I approach teaching with my values I carry in life and music-making.
I believe in spaces for everyone to explore their passions and interests.
I believe in discovering the many ways of contributing to the well-being of those around us.
As an active, performing musician and as a teacher, I enjoy diving into the process of learning music, developing interpretive, listening, improvisational and technical instrumental skills, and developing one’s critical thinking.
“Stunning, magical, unique” —Time Out New York, Anna Ben Yehuda
“I’ll be thinking about my one-to-one concert with Mario Gotoh for a long time to come.”
-National Public Radio, All Things Considered, Jeff Lunden
Born in Japan, Dr. Mario Gotoh is a Grammy Award-winning musician who has distinguished herself in dual roles as an innovative violinist and violist with an active and remarkably unique and versatile performance style in all genres of music. Dr. Gotoh was invited by Yo-Yo Ma to teach at the Youth Music Culture Guangdong 2018 festival in Guangzhou, China, and she is a passionate educator and has served in this capacity at a number of New York area institutions through the college level. She has given masterclasses and workshops at Denison University and Dartmouth College through The Knights, with whom she regularly performs since 2012. Mario is on faculty at Longy School of Music, teaches through Silkroad Connect, and taught creative music and chamber music classes at Boston Conservatory at Berklee, as well as in person for their multi-disciplinary Summer Intensive program.
As a member of the Silkroad Ensemble (performing with director Rhiannon Giddens and founder Yo-Yo Ma), Mario has toured, performed and engaged with communities in Australia, New Zealand, Taiwan, Korea, China, Canada and the USA. She is also a featured actor and musician 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, MTV VMAs, The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, David Letterman, The Today Show, CBS This Morning, and performs and records regularly with renowned artists, including: Stevie Wonder, Roger Waters, Katy Perry, Sufjan Stevens, Adele (NBC Special: Live in NYC), Sting, Bryce Dessner, Nico Muhly, Brian Wilson, Dionne Warwick, Perfume Genius, Joshua Redman, Brian Blade, Brad Mehldau, Norah Jones, Twenty One Pilots, Angélique Kidjo, Nicholas Britell, Jim James (My Morning Jacket), Escort, Mumford & Sons, Goldfrapp, Vanessa Hudgens, SayGrace, Jon Batiste, Woodkid, Miley Cyrus, Garrison Keillor & A Prairie Home Companion, Chris Thile, Aoife O’Donovan, A Great Big World at venues such as: The White House, Sydney Opera House, Madison Square Garden, Barclays Center, United Palace Theater, Kings Theatre, Hamburg Elbphilharmonie, Vienna Musikeverin, Radio City Music Hall, Palace Het Loo, Carnegie Hall, The Met Museum, MoMA, Beacon 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: 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. She has also recorded for film and TV, including: “Succession,” “Gemini Man,” “Greatest Showman,” “Moonlight,” and “I Origins.”
Mario is the original violinist-violist in Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Broadway 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, the “Cast Recording” Soundtrack, the “Hamilton Mixtape,” and the “Hamilton Karaoke Instrumental Album.” Upon receiving her 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.” She holds a Master of Music from Stony Brook, and a Bachelor of Music and Performance Certificate from Eastman School of Music.
Mario is inspired by her community activism, languages, food, writing, visual arts, film, literature,swimming, and exploring cultures worldwide. She is writing original music for several upcoming projects.