Quoc Nguyen

I met Christopher on November 26 last year.  It was my mother’s 79th birthday and she was visiting from Florida.  She saw that Melinda O’Neal, Professor Emerita of Music at Dartmouth College would be presenting a lecture/concert about Berlioz at Cadogan Hall.  Professor O’Neal gave a shout out to her former student Christopher Quentin.  During…

Qualche anno fa, Zeke era nel Salento per lavoro e io, che ero dai miei, lo invita a casa in occasione della festa patronale e lo presentai ai miei genitori e ai miei amici: feci un figurone, lui conquistò tutti. Mio padre, sbalordito dalla sua conoscenza della storia italiana, per giorni non fatto altro che…

Dear Zeke, I woke up yesterday to the devastating news that you had passed. I have spent the better part of the morning trying to wrap my mind around that fact; I still don’t understand it. It is impossible to imagine a world without you in it. And while I don’t have words, I do…

I met Zeke in the early 2000s at New England Music Camp. We swam together in “swim for fit” (I was terrible and he was kind and encouraging) and traded jokes in orchestra (the viola section sat just below the oboes – mostly the jokes were about burning violas or burning oboes). I kept in…

Zeke, you were so accomplished and so worldly, and you wanted to share all the excitement and joy you found in the world with everyone you met.  You brought all of who you were to every interaction.  Your raised eyebrow could be inviting and devastating in equal measure – you were beyond measure.  In the…