５歳より、天理教音楽研究会でヴァイオリンを岩谷悠子、東儀祐二各氏に師事。ＭＢＳこども音楽コンクール重奏の部、文部大臣賞受賞。天理教いちれつ会派遣 生として１８歳で渡米。ヴィオラに転向。その年にフィッシュオフ全米室内楽コンクール第１位受賞。ミシ ガン州立大学で、ロバート・ダン、イーフー・ワン、松田洋子各氏に師事。ライス大学修士課程で、マーサ・キャッツ、ウェイン・ブルックス、ポール・キャッ ツ各氏に師事。各大学からの全額スカラシップはもとより、ライス大学より学術においての数々の賞を受賞 する。タングルウッド音楽祭に３年連続で招待され、オーケストラの首席を務めるかたわら、小澤征爾氏指揮でヨーヨー・マ氏とＲ. シュトラウスのドン・キホーテを共演。同音楽祭よりヘンリ・コーン記念賞を受賞。使用楽器は、ムース・アンド・ムース。
2000年ボロメーオ弦楽四重奏団ヴィオラ奏者に就任以来、世界各地において900回以上のコンサートに出演。同弦楽四重奏団はその国際的な活躍が評価さ れ、これまでニューヨーク・リンカーンセンターよりマーティン・E・シーガル賞、エヴリー・フィッシャーキャリアグラント、セント・ボトルフ賞などを受賞 している。1989年毎日学生音楽コンクール室内楽部門第一位、1991年全日本室内楽コンクール第一位。アメリカではフィショフ・ナショナル室内楽コン クール・ジュニア部門優勝、タングルウッド音楽祭ではヘンリー・コーン記念賞を授与される。現在、ニューイングランド音楽院、タオス音楽院、天理教音楽研 究会でも教鞭をとる。
Mai Motobuchi has earned distinction as a soloist , chamber musician and teacher in the United States and her native Japan. as a soloist, she has performed with such well-known artists as Yo-Yo Ma and Seiji Ozawa. Ms. Motobuchiﾕs career in chamber music has taken her around the world performing at the finest concert halls in North and South America, Europe, and Asia. She has toured with the Colorado String Quartet during their 1999-2000 season. Since joining the Borromeo String Quartet in 2000, she has collaborated with the worldﾕs finest musicians, including, Leon Fleischer, Gary Graffman, Bernard Greenhouse, Kim Kashkashian, Midori, David Shifrin, Richard Stoltzman, and Dawn Upshaw.
In addition to her active performing career, Ms. Motobuchi is in demand as a teacher on two continents, serving on the Viola and Chamber Music faculty at both the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, Massachusetts and at the Tenrikyo Institute of Music in Tenri, Japan. A gifted teacher, she taught viola, violin and chamber music to special talented students in the preparatory division at Rice University, and since 1998 has enjoyed the distinction of having each of her students in Japan named as First Prize recipients in the All Japan MBS Youth Music Competition at every level.
Ms. Motobuchi gained recognition in Japan as first prize winner in the 1989 All Japan MBS Youth Music Competition, and in the 1990 and 1991 All Japan Ensemble Competition. Upon coming to the United States, she won the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition (Junior Division), the Henri Kohn Memorial Award from the Tanglewood Music Center, and, as a student at Rice University, received the John and Sally Cox Award, the E. Dell Butcher Award, and the Willie Muery Award, in addition to being named an Alice Pratt Brown Scholar.
Born in Tokyo, Japan, Mai Motobuchi started playing violin at age five. Upon receiving her Diploma from Tenrikyo Institute of Music in Japan, she was awarded full scholarships to study viola at Michigan State University, where she received her Bachelor of Music, and Rice University in Houston, where she earned her Master of Music. She followed with an advanced performance diploma from Internationale Meisterkurze Koblenz in Koblenz, Germany. Ms. Motobuchiﾕs teachers have included Robert Dan, Martha Strongin Katz, Paul Katz, and Yoko Washio Iwatani.
Ms. Motobuchi plays a Moes and Moes viola, dated 1988.