Kim Mai Nguyen, viola
When she was seven, violist Kim Mai Nguyen’s dream was to become a musician in order to travel and discover the world. Her curiosity and enthusiasm for foreign cultures guided her to the melting pot of New York City. Her driven personality and passion for music shaped her into a wholeheartedly charismatic performer in music ranging from the Baroque to New Music. Recently hailed by the New York Times, Kim Mai Nguyen “gave colorful, committed readings that illuminated the variety of styles offered” at the MoMa Summergarden Series with the New Juilliard Ensemble. Kim Mai believes in music’s power to heal and make a better life for people. Through her involvement in several community programs, Kim Mai has become an enthusiastic advocate of music education.
Kim Mai is an avid believer in arts in education. She is currently a strings teaching artist at Enriching Lives Through Music, an El Sistema-inspired program, and a teaching artist at the Bay Area Learning Academy. She was a faculty member of the National Youth Orchestra of Jamaica that is also an El Sistema inspired program. This non-profit and non-government organization serves schools in challenged communities in Kingston. Very active in New York City, Kim Mai held a Gluck Fellowship at Juilliard which let her play in New York City health care facilities. She was an Instrumental Music Program fellow, also at Juilliard, teaching young children in New York’s P.S.11. For the past two summers, she was invited as a Young Artist to the pianoSonoma festival. She had the opportunity to perform as a soloist and coach adult amateurs as well. Believing strongly in the concept of artist as citizen, Kim Mai’s interest for diverse culture led her to a residency in Guatemala in November 2012 to teach and perform with the children of the El Sistema Orchestra of Guatemala. During this past winter break, she was invited as a music educator of the Annual Afghanistan Winter Music Academy in Kabul which allowed her to be involved her in the music education of the students of the Afghanistan National Institute of Music and performances.
As a versatile chamber musician, Kim Mai is a member of Musica Sequenza, an ensemble specializing in Baroque music but includes also some influence of Electro-acoustique and Nu Jazz. More traditionally, she is also a member of the baroque New Utrecht Ensemble that performed on the Brooklyn Friends of Chamber Music series in March 2013. As a baroque violist, Kim Mai performed with William Christie, Monica Huggett , Ton Koopman, Jordi Savall and Masaki Suzuki and with Juilliard 415. Additionally, as fervent lover of new music, Kim Mai premiered Karén Hakobyan’s quartet Two Pieces for String Quartet Op. 1 at Carnegie Hall and Reinaldo Moya’s quartet Fragmentum IIduring a project with the New York City Ballet Choreographic Institute last spring. Kim Mai has studied chamber music with members of the Ysaÿe, Orion, and Juilliard String Quartets, as well as other distinguished artists including Audrey Axinn, Earl Carlyss, Charles Neidich and Sylvia Rosenberg.
As an orchestral musician active in Europe, Kim Mai substitutes in the Paris Opera Orchestra, the Opéra Bastille and the Palais Garnier. Principal viola in the Spoleto Festival USA this past summer, she was also part of the Prométhée Orchestra and the French Chamber Orchestra. Kim Mai participated in numerous festivals such as the Castleton Orchestra Festival, New York String Seminar, the French Youth Orchestra and Tanglewood Music Center. She has been working with distinguished conductors including Herbert Blomstedt, James Conlon, Christoph von Dohnanyi, Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos, Tan Dun, Alan Gilbert, Bernard Haitink, Jaime Laredo, Lorin Maazel, Kurt Masur, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Michael Tilson Thomas, Emmanuel Vuillaume, John Williams and Jaap van Zweden.
In 2010, Kim Mai performed for Michelle Obama and the spouses of the heads of government attending the United Nations General Assembly. She is the recipient of many honors and awards, including prizes in the Union Française des Artistes Musiciens competition and the French Youth Competition. As an artist involved in world citizenship, she has also performed as a soloist and taught in France, Vietnam, United States, Guatemala and Jamaica. Ms. Nguyen has performed in master classes with Yves Cortvriendt, Christophe Desjardins, Cynthia Roberts and Tatiana Samouil.
Originally from France, Kim Mai moved to the US after obtaining her Baccalaureat in Science and her graduate Music Diploma at the Conservatoire National de Région de Paris where she studied with Laurent Verney and Tasso Adamopoulos. She obtained her Bachelor of Music degree in 2011 under the guidance of Hsin Yun Huang and Heidi Castleman at Juilliard. This past May 2013, Kim Mai finished her Master of Music program, also at Juilliard with Steven Tenenbaum and Heidi Castleman.
Kim Mai is an avid believer in arts in education. She is currently a strings teaching artist at Enriching Lives Through Music, an El Sistema-inspired program, and a teaching artist at the Bay Area Learning Academy. She was a faculty member of the National Youth Orchestra of Jamaica that is also an El Sistema inspired program. This non-profit and non-government organization serves schools in challenged communities in Kingston. Very active in New York City, Kim Mai held a Gluck Fellowship at Juilliard which let her play in New York City health care facilities. She was an Instrumental Music Program fellow, also at Juilliard, teaching young children in New York’s P.S.11. For the past two summers, she was invited as a Young Artist to the pianoSonoma festival. She had the opportunity to perform as a soloist and coach adult amateurs as well. Believing strongly in the concept of artist as citizen, Kim Mai’s interest for diverse culture led her to a residency in Guatemala in November 2012 to teach and perform with the children of the El Sistema Orchestra of Guatemala. During this past winter break, she was invited as a music educator of the Annual Afghanistan Winter Music Academy in Kabul which allowed her to be involved her in the music education of the students of the Afghanistan National Institute of Music and performances.
As a versatile chamber musician, Kim Mai is a member of Musica Sequenza, an ensemble specializing in Baroque music but includes also some influence of Electro-acoustique and Nu Jazz. More traditionally, she is also a member of the baroque New Utrecht Ensemble that performed on the Brooklyn Friends of Chamber Music series in March 2013. As a baroque violist, Kim Mai performed with William Christie, Monica Huggett , Ton Koopman, Jordi Savall and Masaki Suzuki and with Juilliard 415. Additionally, as fervent lover of new music, Kim Mai premiered Karén Hakobyan’s quartet Two Pieces for String Quartet Op. 1 at Carnegie Hall and Reinaldo Moya’s quartet Fragmentum IIduring a project with the New York City Ballet Choreographic Institute last spring. Kim Mai has studied chamber music with members of the Ysaÿe, Orion, and Juilliard String Quartets, as well as other distinguished artists including Audrey Axinn, Earl Carlyss, Charles Neidich and Sylvia Rosenberg.
As an orchestral musician active in Europe, Kim Mai substitutes in the Paris Opera Orchestra, the Opéra Bastille and the Palais Garnier. Principal viola in the Spoleto Festival USA this past summer, she was also part of the Prométhée Orchestra and the French Chamber Orchestra. Kim Mai participated in numerous festivals such as the Castleton Orchestra Festival, New York String Seminar, the French Youth Orchestra and Tanglewood Music Center. She has been working with distinguished conductors including Herbert Blomstedt, James Conlon, Christoph von Dohnanyi, Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos, Tan Dun, Alan Gilbert, Bernard Haitink, Jaime Laredo, Lorin Maazel, Kurt Masur, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Michael Tilson Thomas, Emmanuel Vuillaume, John Williams and Jaap van Zweden.
In 2010, Kim Mai performed for Michelle Obama and the spouses of the heads of government attending the United Nations General Assembly. She is the recipient of many honors and awards, including prizes in the Union Française des Artistes Musiciens competition and the French Youth Competition. As an artist involved in world citizenship, she has also performed as a soloist and taught in France, Vietnam, United States, Guatemala and Jamaica. Ms. Nguyen has performed in master classes with Yves Cortvriendt, Christophe Desjardins, Cynthia Roberts and Tatiana Samouil.
Originally from France, Kim Mai moved to the US after obtaining her Baccalaureat in Science and her graduate Music Diploma at the Conservatoire National de Région de Paris where she studied with Laurent Verney and Tasso Adamopoulos. She obtained her Bachelor of Music degree in 2011 under the guidance of Hsin Yun Huang and Heidi Castleman at Juilliard. This past May 2013, Kim Mai finished her Master of Music program, also at Juilliard with Steven Tenenbaum and Heidi Castleman.