Quynh Nguyen

Pianist Quynh Nguyen has performed widely in her adopted U.S., in Europe, and in Asia, including in her native Vietnam. She is also a significant educator. Nguyen was born Nguyễn Thúy Quỳnh in Hanoi in 1976. Her family was musical; she is the granddaughter of pianist Tôn Thất Triêm. She took up the piano at age four, taking lessons from an uncle, and at nine, she gave her first recital. Nguyen studied at the Hanoi Conservatory, performed a concerto at 11, and was admitted to the Gnessin State Musical Conservatory in Moscow, Russia, where her teacher was Oleg Musorin. Moving to New York, Nguyen studied at the Juilliard School, the Mannes College of Music, and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. She made her debut in New York in 2001 and performed several critically acclaimed concerts in the early 2000s, leading to her designation as one of 19 Young Stars of Tomorrow by Musical America magazine in 2004. In 2009, she earned a doctoral degree from the CUNY Graduate Center, writing a thesis on the Asian influence on Olivier Messiaen. Nguyen has appeared at such major venues as the Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall in New York, the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, the Konzerthaus in Berlin, and the Grand Opera House in Hanoi. She has appeared as a concerto soloist with the Capella Academica in Berlin, the Hanoi Conservatory Orchestra, and the Regional Wind Orchestra of Paris, among groups in the U.S. and internationally. Nguyen is a familiar sight at festivals in the U.S. and Europe, including Switzerland's Verbier Festival and the Bowdoin International Music Festival in Maine. After releasing several albums on the Arabesque label, she moved to Music & Arts in 2023 for the album The Flower of France: Germaine Tailleferre Works for Piano.
© James Manheim /TiVo