Vietnamese guitar talent, 2 master's degrees, Yale University

In May 2025, Hoang Long received his second master's degree from the prestigious Ivy League school. Previously, in May 2024, Long graduated with his first master's degree from the same school. The Vietnamese man is currently working as a teaching assistant at Yale University before continuing to pursue his doctorate.

The world's top school always has challenges and strict requirements. Long overcame every program with motivation, love, determination and discipline for music . "The master's program at Yale is not graded because it is a professional artist training program, but the program is quite heavy. If you don't have real passion, it will be difficult for candidates to pass," Long said.

Long said that his path was filled with luck, and that when he entered college and graduate school, other full scholarships were opened to help with his finances. In both master’s programs, Long successfully applied for scholarships from the school, exempting him from tuition fees, food, and accommodation.

Hoang Long performs at Yale School of Music's Sprague Hall in April 2025.

Ngo Hoang Long, born in 2000 in Hanoi , has a father and mother who are Natural Science teachers. His family has no musical tradition, but Long showed his talent for playing the guitar at the age of 8, choosing to study at the Children's Palace after hearing his father play the guitar.

At the age of 9, Long was valedictorian of Hanoi College of Arts (2009), valedictorian of Vietnam National Academy of Music (2013). Long won First Prize in Group A Guitar Solo at the Guitar Melody Festival (2009), Second Prize in the first Hanoi Open Guitar Competition (nationwide) in 2012 (Certificate of Merit from the Ministry of Culture), and the title of "Young Talent" of Hanoi College of Arts in 2013.

His passion and foreign language ability helped Long to study abroad in the US, even though his family's finances were not very good. In 2015, Ngo Hoang Long received a scholarship to study at Interlochen Arts Academy (USA), for high school students.

In early May 2022, Long graduated with a Bachelor of Music from the University of North Carolina School of the Arts (UNCSA). Even before graduating, the Vietnamese male student "won a ticket" to Yale School of Music - part of Yale University, USA with a scholarship worth about 42,000 USD/year.

After 2 years of completing his first master's degree "Master of Music in Guitar" at Yale, Long continued to successfully conquer the "Master of Musical Arts" scholarship and only 1 more year to get his second master's degree. The young man said that the second master's degree is the perfect supplement to help him study more broadly about performance, teaching music, and performance techniques after having studied in depth about guitar.

The master’s program at Yale is quite demanding because there are many performances each year, at least 2 major performances each semester. Long revealed that an effective learning method is to create tasks that can be completed in 2 minutes called the “Two Minute Rule”.

A difficult piece of music, Long may have to study for a week, even a month, so it is easy to get distracted. The student divides the music into small tasks, each step is completed in 2 minutes, so he cannot find a reason to procrastinate. This rule is also very good in teaching when giving beginners many small, simple tasks.

Long said that the Guitar Master's program has only 8 people, in total at Yale School of Music there are about 200 artists studying for a Master's degree. Each year, teachers list about 20 classes with a variety of topics, students can choose their own classes and each class has a maximum of only about 20 students. The small class size allows Long and his international friends to bond closely, everyone often plays the guitar together, practices music and gives direct feedback to quickly improve weaknesses.

Long with professor and friends at the "Master of Music in Guitar" master class at Yale.

Combining theory with practice and performance, Hoang Long took full advantage of all the support from the school. In the summer of 2024, Long wrote a proposal program and received funding from Yale for the group to go to Thailand and Vietnam to perform and attend guitar festivals.

Long joked that he did not have to convince much because “Yale is rich, with enough resources for students to develop their talents.” What surprised Long a bit was that he was granted funding without having to ask for it.

Looking back on his journey to conquer two prestigious master's degrees at Yale University, Long believes that he is lucky because his passion and talent are placed in an artistic environment with a long history and huge resources such as libraries, academic support, finance and gathering of talents from all over the world.

Professor Benjamin Verdery, Guitar Professor at Yale School of Music, said that at his master's graduation performance, Long played two guitar masterpieces, Bach's majestic Chaconne and Britten's Nocturnal. The professor praised Long for his courage and determination to play such a difficult concert program.

“Long is a natural performer. He plays with enough passion to light up a city,” said teacher Benjamin Verdery.

Hoang Long has won dozens of art scholarship offers throughout his journey pursuing his passion for guitar.

Long is currently working as a full-time music teaching assistant at Yale, continuing a part-time job he had while pursuing his master’s degree. Long sees this as a “gap year” to rest after 20 years of continuous study.

“ Next year I want to compose more music and study different performance styles. I also want to practice for different competitions in the US before going on to study for a PhD, ” Long said.

Mr. Ngo Quy Nghia, Long's father, said that Long has an excellent memory and can play two hours of music without looking at the sheet music. Long is always kind, tolerant, caring, and open-minded. Long lives with a purpose, with detailed plans for each day, each week, each month, and the long term. For example, when entering Yale, Long prepared for the interview to stay and contribute and learn.

Le Thu

Source: https://vtcnews.vn/tai-nang-guitar-viet-tot-nghiep-hai-bang-mach-si-o-dai-hoc-danh-tieng-cua-my-ar969158.html