Colburn Artists is a unique in-house management program for Colburn students on the cusp of professional careers. Created in order to provide guidance and support during the critical transition from the conservatory environment to a performance career, the Colburn Artists program is designed to prepare students to work with industry leaders and artist managers. In a supportive atmosphere linked closely with their individual performance studies, they receive personalized career advice and training, including guidance on building relationships with presenters, orchestras, and world-class musicians; developing repertoire; interview preparation; and creating a polished image and online presence.
Ray Ushikubo, Violin and Piano
Known for his “disciplined focus and clarity… and marvelous dynamic nuance” (Arts Knoxville), Ray Ushikubo is a twenty-one-year-old Japanese-American pianist and violinist who has performed on the stages of Carnegie Hall and Walt Disney Concert Hall, and appeared on NBC’s The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. Ushikubo made his orchestral debut at age ten with the Young Musicians Foundation Orchestra in Los Angeles’s Dorothy Chandler Pavilion with Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 1 alongside conductor Teddy Abrams. A recipient of the prestigious Davidson Fellow Laureate Award in 2014, Ushikubo was named a Young Steinway Artist and won the 2017 Hilton Head International Piano Competition and the 2016 Piano Concerto Competition at the Aspen Music Festival and School. Ushikubo was featured as a Young Artist-in-Residence of the national radio broadcast Performance Today with host Fred Child and he has been featured on NPR’s From the Top where he was named a Jack Kent Cooke Young Artist.
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Ryota Yamazaki, Piano
Japanese pianist Ryota Yamazaki is emerging as one of this generation’s finest musicians, both sensitive and commanding at the keyboard. A recent third prize and junior jury prize winner of the 64th Busoni International Piano Competition, Yamazaki’s prowess and “his flawless technique produced some fine pianistic fireworks” (Cleveland Classical). Yamazaki has performed with orchestras all over the world, performing Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2 with conductor Jahja Ling and the Cleveland Orchestra, Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No. 3 with Chikara Iwamoto and the Japan Philharmonic Orchestra and again with Takeshi Oi and the Tokyo City Philharmonic Orchestra, Liszt’s Piano Concerto No.1 with Joseph Stepec and the Hawaii Symphony Orchestra, and Chopin’s Piano Concerto No. 1 with Daiki Omori and the Virtuoso Youth Orchestra, among others.
Aleksandra Melaniuk, Conductor
Polish conductor Aleksandra Melaniuk is one of the leading young conductors of her generation. She has worked with the London Symphony Orchestra as a semi-finalist of the 17th Donatella Flick Conducting Competition, and is one of the winners of the 2023 Das Kritische Orchester, led by Forum Dirigieren. Raised between Warsaw and Edinburgh, Melaniuk is currently a Britten-Pears Young Artist for the 2023–24 season and a Salonen Fellow in the Negaunee Conducting Program at Colburn Conservatory and the San Francisco Symphony, where she will assist Esa-Pekka Salonen internationally.
Despite her young age, Melaniuk has already conducted numerous orchestras in Europe, including the Flanders Symphony Orchestra, Stavanger Symfoniorkester, Baltic Sea Philharmonic, Lithuanian State Symphony Orchestra, Moravska Filharmonie Olomouc, Lower Silesian Philharmonic Orchestra or the Orchestra of the Grand Theatre in Poznan. She made her professional debut with the Silesian Philharmonic in their ‘For the Young’ concert series.
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Mert Yalniz, Conductor
Turkish-German conductor, pianist, and composer Mert Yalniz has been described as “extremely individual, charismatic and convincing” (Osthessen News), his piano playing as “passionate, enthusiastic and highly virtuosic” (Braunschweig Newspaper), and his compositions as a “statement from the new generation” (Heidelberger Frühling). This season, Yalniz will make his debut with the NDR Radiophilharmonie in Hanover, where he will conduct Beethoven’s Triple Concerto with pianist Igor Levit, Weber‘s Clarinet Concertino, Chausson‘s Poème, and Wagner‘s Wesendonck Lieder. Yalniz will also become a Salonen Fellow in the Negaunee Conducting Program at the Colburn School and on the conducting staff of the San Francisco Symphony, assisting Esa-Pekka Salonen internationally.
Recent performances include Grieg’s Piano Concerto with the Uniorchester Leibniz and Braunschweiger Kammerorchester; Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 2 with the Göttinger Symphonieorchester and Deutsches Juristenorchester, Bach’s Concerto in D Minor and Joaquín Turina’s Rapsodia Sinfonica with the Beethoven Orchester Hessen, and Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue with the chamber orchestra La Tempesta.
Trio Azura was founded in 2022 at the Colburn Conservatory of Music in Los Angeles, California. The ensemble consists of Canadian violinist Duncan McDougall, South Korean cellist Yejin Hong, and Chinese pianist Yanfeng (Tony) Bai. Beginning in August 2025, they will be the Ensemble in Residence and Colburn Artists at the Colburn School, studying under esteemed faculty members Jonathan Brown, Fabio Bidini, Martin Beaver, and Clive Greensmith.
The Trio won the Grand Prize and Gold Medal at the 51st Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition. In addition, they received the Lift Every Voice Prize for the best performance of a work by an underrepresented composer, as well as the Horszowski Trio Prize. They are also prize winners at the Schoenfeld International String Competition in Harbin, China. In 2023, Trio Azura took part in the Accademia Musicale Chigiana in Siena, Italy, where they were awarded the “Rotary Club Siena” prize and performed in recital with renowned cellist Clive Greensmith. They have participated in masterclasses with internationally acclaimed artists, such as Jean-Yves Thibaudet, Orion Weiss, Pedja Mužijević, Arnaud Sussman, Nicholas Tzavaras, and the Horszowski Trio.
During the 2024-25 season, Trio Azura completed their Fischoff Double Gold Tour across the US Midwest, where they gave workshops and masterclasses for over 500 middle school and high school students in Indiana and Michigan. They also undertook a week-long residency at the American University of Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates, which was a unique opportunity for cultural exchange with Arabic poets. Other season highlights included appearances at the Chamber Music American National conference, La Jolla Music Society, The Music Guild, Friends of Chamber Music of Troy, New York, a full Baroque recital at the Boston Court in Pasadena, Emerging Artists at the Mimir Festival in Fort Worth, and a recital tour at the Emilia Romagna Festival in Italy.
Trio Azura’s upcoming engagements in 2025-2026 season include appearances at the Brisbane Festival in Australia, Nevada Chamber Music Festival, South Bay Chamber Music Society, Pelican Chamber Concerts, and the Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel in Belgium.
Buy the Calidore String Quartet’s debut album produced by the Colburn School
To find out how to be a part of the Colburn Artists program, speak with your applied faculty.
For further information about the Colburn Artists program and to inquire about artist availability, please contact Nick Gianopoulos at ngianopoulos@colburnschool.edu.