In addition to her active performing career, Ms. Motobuchi is in demand as a teacher on two continents, serving on the faculty at both the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, Massachusetts and at the Tenrikyo Institute of Music in Tenri, Japan. Since 1998, her chamber music students in Japan have repeatedly been chosen as First Prize winners in the All Japan MBS Youth Music Competition.

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 from 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. After 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 at Rice University in Houston, where she earned her Master of Music. Ms. Motobuchi's teachers have included Robert Dan, Martha Strongin Katz, Paul Katz, Yuko Washio Iwatani, and Yoko Matsuda.