Alexandra Nguyen

Assistant Professor of Collaborative Piano

Email:Alexandra.Nguyen@colorado.edu
Office Location: N163, Imig Music Building
Office Phone: 303-492-6512
Mailing Address: 301 UCB, Boulder, CO 80309-0301

A native of Montréal, Alexandra Nguyen maintains a diverse career as a collaborative pianist, teacher and arts administrator. She is an accomplished pianist who has appeared throughout the United States and Canada, including performances at the Weill Hall at Carnegie Hall (New York, NY), BargeMusic (Brooklyn, NY), the Dame Myra Hess series (Chicago, IL), the Brooklyn Friends of Chamber Music Series (Brooklyn, NY), the 2000 Bartók International Congress (Austin, TX), and the Societe Pro Musica Chamber Music Series (Montréal, Canada). She is a founding member of two active chamber ensembles, Trio Encantar with oboist Deirdre Chadwick and bassoonist Peter Kolkay, with whom she also appears regularly in recital, and Duo Solaris, with pianist Zarina Melik-Stepanova. A strong proponent of new music, Dr. Nguyen has premiered a number of works, such as The Dark Hours for bassoon and piano (2007) by Judah Adashi, commissioned by BMI, and will be premiering a new work for bassoon and piano by Katherine Hoover in fall 2009. As a pedagogue and administrator, Dr. Nguyen has been an invited presenter at the National Association of Schools of Music Annual Meeting, the College Music Society Annual Conference, the Music Teachers’ National Association National Convention, and the National Conference on Keyboard Pedagogy.

As Assistant Professor of Collaborative Piano at the University of Colorado at Boulder, Dr. Nguyen co-directs the graduate programs in collaborative piano, teaches the undergraduate accompanying curriculum and oversees accompanying services for the College of Music. She was formerly the Assistant Dean of Academic Affairs at the Eastman School of Music with part-time appointments in the chamber music and piano departments, where her responsibilities included coaching chamber music and teaching 20th and 21st century piano literature. Other prior appointments include Administrative Director of the Montréal Chamber Music Festival, Director of Career Services at the Eastman School, and piano faculty at the David Hochstein Memorial School for Music and Dance. Dr. Nguyen is a member of the Collaborative Committee for the National Conference on Keyboard Pedagogy as well as the Board of Directors of the International Guitar Institute. She is founder and director of the summer institute Plays Well With Others, a forum dedicated to exploring all aspects of the collaborative piano profession, held annually at the Eastman School of Music.

Dr. Nguyen completed her graduate degrees in Piano Accompanying and Chamber Music under the guidance of Jean Barr at the Eastman School of Music where she was awarded the first Performer’s Certificate in Piano Accompanying and Chamber Music. She has studied with pedagogues such as Douglas Humpherys, Anne Epperson, Madeleine Bélanger and Suzanne Goyette. She holds a Bachelor of Science degree from McGill University and a Premier Prix from the Conservatoire de musique du Québec a Montréal.