Kim Mai Nguyen

Violist Kim Mai Nguyen’s driven personality and passion for music shaped her into a wholeheartedly charismatic performer in music ranging from the Baroque to New Music. 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.

Involved in several community programs, Kim Mai has become an enthusiastic advocate of music education. She has been working in several El Sistema inspired programs in the US and in Central America. She worked in Kingston, Jamaica with the National Youth Orchestra of Jamaica and was invited on cultural diplomacy visits to Guatemala, Mexico and Afghanistan. She is now part of MusAid, a non - profit organization that provides musical institutions in under - resourced parts of the world with volunteer music teachers and donated instruments and materials.

As a versatile chamber musician, Kim Mai performs regularly at the Scotiabank Northern Lights Music Festival in Ajijic, Mexico and was an artist in residence at the pianoSonoma. As a baroque violist, Kim Mai performed with William Christie, Monica Huggett, Ton Koopman, Jordi Savall and Masaki Suzuki and with Juilliard 415. As fervent lover of new music, Kim Mai premiered several chamber music works at Carnegie Hall, the MoMa of New York and Reinaldo Moya’s quartet Fragmentum II during a project with the New York City Ballet Choreographic Institute.

As an orchestral musician, 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.

Originally from France, Kim Mai obtained her Bachelor of Music and Master of Music degree at Juilliard under the guidance of Hsin Yun Huang, Heidi Castleman and Steven Tenenbaum