Bio

Nokuthula Ngwenyama (No-goo-TOO-lah En-gwen-YAH-ma), known familiarly as “Thula” (TOO-lah), has established herself as a multifaceted artist and collaborator in her roles as both violist and composer, performing as an orchestral soloist, recitalist and chamber musician. She was born in Los Angeles, CA of Zimbabwean and Japanese parentage. 

Ms. Ngwenyama gained international prominence as a violist when she won the Primrose International Viola Competition at age 16 and then the Young Concert Artists International Auditions, which led to debuts at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC and the 92nd Street Y in New York; she is also a recipient of the prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant. She has performed as a soloist and in recital around the world, including at the Louvre, Suntory Hall and the White House.  She is a member of Umama Womama, a trio of composer-players, with Valerie Coleman (flute) and Han Lash (harp, piano).

Her compositions have been performed by leading orchestras and chamber ensembles in North America, Africa and Asia.  Boston Classical Review called her recent string quartet, Flow, written for the Takács Quartet, “immediate, ingratiating, and accessible a musical argument as they come… gloriously, radiantly sincere and affecting.” Ngwenyama’s music for orchestra has been performed by the Los Angeles Philharmonic; Scottish Chamber Orchestra; Detroit, London, Chicago, Phoenix, New Jersey, San Francisco and Toronto Symphonies; KwaZulu Natal Philharmonic in South Africa; and the Orquesta Nacional de Madrid, among others.  Ms. Ngwenyama is the first composer in residence with the Phoenix Chamber Music Society. 

Nokuthula Endo Ngwenyama attended the Crossroads School for Arts and Sciences and the Colburn School for the Performing Arts (now the Colburn Community School of Performing Arts) before graduating from the Curtis Institute of Music.  As a Fulbright scholar she studied at the Conservatoire National Superieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris and received a Master of Theological Studies from Harvard Divinity School.  A voting member of the Recording Academy. Ms. Ngwenyama’s name means “Mother of Peace” and “Lion” in Zulu.