Viraj Sonawala is currently pursuing a double major in Percussion Performance and Music Education at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA). He began studying percussion at the age of ten and has a passion for the world of classical and contemporary music as expressed through percussion performance and through music education for children and adults.

Sonawala was a section member and then co-principal percussionist with Pacific Symphony Youth Wind Ensemble (PSYWE) from 2016 to 2021, travelling with the ensemble to Vienna and Salzburg, Austria to participate in the Summa Cum Laude International Youth Music Festival in July 2017 as part of PSYWE's 10th Anniversary season. Sonawala is also one of the founding members of the PSYWE Percussion Ensemble and has participated in the California All-Southern and All-State Honor Ensembles between 2015 and 2021. This past summer he participated in the Boston University Tanglewood Institute (BUTI) Percussion Workshop in Western Massachusetts and Sō Percussion Summer Institute (SōSI) in Princeton, New Jersey.

Currently, Sonawala is involved with numerous classical and contemporary music ensembles including UCLA Philharmonia, Symphony, Wind Ensemble, Flux Contemporary, Bruin Chamber Musicians, and Music of India Ensemble, as well as outside groups such as the Loyola Law School Orchestra, and the California Young Artists Symphony.