Taylor Cooksey - Violist

Violist Taylor Cooksey-Nguyen is a passionate leader, avid performer, and empathetic educator based in and around the San Francisco Bay Area. She has had the privilege to travel the world as a soloist, chamber musician, studio musician, and orchestral musician, sharing her love for music with people in venues from the USA, Europe, and beyond. She currently serves as the Assistant Principal Violist for the Golden Gate Symphony and Section Violist in the Stockton Symphony, and regularly substitutes for many orchestras in the greater Bay Area. When not performing, Taylor spends her days teaching a studio of 50 students at two different Bay Area schools and singing/playing violin in the band Victor and the Callers.

As an orchestral musician, Taylor has performed in leadership positions for the American Youth Symphony, SFJAZZ, Berkeley Symphony, Merced Symphony, SF Academy Orchestra, and Berkeley Chorus, and has served as a section member with the San Francisco Symphony, as well as Modesto, Sequoia, Vallejo, and California Symphonies. Taylor has performed with bands including Journey and Trans Siberian Orchestra in 2022 and 2023 respectively, and has performed at GDC alongside Austin Wintory and Troy Baker during the 2024 Main Stage Concert. Taylor has also played violin and viola alongside a wide range of musicians including Moein, Dariyush, Matteo Bocelli, Patti Austin, Teddy Swims, Chris Potter, Los Rakas, Oscar Cortez, and Snow Tha Product. Taylor has performed in halls across the country, including Carnegie Hall, the Walt Disney Concert Hall, Segerstrom Center for the Arts, the Kennedy Center, and the Davies Symphony Hall, and has performed in cities including Oxford, Paris, Edinburgh, Prague, and Hamburg.

Taylor has appeared as both a violin and viola soloist with Seraphim Symphony, where she performed at the XXX London Olympic Games, the UK’s Bristol Cathedral, and France’s Chambord Castle and La Madeleine Cathedral. As a chamber musician, Taylor served as the violist of Bob Cole Conservatory of Music’s University String Quartet, the most prestigious group at the school. She also led the school’s chamber orchestra in multiple performances throughout Germany, serving as both the solo and principal violist. Taylor also had the wonderful opportunity to serve as the principal violist of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music’s Baroque Chamber Ensemble for her duration at the school, where she performed on a period instrument. She has also participated in the Mendocino Music Festival as an Emerging Artist in 2018, as well as a Young Fellows faculty member for Palo Alto Chamber Orchestra in 2021 and 2022, where she spent two weeks educating and performing alongside 7th-12th grade musicians. As a studio musician, Taylor has recording credits for musical artists including Tribal Seeds and Victor Lin, as well as for the short film “Bruised” by Rok Won Hwang and Samantha Tu.

Taylor earned her Bachelor of Music in Viola Performance from California State University, Long Beach in 2019, where she studied with Dr. Jason Bonham and Dr. Moni Simeonov. While at CSULB, Taylor also spent two years in the Music Education department, where she shadowed various elementary, middle, and high school educators throughout the Long Beach Unified School District and took courses to further develop her teaching methods. Employing these methods, Taylor worked as an orchestra strings coach/teacher for Villa Park High School for the (phone number hidden)9 school year, and a strings chamber coach for East Whittier Middle School from (phone number hidden)9. Taylor earned her Master of Music in Viola Performance from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music in 2021, where she studied with Mr. Jonathan Vinocour, the principal violist of the San Francisco Symphony. While at SFCM, Taylor had the opportunity to receive masterclasses and lessons from members of the Telegraph Quartet, Matthew Young, Teng Li, and Jessica Bodner.

Taylor is ready to play for you! With extensive experience performing both viola and violin in weddings, corporate events, private parties, studios, arenas, symphony halls and more, she will bring the passion and expertise needed that will make your event truly special.