Greek saxophonist and composer Sofia Roubati emerges with Reflections, her striking debut album and an ambitious statement of identity and intent. Recorded in Athens with a 17-piece ensemble, the record weaves together jazz, classical orchestration, film scoring, and Greek and Mediterranean influences into a sound that feels cinematic yet deeply personal.

Based between Athens, London, and New York, Roubati has built an international career as a performer and award-winning film composer, with scores premiered at festivals from Berlin to Miami. With Reflections (out 7 November 2025), she turns her focus inward—examining what it means to be a global artist navigating heritage, belonging, and transformation.

Rich with emotional scope and cultural dialogue, Reflections finds Roubati redefining borders both musical and personal. We spoke with her about the making of the album, her search for artistic authenticity, and how she uses music as a bridge between worlds.

Reflections is your debut album as a leader. What made this the right moment to bring together such a large ensemble and present your own musical vision?

SR: It has been such an exciting and also a scary experience to be honest. The task at the time seemed daunting but also something inside my head told me that I could do it. I wanted to create something that represents me as an artist at the current time and talks about issues I am currently occupied with. Furthermore, I had previously released singles and an EP, so making an album felt like a natural evolution.

The idea for a larger ensemble which includes my band Yiasena, a string ensemble plus a singer and a lavta player, has been brewing in the back of my mind for well over a decade. In my early teens I was obsessed with the Scorpions album ‘Moments of Glory’ that they recorded alongside the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra. Ever since I first heard that album I knew I wanted to do something with a larger ensemble! Hopefully, sometime in the near future I will manage to do it on a bigger scale as well.

Your music brings together jazz, classical, film scoring, and Greek folk traditions. How do you approach merging these influences into something cohesive and uniquely your own?

SR: The last few years, I struggled with the idea of exactly that. The question of what precisely is my sound, if I should choose one lane, one musical genre, and even if I should stay away from my Greek heritage – have been constant questions in my mind. I spent years from my childhood up until now, studying those different genres separately and I felt that it tended to make me see things only one way. After I finished my MA in film scoring in New York City, I spent a couple of years trying to figure out who exactly I was as an artist after all my studies and experiences by that time. I wrote quite a lot of things that deep down did not feel right, because I was trying too much to define and label what I was writing.

I started realizing that my different influences and experiences are my superpowers in a way. I consciously choose to live in big multicultural cities because I love being around different people and cultures. So fusing the different worlds is my way of experiencing life, and of course music.

I have learnt to let my creativity flow and let it lead me. I went through the trial and error process during those years and I got to a point where I decided that I will just have to sit down, write and see where it takes me. Having a storyline or concept was important for me as it allowed me to answer the questions that I had mentioned above. And of course, I fully recognise that as an artist and as human I will keep evolving forever and the only way for me is to embrace my growth and make it my own. It’s still a work in progress and will be for many years to come.

The title suggests looking inward and outward at the same time. What does “Reflections” represent to you on a personal and artistic level?

SR: The album is a collection of many stories. Each track is written for an issue or a question I pose to myself when it comes to existing in this world as a human and as an artist simultaneously. We are part of a beautiful universe that makes me think there is more than just our lives we should be concerned about. This is what the tracks ‘Mesmerizing Vortex’ & ‘Cosmos’ focus on. At the same time, for me, it is essential to maintain my Greek identity by honouring my culture through my art (‘Rizes’ ‘Thalassa’ , , ‘An afternoon in Late August’). In addition to these, it’s important for me to comment on social issues like immigration and how we treat people that are just trying to find a better life (‘Undocumented Hopes’ , ‘Thalassa’) or even my own experience living abroad. And lastly, in a world that keeps telling us how to live our lives and influence our beliefs, we should try and be more honest and allow ourselves to follow our dreams, find the courage to have many different sides and follow a million directions (‘Allow you to be’ , ‘Honest City’ ‘Reflections’ , , ‘A million directions’). We all evolve and the journey has ups and downs – but that’s what makes life so exciting (‘In Process’ , ‘Peaks and Valleys’).

‘Reflections’ is about appreciating what we have, honouring our cultures, being kinder and giving space to allow ourselves and the people around us to be what they are truly destined to be, while being respectful to each other without limitations. Humanity doesn’t progress on individualism and we have forgotten that as a society. We have to start paying more attention to the collective aspect of our lives. This is what this album represents, and I hope each listener finds some of their own truth in that too!

You’ve spoken about resisting the pressure to define yourself as one kind of artist. How has that idea shaped your approach to this album and your creative life more broadly?

SR: As I mentioned earlier, It was a challenging process to get to the stage where the album was taking some sort of shape. I evolved personally and artistically during this process. I feel more creative and less constrained to the idioms of one genre when I compose music for my personal projects. Composing for film and media needs a slightly different approach, because you collaborate with a creative team and serve a specific story, but that does not mean you have less freedom.

I love getting involved in many different projects as I get to discover different sides of my creativity and I get to implement all those various influences of my art in them.

Writing the album unlocked another level of confidence. This confidence permits me to feel and react to the world around me with more honesty through my music and my art.

You recorded the album in Athens with a 17-piece ensemble. Can you describe the atmosphere of those sessions and what it meant to bring this music to life in your home city?

SR: Challenging, fulfilling, energetic, scary, crazy, and a bit stressful are some of the adjectives I can use to describe this experience. But overall, it was an unforgettable and beautiful experience.

We spent four days at Sierra Studios recording the album. The vibe in the studio was so pleasant all the way through. A lot of the musicians from Greece were childhood friends of mine and we used to play together in youth orchestrals and bands. Having them there as professional musicians now next to the musicians from London that I have played with for the last few years, was a big moment for me. Witnessing my music come to life for the first time and seeing everyone really enjoy playing, it was a real gift.

I’ve been away from Greece for a decade now, I feel a responsibility for me to create some sort of life there as well. So merging my musical life by collaboration with musicians from both the UK and Greece feels the right thing to do. This time especially, given this is my debut album in which, I think, I managed to merge all of my different worlds together.

You’ve written for film, theatre, and dance across Europe and the U.S. How does your experience as a film composer influence your approach to structure, storytelling, and emotion in your jazz writing?

SR: I see myself as an artist– a musician that can perform and compose. I do not like to separate the roles too much. I approach each project whether it’s a film, a dance piece, a jazz performance or my own composition as an open-minded artist ready to create. A lot of the time my performing background informs my film music writing.

Having said that, writing for film and media has definitely helped me become a better storyteller with everything I do. I have a clearer picture of how to approach the different stories and emotions I want to describe through my music.

I love unexpected musical shifts and a change in emotion, the lack of the feeling of resolution in harmony and a lot of times I end up writing an odd number of bars in my melodies which can result in an unsettling feeling.

Your music often bridges cultures and geographies—Greece, Turkey, the U.K., and beyond. How do these different environments and collaborations inform your artistic voice?

SR: I grew up in Greece in a house where we’d primarily listen to classical music, to Greek traditional music and to jazz. I started playing the piano at seven years old, and this led me to study classical music more seriously. Later, I began attending the music high school of Pallini in Northern Athens, where I participated in different ensembles and also played saxophone in the Underground Youth Orchestra (which continues to do amazing work with young musicians in Athens to this day). At the same time, I was in a ska-reggae student band. So you can understand there were a lot of different musical stimuli from the beginning.

Then moving to London and New York City changed me in so many ways and as a result affected my music as well. It has been an amazing multicultural journey so far, and I feel I have just scratched the surface, so the adventure will definitely continue in one way or another!

To conclude – all these different cultural and musical experiences, the various musicians and artists I’ve met, have contributed to who I am today and have definitely informed my voice as an artist in countless ways.

You’ve said that you see music as a tool for awareness and dialogue, touching on issues like immigration and gender equality. How do you translate those ideas into sound?

SR: For me being a musician is not just a job. It’s a way of life. For this reason I believe I have to bring more awareness to the issues of the world we live in, somewhere in my music. This can be found in all genres of music since the beginning of our time. It is a very complicated process at times but essential for an artist. It is our mission to bring people together and maybe show them there is another way of thinking about certain issues.

I try to translate my feelings about these issues into sound and different musical textures. For example, ‘Undocumented Hopes’ is written to describe what cannot be described with words and to tell the stories of those who are unable to narrate them. My aim was to use a question & answer approach between the different instruments as a way of describing the uncertainty of their journeys. The odd meter rhythm gives a feeling of repetitiveness, like we are stuck in a loop – representing the determination of these people to succeed no matter what life throws at them.

The album features an extensive ensemble with strings, voice, and traditional instruments like the lavta. How did you guide such a diverse group of musicians to realise your vision while leaving room for their individuality?

SR: Recording live is one of my favourite things to do! For me, when I compose one of the most important parts is the feeling we convey from the performance of that music.

Even though I do write for very diverse ensembles, by no means I consider myself an expert in each one of them. Part of my process is to bring the music to my musicians and ‘workshop’ it with them. I try to communicate and explain to the best of my abilities through conversations, and I do count a lot on each musician to translate that into their own sound and their own way of playing.

To explain a bit more – I love writing for string ensembles but I know best to discuss with them a lot of the phrasing they’ll play, what feels more natural to them and how we should approach certain passages that are a bit more complicated.

In addition to that, a lot of the time I write for specific musicians. ‘Thalassa’ was composed with the voice of Aggeliki Toubanaki in mind from the very beginning. Alexandros Kapsokavadis’ melodic playing of the lavta was in my mind when I wrote ‘An afternoon in late August’ as well. And of course, with the guys from London: Ozenc, Alex, Jonny W and Jonny P, we’ve played together for a while, so I always have in mind their approach and playing when writing.

It’s vital for me to give a lot of space to the performers to bring their expertise, as this is what makes live music feel so alive, interesting and exciting.

You describe Reflections as an “ode to complexity and growth. ” Looking ahead, how do you see your music—and your sense of self as an artist—continuing to evolve from here?

SR: This album has been an amazing journey so far. I have learnt so much – from writing for such a diverse ensemble to what it takes to make a CD, the PR behind it and so on. In art you have to keep evolving – you cannot avoid it. Keep being curious and open to ideas. The learning never ends. There are so many wonderful books to read, music to listen to, paintings and art in general to appreciate. An important part of all these is an old habit of mind: ‘people watching’ – you can learn so much just from paying attention just from sitting at a cafe, looking at the people passing by. It’s amazing what you find out about humanity.

Bringing so many artists together gave me the opportunity to appreciate the people I play with even more, there is so much we can learn from each other and we should be more open to that – there is always a little treasure you can take from each one of these interactions and moments which you can then implement in your art.

Writing Reflections lead me to a better version of myself, I think. It gave me the confidence to continue to be curious about the unknown and I will do my best with the utmost respect to fuse the different cultures. Who knows what comes next but I am very excited to see!