VIOLA

Mai Motobuchi has earned distinction as a soloist and chamber musician in the United States and her native Japan. As a soloist, she has performed with such well-known artists as Yo-Yo Ma and Seiji Ozawa. Since joining the Borromeo String Quartet in 2000, she has collaborated with the world's finest musicians, including Leon Fleischer, Gary Graffman, Bernard Greenhouse, Kim Kashkashian, Midori, David Shifrin, Richard Stoltzman, and Dawn Upshaw. Ms. Motobuchi gained recognition in Japan as first prize winner in the 1989 All Japan MBS Music Competition and won the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition, the Henri Kohn Memorial Award from the Tanglewood Music Center. As a student at Rice University she received the John and Sally Cox Award, the E. Dell Butcher Award, and the Willie Muery Award, in addition to being named an Alice Pratt Brown Scholar. Born in Tokyo, Japan, Ms. Motobuchi started playing violin at age five. Upon receiving her Diploma from Tenrikyo Institute of Music in Japan, she was awarded full scholarships to study viola at Michigan State University, where she received her Bachelor of Music, and Rice University in Houston, where she earned her Master of Music. She followed with an advanced performance diploma from Internationale Meisterkurze Koblenz in Koblenz, Germany.