The Multifaceted Career • MARIO GOTOH • Violinist-Violist, Educator, Grammy Winner

Dr. Gotoh was invited by Yo-Yo Ma to teach at the Youth Music Culture Guangdong 2018 festival in Guangzhou, China. Mario is a member of the Silkroad Ensemble, founded by Yo-Yo Ma and led by Rhiannon Giddens, and has toured and performed with Silkroad in Australia, New Zealand, Taiwan, Korea, China and Canada. Mario is also a member of The Knights chamber ensemble. She is also a featured soloist in William Kentridge‘s large-scale theatrical production “The Head & The Load,” which recently performed at the Holland Festival, Tate Modern in London, Ruhr Festival Germany, and the Park Ave Armory.

Mario has performed numerous times on The Grammys, SNL, The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, David Letterman, MTV VMAs, The Today Show, CBS This Morning, and performs and records regularly with stars including: Stevie Wonder, Roger Waters, Katy Perry, Sufjan Stevens, Adele (NBC Special: Live in NYC), Sting, Doja Cat, Bryce Dessner, Nico Muhly, Brian Wilson, Dionne Warwick, Perfume Genius, Joshua Redman, Brian Blade, Brad Mehldau, Aaron Diehl, Norah Jones, Twenty One Pilots, Angélique Kidjo, Jim James (My Morning Jacket), Escort, Mumford & Sons, Jack Antonoff, Lucas Nelson, Nathaniel Rateliff, Michael Bublé, Aimee Mann, Universal Zulu Nation, Stevie Van Zandt, E Street Band, Damien Rice, Goldfrapp, My Brightest Diamond, Vanessa Hudgens, SayGrace, Jon Batiste, Woodkid, Miley Cyrus, Garrison Keillor & A Prairie Home Companion, Chris Thile, Aoife O’Donovan, and A Great Big World at venues such as The White House, Madison Square Garden, Barclays Center, Hamburg Elbphilharmonie, Vienna Musikverein, Radio City Music Hall, Palace Het Loo, Carnegie Hall, The Met Museum, MoMA, Beacon Theatre, United Palace Theatre, Town Hall, Webster Hall Grand Ballroom, Bowery Ballroom, The Egg (Beijing).

Mario has been invited to perform on worldwide broadcasts including TF1 French TV, NHK Japan, NPR, CBC, PBS TV, WGBH, Sirius XM, and has performed worldwide including: Newport Folk Festival, Ravinia, Tanglewood, Caramoor, Aspen Music Festival, Vail Dance Festival ReMix NYC, Music@Menlo, the Festival Consonances (France), Festival d’Aix-en-Provence (France), International Masterclasses Apeldoorn (Netherlands), Banff Centre (Canada),  Boston Early Music Festival, Music Academy of the West, Institute and Festival for Contemporary Performance, International Computer Music Festival, and National Foundation for the Advancement in the Arts’ National ARTS Week. As a soloist with orchestras from a young age, Mario has been featured with numerous orchestras, featuring works by Bach, Barber, Dvorak, Glazunov, Mendelssohn, Arvo Pärt, Sarasate, Sibelius, Vivaldi, and Walton. She has performed and or recorded with many prominent classical musicians, including the Yo-Yo Ma, Gil Shaham, Anton Kuerti, Edgar Meyer, Dawn Upshaw, Susan Graham, Nobuko Imai, Frans Helmerson, Philippe Graffin, Avi Avital, Emerson String Quartet and early music with Paul O’Dette, and Kristian Bezuidenhout. Mario has also recorded for film/TV soundtracks, recently: “Succession,” “Gemini Man,” “Greatest Showman,” “Moonlight,” and “I Origins.”

Mario is the original violinist-violist in Lin-Manuel Miranda‘s Broadway hit musical, “Hamilton” in NYC since it started at the Public Theater, and can be heard on the #HamilFilm Motion Picture Film of the original production (streaming on Disney+), the Cast Recording soundtrack, the “Hamilton Mixtape,” and the Hamilton Karaoke Instrumental Album.

Upon receiving their Dual-Doctorate in Violin & Viola Performance from Stony Brook University, Mario was awarded the prestigious SUNY-wide “Arts Honor” for “demonstrated excellence, originality and promise in the arts.” Mario was also awarded and named SUNY Stony Brook University’s “40 Under 40.” Mario is a passionate educator and has served in this capacity at a number of New York area institutions through the college level. Through a partnership with Silkroad Ensemble, Mario recently taught creative music and chamber music classes at Boston Conservatory at Berklee, as well as in person for their multi-disciplinary Summer Intensive program. Dr. Gotoh is currently a viola faculty member at Longy School of Music of Bard College in Massachusetts.

Mario is inspired by their community activism, French and Japanese language and cuisine, cooking, writing, visual arts, film, literature, swimming, and exploring cultures worldwide. Mario is writing original music for several upcoming projects.