We want to welcome Vivian (Vivi) Kung, who is the newest member to the Rising Stars Podcast team this season. She will be helping with social media content and with promoting the series to draw more viewers and listeners.
Vivi is a second generation Taiwanese American tuba player studying at the Yale School of Music with Carol Jantsch. Most recently, she was a winner in the brass division of the 37th Pasadena Showcase House Instrumental competition. In 2019, Vivi was the national winner of the Music Teacher's National Association brass division, placing first out of an initial 600 competitors.
In addition to her musical pursuits, Vivi is an ethnic studies alumni from the UCLA Asian American studies department. Her research interests include racial and gender diversity in professional musical vocations, and the role of the model minority myth in orchestral instrumental tropes. She is currently a representative on the Yale Graduate and Professional Student Senate and serves on the Diversity and Inclusion board, where she works to implement more equitable measures and actions for racial justice at Yale University. She is also on the editorial staff of the Tuba Euphonium Social Justice Initiative (TESJI) newsletter, where she works to curate a quarterly newsletter for the tuba euphonium community.
We are excited to have you join us, Vivi! The second season will be a great one with your help and guidance. Please follow Vivi at @vivikungpaochicken on Instagram and at @viviankungtuba on Facebook.
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