Clara Nguyen ’19 remembers the quote she recited in her eighth grade graduation speech:
“The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step.” - Lao Tzu
These are wise words of wisdom from a Pine Crest School lifer who is already an accomplished concert pianist and fluent in seven languages: Vietnamese, English, Russian, Spanish, Italian, French, and German. If she could, Clara would add two languages to the list: music and coding.
Clara Nguyen ’19 at Teatro Bellini, Catania, Sicily
Clara began studying piano when she was five years old and believes that reading and listening to music opened the possibilities for learning multiple languages. Playing piano at a young age served as a catalyst to learn the romance languages.
“Music trains the ear,” said Clara. “I wanted to have a deeper relationship with the composers, so I began taking language courses with a tutor when I was in fourth grade.”
Her love for language continued to grow as she learned Russian and German.
As a concert pianist, Clara’s performances include Carnegie Hall and Sicily's Teatro Massimo Bellini.
Clara Nguyen ’19 with her piano instructor Professor Santiago Rodriguez
Clara had the opportunity to perform with the Bellini Symphony at the invitation of Luca Cubisino, President and Artistic Director of the AmiCaFest piano festival in Sicily. Clara and Mr. Cubisino study piano together at the University of Miami.
Click here to watch and listen to Clara's performance.
Clara will be a freshman at Harvard in the fall will major in computational linguistics. She also plans to join The Harvard College Piano Society and will audition for the symphony orchestra.
Exposure to science research and computer science courses at Pine Crest influenced her decision to study computational linguistics, marrying her love of coding and language.
“Computational linguistics combines the best of humanities and science,” said Clara.
Clara credits her friends and teachers for supporting her throughout her Pine Crest journey and counts performing with friends during Playing for Change among her favorite memories from Upper School. The annual student-produced and run concert allowed her to perform pop music and get out of her comfort zone by trying different genres and instruments.
Without a doubt, Clara made her mark on Pine Crest and is destined to do great things!