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Ballade
Samuel Coleridge-Taylor
Ballade in C Minor, Op. 73
Nokothula Ngwenyama,
violin
Mihae Lee, piano
EDI Records 9259 (2005)
Rubinstein
Sonatas
Nokuthula Ngwenyama, viola
Jennifer Lim, piano
EDI Records (2008)
CHE! : A
Musical Biography
Miguel Corella
Nokuthula Ngwenyama, viola
Michael Long, guitar
EDI Records 6254 (2004)
|
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-> Musicians -> Ngwenyama, Nokuthula
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Nokuthula Ngwenyama
(b. 1976)
African American Violist & Violinist
President of American Viola
Society
1
Classical Music's Appeal
Nokuthula Ngwenyama is an American violist and violinist of Zimbabwean and
Japanese descent. She was born June 16, 1976, and grew up in Southern
California. Her earliest musical instruments were the piano and the
violin. She faced resistance at first, as she explains at her Web site,
http://www.ngwenyama.com/live/:
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My father, a Ndebele man from Zimbabwe,
discouraged me from the start. 'Why are you
playing this white man's music?' he would ask.
He didn't understand that this kind of music
spoke to me in a way not affected by race. |
2 Viola Studies & Debut
At the age of 12, young Nokuthula switched from violin to viola because
she was captivated by the sound of the instrument. The Web site
www.AmericanViolaSociety.org describes her early career:
|
Nokuthula Ngwenyama is recognized as one
of the foremost instrumentalists of her
generation. Her acclaimed
appearances as soloist, recitalist, and
chamber musician garner great attention, as
she plays 'music beautifully, with dazzling
technique in the virtuoso fast movements and
deep expressiveness in the slow movements
(The Washington Post).'
Ms. Ngwenyama came to international
attention when she won the Primrose
Competition and Young Concert Artists
International Auditions - both at age 17. Her
debut recitals in Washington, D.C. at the
Kennedy Center and in New York at the 92nd
Street 'Y' were widely praised, and in 1997 she
received an Avery Fisher Career Grant.
|
The Web site goes on to say that Ngwenyama graduated
from the Curtis Institute of Music in 1996, and that a Fulbright
Scholarship enabled her to study at the Conservatoire National Superieur
de Musique de Paris.
3 Life Beyond Music
Ngwenyama's interests in life extend beyond music. She completed a
Master's Degree of Theological Studies at Harvard University in 2002,
after studying the religions of Africa and Asia. Her Web site features an
illustrated journal of her first trip to Africa. She met her father's
relatives in Zimbabwe and participated in concerts in that country and in
South Africa.
4 Viola Society
The Sept. 4, 2008 issue of StringsMagazine.com reported: "Viola Society
Elects Ngwenyama" "While most eyes are on the US presidential
race, the American Viola Society has released the results of its own
election. Violist Nokuthula Ngwenyama has been chosen as president-elect
of the AVS from now until 2011, when she will succeed Juliet White-Smith
and begin a three-year term as president.
5 CHE! & J.S. Bach
EDI Records has released two CDs on which Ngwenyama plays viola or violin
and Michael Long plays guitar: CHE! : A Musical Biography, EDI Records
6254 (2004), composed by Miguel Corella of Spain; and J.S. Bach Partitas, EDI Records 6738.
6 Ballade
Nokuthula Ngwenyama plays violin, accompanied on piano
by Mihae Lee, on the CD Ballade, EDI Records 9259 (2005). The program
includes works by Edvard Grieg and Claude Debussy as well as Ballade in C
Minor, Op. 73 (13:36) by the Afro-British composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor
(1875-1912).
7 Rubinstein Sonatas
Rubinstein Sonatas
is a September 2008 EDI Records release on which Nokuthula Ngwenyama joins forces
with pianist Jennifer
Lim. The works are Rubinstein's Sonata for Violin and Piano,
Op. 13, and Sonata for Viola and Piano, Op. 49. Another
recording is Il Principe: Courtly Airs and Dances, with
Nokuthula Ngwenyama, viola; Michael Long, guitar; and David Brewer,
violin.
8 Past Seasons
Nokuthula Ngwenyama's website provides this list of professional
appearances in past seasons:
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Ms.
Ngwenyama's past seasons include performances with the
Charlotte Symphony, the Louisiana Philharmonic, the
Austin, Jackson and Memphis Symphonies, and appearances
with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. She
also performed with Christopher Seaman and the Rochester
Philharmonic Orchestra, the KwaZulu Natal Philharmonic
Orchestra in Durban, South Africa, as well as Esa-Pekka
Salonen and the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Domestic
appearances include performances with the Atlanta,
Baltimore, and Indianapolis Symphonies as well as the
National Symphony Orchestra. She has been heard in
recital at Tokyo's Suntory Hall, the Louvre, the Ford
Center in Toronto, and the Maison de Radio France.
Summer festival appearances include Green Music, Vail,
San Diego's Mainly Mozart, Chamber Music Northwest,
Marlboro Music Festival, and Spoleto USA. |
9 White House
Ms. Ngwenyama has performed at the
White House, in honor of the 10th anniversary of Performance Today on
NPR, her website explains, and has testified before Congress as a
witness for the National Endowment for the Arts:
|
Ms.
Ngwenyama's performance at the White House,
commemorating the 10th anniversary of NPR's Performance
Today also featured artists Wynton Marsalis, James
Galway, and Murray Perahia. She has been featured on CBS
Sunday Morning and the PBS program Sound of Strings in
the Musical Encounter Series. A dedicated advocate for
the arts, she has testified before Congress on behalf of
the National Endowment for the Arts. |
10
Professor
The website of Ms. Ngwenyama notes her service as visiting professor at
the University of Notre Dame in 2007, followed by her position at the
Indiana University Jacobs School of Music:
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In
addition to her performance activities Ms. Ngwenyama
served as visiting professor at the University of Notre
Dame in 2007, where she taught instrumental music and
lectured in the areas of African Music and Music and
World Religions. She joins the faculty of Indiana
University Jacobs School of Music as visiting professor
for the 2008-09 academic year and serves as director of
the prestigious Primrose International Viola Competition. |
This page was last updated on
March 5, 2022 |
