutsche Grammophon. Lydia Tár recreates the album cover from the DG recording of Claudio Abbado’s Mahler Fifth, and on the concept album we hear the culmination of the intense weeks leading up to the recording.

Kauer’s contribution to the album includes the fourth movement from Elgar’s Cello Concerto, alongside a section from the first movement and some additional conversations from the recording session. Recorded last year at Abbey Road with the London Symphony Orchestra and Natalie Murray-Beale, Kauer remarks on how ‘surreal’ that experience was at the age of 20. I asked her about the aim was with recording a concept album: ‘The idea behind the album was to give an insight into what a recording session is like. In the film, you never hear a concert, only rehearsals, and the soundtrack is mixed in very low - it’s meant to feel like a mosquito on the wall that’s present but you don’t quite know where it is.

‘I really like that they wanted to make the album a snapshot into what it’s like to record, because people often don’t know how it works. It was also the first time I’ve ever done a recording like that and the first time I have played with a professional orchestra apart from the scenes I had with the Dresden Philharmonic in the film.’

‘Cello is still what I love most. But I also don’t want to be boxed-in and told that it’s all I can be’

Balancing the film’s commitments with her continued study at the Norwegian Academy of Music in Oslo with Torleif Thedéen is no mean feat. Perhaps it is possible because this is so much part of Kauer’s vocation, as a cellist, speaker and advocate for the art form that is so frequently misunderstood. Where is the cello sitting now in spite of such success in acting? ‘Cello is still what I love most. But I also don’t want to be boxed-in and told that it’s all I can be.’

It’s not an uncommon story, feeling that being a musician may be all you’re ‘allowed’ to be. Both of us reflect that we don’t know any other musicians with an acting career alongside. Not to say it doesn’t happen, but Kauer is clear that working on the film combined so many of her passions. ‘I’ve always been fascinated by the emotional life of people and had a love of languages - It’s healthy to think of yourself as more than a musician.’

Tár is Sophie Kauer's debut acting role (Photo: Michael Shelford)

She still won’t let the film’s commitments get in the way of practice, ‘When I don’t practise, or have a lot of the press stuff going on, it feels a bit like not breathing. Still, there are issues that I really care about around classical music including trying to remove some of the stigma surrounding it. If I’m able to help in any way through speaking, it’s worth missing a day of practice for that.

‘I want to show people that musicians’ voices are valid, but part of my being able to do that is I have had to start setting clear boundaries. For example, when I’m at college I lock my phone in a locker so I can focus on practice! Another result of having had so much going on is that I have also discovered that it’s ok to ask for help, and important to know the people you can reach out to and trust.’

Speaking about this film means facing inevitably uncomfortable conversations about the themes of abuse, manipulation and narcissism that run throughout. Kauer isn’t shy to speak about this and adamant that she uses her voice to show both the beautiful, as well as the sadly toxic elements of industries such as ours.

‘This film could have been set in any industry’ she tells me - an important reminder that abuse of power is found everywhere - ‘This scenario is one often associated with male power dynamics. One of the reasons Todd chose the world of classical music is because being a conductor is very much within a pyramid structure, and there are not many other places where a boss has that kind of power.’

'I always feel like I grow most outside of my comfort zone'

There have been questions about whether the film depicts female conductors as a whole in a negative light. In a world where it is no mean feat to stand on the podium as a minority, perhaps this could be an understandable reaction. Kauer’s take is decidedly balanced: ‘I didn’t think about the sexuality or gender of the main character being the focus. I find it interesting that Todd cast the main character as a woman, but it’s almost irrelevant. But as the recent ISM study highlighted, sexism, bullying and racism are still very present in the classical music industry, so I’m glad the film is shining a light on these issues. The most important thing is changing the outside world’s view of classical music itself.’

And the future? Kauer smiles: ‘I probably can’t say too much’. For the immediate future, she was thrilled that her parents and sister were able to attend the premiere. ‘You can say that I am looking forward to a summer of playing at festivals!’

Is there anything that she misses about being ‘just’ a music student? Again, gratitude emerges as the overriding emotion: ‘The film pushed me to develop my performing mindset - I don’t think I would have sorted it out that quickly and I think I might have felt a bit stuck if I spent my whole bachelors in a practice room. I have a lot more strategies now if I get nervous.

‘Of course sometimes I think it might have been nice to have it happen a bit later, but I really loved going for it. I always feel like I grow most outside of my comfort zone.’

Tár is out now in UK cinemas