Quynh Nguyen

 

Biography

 


Praised by the Boston Globe as "a musical and expressive player" who is "sensitive and poetic, and excels in everything that requires elegance, proportion, balance, taste, and wit," award-winning Vietnamese-American pianist Quynh Nguyen was selected as one of the "19 young stars of tomorrow" by Musical America. For her CD featuring the works of Schubert and Chopin, the International Piano Magazine commented: "Rarely does one hear a young artist with such a naturally flowing sense of melodic line - vivid and unforced - that permits the music to breathe uninhibited." For her debut Carnegie Recital Hall performance, the New York Concert Review commends: "She is a real artist, a wonderfully communicative performer …What a compendium of intellect, sophistication and taste!"

Quynh Nguyen has performed extensively throughout the United States, Europe, and Vietnam including Hungary, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, and France, in notable concert venues such as Carnegie Recital Hall, Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center, McEvoy Auditorium, the Freer Gallery at the Smithsonian in Washington D.C., the Kaye Playhouse in New York, the Berlin Konzerthause, and the Opera House in Hanoi, Vietnam. Having been a guest on Voice of America, New York’s WQXR, Boston's WGBH, among many other radio stations throughout the United States, Quynh Nguyen is known to radio and television audiences worldwide. She performed and was featured on television programs such as NHK television in Japan; "Grand Piano," shown on cable channels in several states across the US; CUNY TV channel 75 "Study With the Best;" and Vietnamese national television. Her current and upcoming compact disc recordings can be found on the Arabesque Recordings, Naxos American Classics, and Music and Arts labels.

Recently, in January of 2022, Quynh performed as soloist the Concerto-Fantasy for Piano and Orchestra in a world premiere recording with the London Symphony Orchestra at St. Lukes. This recording is part of Naxos's American Classics Series upcoming release entitled Quynh Nguyen plays the Complete Piano Works of Paul Chihara. In addition, her recording of the piano music of French composer Germaine Tailleferre (1892-1983), who is the only female composer of Les Six, is sponsored by the Sorel Foundation, and will be released in the spring of 2023 on the Music and Arts label.

On October 7th of 2022, Quynh performed the world premiere of Paul Chihara piano concerto as featured soloist with Vietnamese National Symphony Orchestra under the baton of conductor Honna Tetsuji at the Hanoi Opera House. This important concert commemorated the 25th anniversary of normalization of US-Vietnam diplomatic relations. She will be performing the American premiere of this concerto with the Seattle Symphony Orchestra in January of 2024 as part of the "Celebrate Asia" concert at the S. Mark Taper Foundation Auditorium - Benaroya Hall.

Dr. Nguyen is a graduate of The Juilliard School and Mannes College of Music, where she studied with Bella Davidovich, Jacob Lateiner, Martin Canin, and Jerome Rose. She received her Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the Graduate Center of City University of New York. Her dissertation titled An Analysis of Olivier Messiaen's Last Piano Solo Work: Les Petites Esquisses d'oiseaux received the Barry Brook Dissertation award from the Graduate Center. Additionally, she is the recipient of several highly prestigious scholarships and awards, including the United States Presidential Academic Fitness Award, the American Prize, and the Fulbright Fellowship to study music with the late Yvonne Loriod Messiaen in Paris, France in 2004-2005.

Dr. Nguyen currently serves on the music faculty of the Music Department at Hunter College, City University of New York, and the International Keyboard Institute and Festival.