Vivian Kung is a Taiwanese American tuba player, music educator, and aspiring crazy cat lady. Ms. Kung currently serves as the principal tuba of Symphony in C, and is the first Asian woman to hold the position. She is also the inaugural Yaffe fellow for the Yale Music in Schools Initiative for 2022-2023.

Vivian has been the recipient of various solo competition awards. Ms. Kung is a two time prize winner in the Susan Slaughter tuba competition at the International Women's Brass Conference. While studying in Los Angeles, she was a winner in the brass division of the 37th Pasadena Showcase House Instrumental competition. In 2019, Ms. Kung received first place in the Music Teacher's National Association brass division, placing first out of an initial 600 competitors. In 2018, she received first place in the Northwestern Tuba and Euphonium conference Young Artist solo competition.

Ms. Kung has been seen on stage with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Symphony in C, Symphoria Orchestra, Hudson Valley Philharmonic, American Youth Symphony, The Orchestra Now, New Haven Symphony Orchestra, Chromatic Brass Collective and on stage at Warner Bros. Studios. She has also performed with the Blue Devils Drum and Bugle Corps, where she secured a contract at the age of 17 and winning a world championship at 19.

Ms. Kung is an avid chamber musician, and attended the 2019 Aspen Music Festival Quintet Seminar and 2022 Norfolk Chamber Music Festival. Her quintet, Amo Brass, was a finalist in the 2023 Plowman Chamber Music Competition and Fischoff Chamber Music Competition.

Vivian received training at the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music, where she studied with Aubrey Foard. She graduated with Latin honors and three degrees in music education, tuba performance, and Asian American studies. In 2022, Ms. Kung received her masters from the Yale School of Music, where she studied Carol Jantsch.

In addition to her musical pursuits, Ms. Kung is an avid proponent of equity in classical music. She previously served as a representative on the Yale Graduate and Professional Student Senate and serves on the Diversity and Inclusion board, where she worked to implement more equitable measures and actions for student life at Yale University. She also worked on the editorial staff of the Tuba Euphonium Social Justice Initiative (TESJI) newsletter, where she worked to curate a quarterly newsletter for the tuba euphonium community. Vivian is an active member of the Chromatic Brass Collective, an organization that celebrates, performs, mentors, and educates to increase visibility for racially/ethnically underrepresented women & gender non conforming people in music. 

In her free time, you can find Vivi petting her cats, reading a book with unnatural speed, and watching cooking shows on Netflix.