Kristina Nakagawa

executive Artistic Director

Choirs: Allegro, Presto

Kristina Nakagawa joined Vivace Youth Chorus as its second artistic director in December 2020, and assumed the role of Executive Artistic Director in June 2023. She is also the founding artistic director of Resounding Achord, an adult mixed-voice auditioned community choir in San José. Previously, Kristina directed the choirs at Saratoga High School and St. Francis Episcopal Church in Willow Glen, served as the Interim Director of Choral Activities at San José State University in Spring 2019, and taught 7th–12th grade music at Pinewood School in Los Altos Hills. Her choirs consistently received superior rankings at California Music Educator Association festivals and Gold awards at Heritage Festivals. She has prepared choirs for the Fauré Requiem, John Rutter's Gloria, Orff's Carmina Burana, the Mozart Requiem, Hadyn's Lord Nelson Mass, and the Bernstein Mass.

Ms. Nakagawa sang and served as the Assistant Conductor for The Choral Project from 2005 to 2012. During this time, The Choral Project won First Prize at the 2007 California International Choral Festival in San Luis Obispo and was invited to participate in the 2011 International Concorso Corale in Tolosa, Spain. She can be heard on their recordings Winter, One is the All, Tell the World, and Yuletide.

As a soloist, Ms. Nakagawa has performed cabaret shows at Society Cabaret in San Francisco and San José, Theatre on San Pedro Square in San José, and also at Limelight Theatre in Gilroy. She was featured in the San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus production of Enchantingly Wicked with Stephen Schwartz at Davies Symphony Hall and has performed with Tabard Theatre, Foothill Musical Theatre, South Bay Musical Theatre, and the Silicon Valley Gay Men’s Chorus.

Ms. Nakagawa graduated in 2001 with a degree in vocal performance from UC Irvine, studying with Mahlon Schanzenbach and Joséph Husti. She received her master’s degree in choral conducting from San José State University in 2005 with Dr. Charlene Archibeque, and has additional training in the Kodály method from Holy Names University. She is an active member of the American Choral Directors Association, California Music Educators Association, Organization of American Kodály Educators, and Chorus America and has served in various roles on the California Choral Directors Association board since 2015. Kristina and her husband Ryan are the proud parents of a Vivace Youth Chorus student.