Student Accomplishments 2024–25

Conservatory

Yanfeng (Tony) Bai, piano, won the Grand Prize at the Valencia International Performing Arts Summer Festival.

Gabriel Crist, piano, won the Grand Prize at the Malaga International Piano Festival in the 18+ category, and was selected as a winner of the Concerto Competition at the Malaga International Piano Festival and performed Schumann’s

Piano Concerto with the Malaga Symphony Orchestra.

SoJung Kim, bass, won the position of Associate Principal Bass in the San Francisco Ballet.

Sze Hei (Victor) Lee, double bass, won a Fellowship with the Hyogo Performing Arts Center Orchestra.

Gracie Potter, trombone, won Principal Trombone in the Richmond Symphony.

Yoomin Seo (alumna ’23), violin, was appointed concertmaster of the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra and has begun her first season with the group.

Yu-Ping Tsai, violin, won Associate Concertmaster with the Jacksonville Symphony.

Christy Wu, piano, won first prize at the Valencia International Performing Arts Summer Festival, as well as the Grand Prize at the Malaga International Piano Festival in the 18+ category.

Emily Wu, piano, was selected as a winner of the Concerto Competition at the Malaga International Piano Festival and performed Chopin’s Piano Concerto No. 2 with the Malaga Symphony Orchestra.

Music Academy

Trudl Zipper Dance Institute

This year’s 2023-24 Dance Academy students will continue their training at top dance programs nationally and internationally, including:

• Pacific Northwest Ballet School, Seattle
• Arts Umbrella, Vancouver
• Nevada Ballet Theatre, Las Vegas
• Canada’s National Ballet School, Toronto
• Indiana University Jacobs School of Music (Ballet), Bloomington
• School of American Ballet, New York
• Charlotte Ballet, Charlotte
• English National Ballet School, London

Chloe Oronoz, dance, is currently performing George Balanchine’s Serenade with LA Ballet.

Community School

See more student accomplishments

2023–24 Student Accomplishments

2022-23 Student Accomplishments

Celebrating 75 years: Jeffrey Lavner Looks Back on Life at Colburn

Ask Jeffrey Lavner, the former chair of the Piano Department at the Community School of Performing Arts, about his earliest memories of the Colburn School, and he colorfully recalls the warehouse facility on the University of Southern California (USC) campus in the early 1980s. He remembers the Knabe pianos and teaching during hot summer days without air conditioning. He also vividly recollects how much the School had accomplished by the time he joined the faculty in 1981 after completing his Master of Music degree from USC.  

“I had taught at other neighborhood music schools in other cities, but they were nothing like Colburn. It was already a well-established school with a respected reputation and famous alumni, such as Michael Tilson Thomas,” says Lavner.  

Those experiences set the stage for Lavner’s 40-plus-year career at Colburn. He’s had a front-row seat to the many transformations the School has undergone, growing from classrooms in a warehouse to breaking ground on the Colburn Center this year. Although, he sometimes wondered whether the dream of moving off the USC campus would come to fruition.  

“Truthfully, I really never thought they would build the new building on Grand at that time. I didn’t believe the parking lot across the street would be built in my lifetime,” admits Lavner.  

In 1989, after eight years of teaching, he moved on, but never completely stepped away. Lavner maintained his relationships with colleagues and occasionally was asked to teach Colburn students who were financially disadvantaged, thus carrying on the School’s mission of access to excellence for all.  

 Then he saw the finished Grand Avenue building.  

“I was invited back to see it and I was blown away. I asked, ‘Will you take me back?’” he says. “Here, we have state-of-the-art pianos—it’s amazing to hear a beautifully tuned piano. Also all three performance halls are world-class, which is another feather in the School’s cap. There’s also more communal space like the café and the plaza, which encourages camaraderie.  

“I appreciate the vision of those steering these efforts. It’s really amazing what Colburn has built. Plus, I’m looking forward to the new performance halls in the Colburn Center,” Lavner says. 

Not only did he rejoin the Community School faculty in 1999, Lavner became Piano Chair in 2005. Under his direction, the department continued to expand its offerings for students, parents, and audience members.  

The change that most impresses Lavner, however, is the ever-increasing caliber of talent.  

“Everyone who comes to Colburn is motivated, but the level of musicianship has changed. That freaks me out to this day because the jumps are amazing,” he explains. “The students are more committed now and the parents are more committed, too. We still have fun, but the kids are serious, and it’s great. It’s a blessing to have students who are so committed, and as a teacher, you couldn’t ask for anything more. What we have at Colburn cannot be replicated anywhere else.” 

Lavner, who also taught in Colburn’s Jazz program, has watched students follow successful career paths. Some of his pupils perform professionally, including jazz pianists Donald Vega, Eric Reed, and Isaac Wilson. Musician and composer Connie Han, Nicholas Méndez Del Valle, and Jonathan Lucas also attended Lavner’s studio. 

“What is as exciting for me is seeing all the students who went on to study law, medicine, and other professions. They still really love to play. Actually, they’re maniacs about it. When I see them, they just want to talk about music,” says Lavner.  

“I believe every teacher just wants their students to enjoy the music,” he adds. “Really, our job is to get them to love music so the thread keeps going to the next generations.” 

A New Era 

While Lavner no longer leads the Piano Department, he still teaches at the Community School and remains as excited about Colburn’s impact on young artists as he was back in 1981.  

“We have fantastic faculty and I have the greatest respect for all my colleagues. The new chair, Ivana Malo, will do a great job,” he says. 

Recovered Voices: Then, Now, and Tomorrow

Ten years ago, the Colburn School hosted its first symposium of the Ziering-Conlon Initiative for Recovered Voices. Established with the support of Los Angeles philanthropist Marilyn Ziering and led by Artistic Director James Conlon, the initiative was created to raise awareness of the composers whose careers and lives were tragically cut short by the Nazi regime in Europe. The two-day event included commentary by Conlon, who personally has dedicated decades to bringing the music of this almost-forgotten generation to new generations of musicians and audiences.

Since its founding, the Ziering-Conlon Initiative for Recovered Voices has become a powerful force for these composers at the Colburn School. Through performances in Southern California and around the world, writings, original video series, a Ted Talk titled “Resurrecting Forbidden Music”, classes, competitions, symposia, recordings, and more, Recovered Voices not only raises awareness among audiences but inspires young musicians to learn about the artists and return to their music throughout their career.

That emphasis on passing the music on to new generations harmoniously aligns with Colburn’s commitment to providing access to excellence in both instruction and performance opportunities. Reflecting on the success of the program, James Conlon said “I am thrilled by the enthusiasm and growing interest in the works of composers who were suppressed during the Nazi regime. Part of my purpose is to expose students to this music, so they experience playing and hearing it, and in so doing, whetting their appetites for more.”

In the past three years alone, Recovered Voices has been a part of 61 live performances in 18 cities across the US and abroad, has collaborated with 34 like-minded organizations, and has produced 26 audio/video recordings. Recovered Voices performances on YouTube have been viewed more than 100,000 times.

“The School can become a leader in exploring the music of suppressed composers because it has an amazingly talented group of musicians,” said Recovered Voices Program Director Adam Millstein, who is also a violinist and a Colburn alumnus. “These composers’ treasure of music has either been lost or rarely performed, so it feels new and fresh. For contemporary musicians, that offers a fertile ground to internalize the music. For me, it was life-changing from the moment I performed it and heard James Conlon speak about it.”

Recent Recovered Voices projects include a world premiere recording of Erwin Schulhoff’s cadenzas for Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 4 performed by Dominic Cheli and conducted by James Conlon. Erwin Schulhoff (1894–1942) was a fascinating, prolific, and multi-faceted composer who embraced a full panoply of styles and influences from his era. Another recent world premiere recording was made of “Ein Quartett-satz on the Name of Walter Arlen” by Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco, performed by Conservatory students Adam Millstein, Jason Moon, Shengyu Meng, and Nicolas Garrigues. Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco (1895-1968) was an Italian composer, pianist and writer who emigrated to the United States in 1939 and became a prolific film composer for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, writing scores for 200 Hollywood movies. Both recordings will be released online later this season.

Looking ahead, the 2024–25 season kicks off with a guest appearance by the multiple Grammy Award-nominee ARC Ensemble (Artists of The Royal Conservatory), a likeminded ensemble focused on the research and recovery of works that were suppressed and marginalized under the 20th century’s repressive regimes. Later this fall, the Calidore String Quartet performs the complete cycle of string quartets by William Korngold.

Later this season, Adam Millstein and Dominic Cheli present a duo recital of works by of exiled Austrian composers and Salonen Conducting Fellow Aleksandra Melaniuk leads an orchestral program of works by Mieczysław Weinberg (1919-1996). Despite being a friend and contemporary of Shostakovich, Weinberg’s musical genius of went unrecognized for much of the 20th century due to Soviet-Era suppression. This concert highlights three of Weinberg’s more than 150 works: a playful flute concerto, a concertino for violin and string orchestra, and a dramatic chamber symphony. These Weinberg works will also be recorded under the baton of James Conlon this season along with Franz Schreker’s “Intermezzo” performed by the Academy Virtuosi. Additionally, Recovered Voices will travel to Northern Arizona University and Vanderbilt University as well as hold a master class with the LA Jewish Symphony.

“It is impossible to return to these composers what was taken away from them in their lifetime. The only thing we can do is play their music in the present,” says Conlon. “But we can never consider the work done until a large volume of this music is no longer routinely neglected. The young musicians of today will hopefully ensure that it is played in the future and it will become a part of the canon of what we value in classical music.”

The Ziering-Conlon Initiative for Recovered Voices is grateful to LA Opera’s groundbreaking Recovered Voices project which inspired the program, and Robert Elias for many years of critical support. Recovered Voices is made possible through the generous support of Marilyn Ziering alongside the many donors who are inspired by this incredibly important work at Colburn School.

Familiar Faces in New Roles: Margaret Batjer and Janie Taylor Step Into Leadership Roles at Colburn

Advancing the Music Academy 

For nearly 10 years, Margaret Batjer has inspired Music Academy students as a teacher and director of the Academy Virtuosi, an exceptional conductorless chamber orchestra which has been featured in performances alongside major artists like Anne Akiko Meyers and Ray Chen. Now, she’ll expand on those experiences as Director of the Music Academy and will join the Conservatory of Music’s distinguished violin faculty.  

Batjer’s résumé as a highly accomplished violinist — soloing with many orchestras and an active career as a chamber musician and recording artist— provides a rich background to share with aspiring young artists.  

For over 25 years she has been concertmaster of the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, where she is also director of chamber music. Her performance and teaching experience, which also includes teaching at the USC Thornton School of Music, will assist students in preparing for the next level in their performing arts education.  

“She has a deep understanding of what exceptional young artists need at the pre-college stage of their development and her vision will undoubtedly enhance our Music Academy, solidifying its position as the foremost training ground for exceptional pre-collegiate musicians,” said Colburn President and CEO Sel Kardan.  

The Music Academy trains exceptional pre-college classical musicians from around the world for careers in music. Students benefit from a comprehensive curriculum, including private instruction, music theory and history, and enrichment studies in career development and personal presentation skills. As director, Batjer will be hands-on with the artistic and academic development of students as well as planning performances, including chamber music.  

“I am honored to assume leadership of Colburn’s world-class Music Academy and to join the exceptional string faculty in the Conservatory of Music,” said Batjer. “It is a privilege to guide and inspire young musicians within such a prestigious institution, known for its commitment to artistic excellence in music education. I look forward to continuing to foster a community where young artists can thrive and fulfill their potential in the world of classical music.” 

Taking the Lead at the Trudl Zipper Dance Institute 

Janie Taylor has curated an eclectic career. She danced for the New York City Ballet, including as soloist and principal dancer. She has performed a vast repertoire, from George Balanchine, Twyla Tharp, and Jerome Robbins to Benjamin Millepied, Peter Martins, and Justin Peck.  

In 2014, Taylor retired from NYCB and transitioned into a répetitéur role setting works at the Paris Opera Ballet as well as numerous other companies: Miami City Ballet, Joffrey Ballet, Dutch National Ballet, Ballett Dortmund, and Ballet du Rhin. She even delved into the world of costume design, assisting Christopher Wheeldon for the Fashion Forward exhibition at the Musee des Arts Decoratif in Paris.  

When Taylor chose Los Angeles as her new home base in 2016, she became rehearsal director for L.A. Dance. Fortunately, she also joined the Trudl Zipper Dance Institute as an instructor and visiting artist, guiding, influencing, and challenging students. Last year, she choreographed and premiered Contour and Flight for the Dance Academy, a rigorous pre-professional ballet training program. 

This year, she’s assuming yet another role as TZDI Artistic Director for the 2024–25 school year. As Artistic Director, she will foster a dynamic environment and shape the creative and educational direction for TZDI, including curriculum development and faculty and student recruitment. She’ll be supported by Gavin Kelley as Interim Administrative Director, who will liaise with faculty, students, parents, and staff as well as coordinate events, performances, and other TZDI initiatives. 

“We are excited to welcome Janie Taylor as Artistic Director as she continues and expands her exceptional work with our students. Her decade-long commitment to dance in LA and breadth of artistic experience made her a natural fit for this position,” said Kardan. “She joins our distinguished artistic and administrative team, including faculty chairs Kelly Ann Sloan, Denise Scheerer, and Tamsin Carlson, ensuring strong ongoing leadership for the Trudl Zipper Dance Institute.” 

“I am so honored to follow in the footsteps of such elevated artists that I looked up to as a young dancer and eventually shared the stage with. I am thrilled to become a part of this special community and look forward to shaping and growing this exciting next chapter of dance at Colburn,” said Taylor.  

Double-Take Duet

Pianist, violinist, and Colburn Conservatory of Music Artist Diploma student Ray Ushikubo excitedly welcomed the opportunity to return to the Sounding Point Academy this summer. Founded by Colburn faculty members Robert Lipsett and Fabiola Kim, the two-week in-person program offers an intensive learning experience for violin students, including technique classes, master classes, and presentation forums. Ushikubo enjoys teaching young students, helping them discover their own love of music like he did when joined the Colburn Community School of Performing Arts at age 8. He also embraced the opportunity to deliver a very personal performance. He finally fulfilled a long-held dream of performing a live duet with himself, playing both parts of Robert Schumann’s Sonata No. 1 for Violin and Piano in A Minor, Op. 105. Impossible, you say? Not when you employ technology such as the Steinway Spirio player piano.  

“The Spirio piano perfectly records my key movements, my timing, and my pedaling. The first time I heard it [play back the recording] was the first time in my life I heard myself as a third person, like a member of the audience. The sound is coming from the piano, not a speaker, so it’s a strange out-of-body experience,” says Ushikubo. 

Of course, preparing for such a duet demanded a nontraditional approach. Yes, Ushikubo rehearsed the sonata, but he had to adopt a wholly new mindset in how to play the parts. First, he perfected the piano and recorded it with the Spirio. Then he played the violin to the piano recording, and that’s when Ushikubo realized as a violinist he had to conform his playing to the musical line of the piano, and not just let his interpretation in the moment guide him. 

He explains, “There is no room for spontaneity because the piano was recorded. You have to think about timing and phrasing and balance. One by one, I mentally took notes about where I had to take more time or rush more and what I had to do to adjust to the piano recording. Every time I played it, I learned more about both parts.” 

It also challenged him to rethink his role as a pianist in ensembles and as a recital partner.  

“As a chamber musician, I’m often told to play the piano softer, and my response in the past has been to tell the strings to play louder,” he says. “This experience showed me that there is no way Violin Ray can compete with the volume of Piano Ray. I now think more about what the pianist has to understand when it’s under violin parts. 

“In fact, the experience required a lot of patience. It was interesting to learn how differently Piano Ray and Violin Ray think,” says Ushikubo. “I’ve never argued with other musicians like I did with myself. It turns out I argued quite a bit with myself throughout the process.” 

Despite such personal revelations, Ushikubo was pleased with his duet that evening in Thayer Hall.  

“The audience had the same reaction I had when I encountered in the Spirio. You’re not really believing there is not a pianist there,” he says. “It adds a new layer of how far technology has come and how cool it is to see one person play both parts. That’s the reaction I saw.” 

Ironically, Ushikubo does not consider himself a technology-oriented musician. That said, he keeps an open mind on its influence on the future of classical music. 

“That’s how music evolves. There are so many people today who still enjoy classical music, but you have to let it evolve, and that includes letting technology be incorporated when it is necessary,” he notes. 

_____ 

Special thanks to Steinway & Sons for the use of the Steinway Model D Spirio | r.

The Colburn Conservatory of Music Turns 20

The Business of Dreams 

Richard D. Colburn, the School’s benefactor, had long dreamed of a small, tuition-free conservatory where young artists pursued music at the highest level. For this conservatory to succeed and become the West Coast’s answer to schools like Curtis and Juilliard, Mr. Colburn believed faculty must lead the way. Three faculty currently teaching at the Colburn School were on his radar: Yehuda Gilad (clarinet), Ron Leonard (cello), and Robert Lipsett (violin). Their students were engaging with music at an extraordinarily high level, which profoundly moved Mr. Colburn, who had never experienced this depth of teaching when he was a young violist. “He melted,” Gilad says, reflecting on Mr. Colburn’s reaction whenever he, Leonard, and Lipsett talked about their students. “He would literally be reduced to tears hearing about my students’ successes and challenges,” says Lipsett. “I just saw that deep connection with wanting students to study great music if that was what they wanted.” 

However, Mr. Colburn wasn’t ready to bank on what his heart wanted; he was a businessman and needed to be convinced he was making the right investment. Enter Executive Director Toby Mayman who fought tirelessly alongside Dean Joseph Thayer to convince Mr. Colburn that his concept for a conservatory aligned with the School’s, and that it would be done in the best way possible. When it came to closing the deal, Gilad calls Mayman “the architect” and Thayer “the engineer.”  

Shortly after the Colburn School moved to Grand Avenue, Mr. Colburn pledged $165 million to endow a future conservatory and the Board directed Thayer to prepare a strategic plan. In fall 1998, the Board approved Thayer’s plan, whose title captured the program’s vision in simple, vivid terms: “The Colburn Conservatory: A Community of Musicians.” Thayer then assembled the Conservatory Planning Group, which included Gilad, Lipsett, Leonard, and theory faculty Warren Spaeth. The five met weekly to discuss their vision for the Colburn Conservatory of Music. “There was a common purpose between all of us who were working to put it together,” Leonard shares. 

Founding faculty member Yehuda Gilad with Mstislav Rostropovich.

Mission and Philosophy 

The foundational principles of the Conservatory fall into the following four categories.    

1. Faculty

Faculty are the nucleus of the Conservatory’s teaching model: they are directly responsible for their students’ artistic growth. Their dedication to teaching is paramount, as is their consistent presence on campus, which brings the opportunity to understand their students holistically, not just how they are in lessons and performances. By establishing resident faculty as the standard, the Conservatory diverges from teaching models common to other conservatories, where faculty jump from school to school, often week to week, to teach students.  

With few exceptions, there is only one faculty member per instrument, so it is crucial faculty work well in a small team and believe in the Conservatory’s mission. “It is important,” Leonard recalls, “that they really want to be a member of the faculty of this particular school.”  

About the faculty, Mayman adds: “They are devoted to the wellbeing of the Conservatory as a whole. The faculty are treasures as teachers and human beings.” 

2. Full Scholarships 

Conservatory students receive free tuition, room, and board—the goal being to remove financial barriers and increase accessibility. The endowed gift from Mr. Colburn, with additional support from the School’s community, allows students to focus on their education, not school bills. 

The Conservatory’s independence from tuition income directly affects other aspects of the program. As Thayer explains, “Most music schools in the U.S. admit far more students than Colburn, in part to generate tuition. The Colburn Conservatory is based on a non-tuition revenue concept, which allows maximum performance opportunities for all students, a great deal of flexibility in everything that we do, and extraordinary selectivity in terms of standards for acceptance.”    

3. Student Population and Size 

The target size of the Conservatory is small: keeping studio numbers tight creates more performance and learning opportunities for students across the board. For example, as Thayer mentions earlier, orchestral students routinely play in each concert cycle. 

The residence hall, a huge draw for recruiting students, had always been on the table, but it wasn’t a reality until funds were secured for the Olive Street Building. Anecdotally, what convinced Mr. Colburn to support a residence hall in the new building was hearing that students would lose precious practice time commuting to/from campus. 

4. Performance Curriculum 

The Conservatory curriculum is designed to prepare students for careers as working musicians. “We cater to the needs of young performers,” Gilad shares, “without overburdening them with classes unrelated to their music studies.” Performance opportunities—including orchestra concerts, chamber forums, and masterclasses—therefore take center stage. Performance Forum, the weekly recital series where Conservatory students perform solo and chamber works for the School’s community, has been around since the very beginning. The inspiration for Performance Forum came from Lipsett, who spent summers as a young violinist at Meadowmount, where Ivan Galamian curated weekly concerts. “I saw how powerful and motivating it was for students to hear their colleagues,” Lipsett says.  

Founding faculty member Bob Lipsett in a lesson with 2013 Conservatory graduate Elicia Silverstein.

When Lipsett brought the idea of Performance Forum to the faculty, they all recognized that if the concert were to become a mainstay of the Conservatory, the level of playing on stage would consistently need to be at a high level. “For those who perform,” Lipsett explains, “it is as daunting as it gets because you’re playing for an audience who are all musicians. Their experience in Forum really prepares them for performing in the outside world.”   

A Conservatory is Born 

In fall 2003, the Colburn Conservatory of Music was official. “There was a pretty big buzz about this new school,” Thayer remembers.  

Although hundreds auditioned in the early years, the plan was to enroll small and grow gradually. In 2003, 15 students were offered a spot and all 15 accepted. There were 33 students in the second year and then 56 in the third. By 2006, the Conservatory had a full orchestra, which debuted at Walt Disney Concert Hall. In 2007, the new Olive Street Building was up and running, and became the locus of Conservatory activities. Boasting Thayer Hall, the Café, a twelve-story dormitory, and sixty practice rooms and teaching studios, everything about the Olive Street Building was designed with acoustics, aesthetics, and function in mind. Reflecting on teaching in the new building, Leonard says: “All the years I was there, it felt good to be there.”  

Present Day 

Twenty years in, the Conservatory still operates with a mission to provide exceptional instruction and performance opportunities to young artists. The teaching model and rigorous criteria for the faculty remain the backbone of the program.  

Founding faculty member Ron Leonard with students on campus.

Many of the classes that existed in 2003 are part of the curriculum today. Importantly, however, the Conservatory has grown a larger footprint in the community. With 2018’s creation of the Center for Innovation and Community Impact, Conservatory students have greater outreach and advocacy opportunities. Colburn’s robust Philanthropy department provides pathways for students and supporters of the School to share their love of music. Most recently, construction began on a Frank Gehry-designed campus expansion to include five dance studios and the 1,000-seat concert hall named for Terri and Jerry Kohl, which will provide a home for the Conservatory’s orchestra and encourage collaboration and interdisciplinary educational partnerships. 

Perhaps Lipsett sums up the founding and development of the Conservatory best: “It’s a great school because of the faculty, the students, and the administration. And, in the end, that’s what Richard Colburn understood.” 

The Last Repair Shop and Colburn Students Shine Bright at the Oscars

On a Saturday in February, Ismerai Calcaneo Lopez, a junior at Roosevelt High School and saxophone student at the Colburn Community School of Performing Arts (CSPA), joined a group of friends to clean out a garage as an odd job. There was nothing out of the ordinary about the afternoon, until she received a text message saying, “Congrats! You’re going to the Oscars.”  

Calcaneo Lopez was one of several Colburn students featured in The Last Repair Shop, which won this year’s Academy Award for Best Documentary—Short Film. Community School students Dominic An, Genesis Garay, Esteban Lindo, and Amanda Nova were also featured in the film.   

“I’m still amazed,” she says. “I remember being a fifth grader in the rooms of Colburn and Dr. John Hallberg teaching me ‘Mary Had a Little Lamb,’ and then here I was at the Academy Awards. It was crazy.” 

The Last Repair Shop was directed and produced by Kris Bowers and Ben Proudfoot, and co-distributed by LA Times Studios and Searchlight. It tells the story of four employees of the Los Angeles Unified School District’s (LAUSD) musical instrument repair program. For 65 years, LAUSD artisan technicians have repaired thousands of horns, violins, cellos, woodwinds, percussion instruments, pianos, and more, all at no cost to students. Bowers, a CSPA alum and Grammy-nominated composer and pianist, was one of those students. 

“I spent every moment I could with the school’s piano. There, I found a safe place, and I found my voice. Those were the foundational moments that propelled me into the school band. To Juilliard. To the Oscars,” he penned in a letter to The Los Angeles Times last November. “The one person I never got to meet was the man who tuned that school piano.” 

That changed when he and Proudfoot met the shop’s supervisor, Steve Bagmanyan, to discuss their project. It turns out, Bagmanyan was that piano tuner years ago.  

“When I stepped inside the Los Angeles Unified School District’s central instrument shop four years ago, I was surrounded by incredible cinematic imagery: cascading ribbons of sawdust, blazing torches soldering brass, the grand choreography of the thousands of tiny pieces that magically coalesce inside a piano. I expected that. But what I didn’t expect was that every one of the technicians’ life stories would break my heart and put it back together again,” Bowers wrote. 

Indeed, the filmmakers discovered music has impacted each technician’s life in profound and personal ways. And now, they find satisfaction by enabling new generations of artists to experience the myriad benefits of playing an instrument. The Last Repair Shop delivers on that note, too. 

“I‘ve always been a kid who gets distracted easily,” says Calcaneo Lopez, who has been attending Colburn for seven years. “When I got the opportunity to play the alto sax, I had something to focus on. I learned time management. I learned more discipline. When playing music, you have to be on time, be presentable, and do the best you can.” 

“Music is a big part of my life. I listen to it every day and it helps me get through my life. It also makes me feel like I’m part of a community,” adds Dominic An, a Community School violin student who was also featured in the documentary.  

The Colburn students in the documentary were recommended by Susan Cook, Dean of the Community School. They auditioned for Bowers and Proudfoot via Zoom during the pandemic. Months later some of them received an invitation to be interviewed and filmed in Colburn’s Zipper Hall. Months after that, they were asked to perform with the LAUSD Alumni band to record a song written by Bowers for the film’s score.  

“That was a wonderful experience, to interact with the composer and be a part of history,” says An. 

Of course, one of the pinnacle moments for Calcaneo Lopez was attending the 96th Academy Awards ceremony on March 10th. While most stars arrive at the event via limousines, she and the other cast members drove up to the red carpet in a traditional yellow school bus.  

“We were representing who we are. We were representing our community and what the film meant to us,” says Calcaneo Lopez. 

And for this saxophonist, being a part of The Last Repair Shop has meant gaining a greater respect for the people music has brought into her life.  

“The whole experience helped me see Colburn School from another point of view,” she explains. “I’m grateful Colburn is not just a music school, but a family you create.” 

The Last Repair Shop is available for viewing on Disney+ and at latimes.com .

The Colburn Center is Ready for Groundbreaking

The Colburn Center is Ready for Groundbreaking 

After years of dreaming, planning, and designing, the Colburn School is ready to break ground on the new Frank Gehry-designed Colburn Center, a 100,000 square foot expansion adjacent to Colburn’s current campus in Downtown Los Angeles.  

“These state-of-the-art performance venues and learning spaces will support students in all units of the School and make the Colburn campus an even livelier hub of artistic activity. The expansion builds on our mission of education through performance and will provide future generations of students access to world-renowned performance and rehearsal spaces,” said Sel Kardan, Colburn School President and Chief Executive Officer. 

Expanding Artistic Excellence 

Since the School planted roots on Grand Avenue 25 years ago, its number of students, faculty, visiting guest artists, and audiences has grown year after year. It’s no surprise the School needed to branch out. First was the addition of the Olive St. building, and now, the Colburn Center. The land was purchased in 2016, the building project was announced two years later, and in spring 2022, the architectural design by Frank Gehry was unveiled. Now with construction underway, expected to be completed in 2027, the Colburn Center will exponentially expand the school’s footprint in Downtown Los Angeles. Located next to two other projects by the renowned architect – the iconic Walt Disney Concert Hall and The Grand – it will create the largest concentration of Gehry-designed buildings in the world. 

“With its Coburn Center expansion, the Colburn School is making a monumental investment in three key DTLA pillars—education, culture, and architecture—and helping to take the Grand Avenue cultural district on Bunker Hill to new heights,” said Suzanne Holley, President and CEO of the DTLA Alliance. 

“As an anchor civic and cultural organization, The Music Center looks forward to the new Colburn Center and the possibilities it will offer to students, artists, and the public. This innovative addition of another incredible building by Frank Gehry will further enrich the vibrant arts and cultural landscape along the Grand Avenue cultural corridor in Downtown Los Angeles, enhancing accessibility and fostering creativity for all,” added Rachel S. Moore, president and CEO, The Music Center. 

A Blueprint for Creativity 

The Colburn Center will sit at 2nd and Olive Streets, adjacent to the current campus. Gehry’s vision blends artistry with function and distinct identity to create an original structural composition. The building consists of an ensemble of interlocking volumes built into a terrain that slopes down from Olive Street to Hill Street and clad in a pink metallic finish. The components are knit together by an expansive light-filled entrance and a pair of gardens planted at street and rooftop level. Of course, Gehry and his team kept performance at the heart of it all.  

For example the 1,000-seat hall named for Terri and Jerry Kohl won’t be just another concert hall. Audience members will encircle the performance platform for an immersive, intimate experience. The platform has room to hold more than 100 musicians, plus an orchestra pit large enough to accommodate 70 musicians. Even the space above has been carefully arranged. Gehry and his longtime acoustical engineer, Yasuhisa Toyota of Nagata Acoustics, have incorporated concrete sound clouds suspended from the ceiling to not only inject an intriguing aesthetic but function as an acoustic enhancement. In keeping with this airy atmosphere, two skylights will bring daylight into the space. 

“The main thing is that the engineering doesn’t overwhelm the personal thing, the human feeling,” Gehry stated last year during “A Conversation with Frank Gehry” event at Colburn.  

In addition to becoming the future home of the Colburn Orchestra, the flagship ensemble of the Conservatory of Music, the concert hall will provide flexible configurations to accommodate a full orchestra, operas, and large musical theater productions. As the only mid-sized hall in Downtown Los Angeles, it will provide much-needed performance space for the region’s established and emerging performing arts organizations. 

The Colburn Center also will become the new permanent site for the Trudl Zipper Dance Institute, more than doubling its current space. A 100-seat theater dedicated to dance includes tiered seating that allows for a variety of configurations and vantage points. Four glass-enclosed studios of varying sizes give students, faculty, and guest dancers a bright space to learn, explore, and grow to their fullest potential.  

The outdoor space around, and on top, of the Center has not been overlooked. Intended to advance the greening of Downtown, students, parents, guests, faculty, and community members will be welcomed into a beautiful, lush, and abundant street-level garden that will showcase yet another performance space. A rooftop garden will be an idyllic setting for receptions as well as small performances.  

Investing in the Future 

The Colburn Center has been made possible through the transformative gifts of philanthropists from Los Angeles and around the world. The Building Our Future Campaign thus far has raised $315 million toward its $400 million goal. 

“We are deeply grateful to the generous donors who have allowed us to reach this milestone. Our fundraising continues to push forward, and a seat naming campaign for our future spaces and as well as our current halls will launch soon,” said Kardan.  

To be a part of this important development in Southern California’s future, contact our Philanthropy Office at philanthropy@colburnschool.edu.  

How the Jascha Heifetz Studio Found Its Home at Colburn

Music has an incredible power to whisk you away to another place and time. It’s an entirely different experience, however, to be transported to another place and time by entering the intimate surroundings where an iconic musician composed, rehearsed, and spent his personal moments. That’s the surreal sensation people experience walking into the Jascha Heifetz Studio, located in the Colburn School’s Grand Avenue building. 

“I played for Heifetz in this room when it was at his house in Bel Air. My memories are that I walked into another world at that moment, and it was a special world,” recalls Robert Lipsett, the Jascha Heifetz Distinguished Violin Chair for the Conservatory of Music. 

“If someone told me at that time, this would be my teaching studio some day and it would reside inside a school that didn’t yet exist, I would have said that’s a bit too much to swallow,” he adds. “Now, it’s a monument, a sanctuary, a museum, and it’s where I work all rolled into one.” 

Securing History  

Jascha Heifetz is regarded as a preeminent violinist of the 20th century. A child prodigy, he made his formal debut at age eight, earning the awe of the classical world by the time he appeared in Carnegie Hall at age 17.  

“Nothing was ever the same,” says Lipsett. “He is the one who set the modern standard of violin playing.” 

Becoming a naturalized American citizen in 1929, Heifetz began calling Los Angeles his home. In the late 1940s, architect Lloyd Wright, who was also a friend of Heifetz, designed the hexagonal building that sat adjacent to the violinist’s Coldwater Canyon home. The original floorplan contained the studio, a bedroom-office, small kitchen, and bathroom. It’s been reported that Heifetz spent much of his retirement in these private rooms. 

After his death in 1987, actor James Wood purchased the property with the intent to demolish the existing structures. Before the first hammer came down, he let it be known that he would cooperate with anyone or any organization willing to assume the financial responsibility to physically remove and preserve the studio. First came the Los Angeles Conservancy, offering to sponsor a larger search. The Skirball Museum expressed a desire to house the studio and the Friends of Runyon Canyon envisioned it as a future visitors’ center. A Brentwood ophthalmologist even bid to have the studio added to his own Lloyd Wright home. Unfortunately, none of these offers panned out. 

The idea of preserving the studio as a monument to Heifetz seemed to be waning in the early 1990s when Hortense Singer contacted Colburn’s then-Executive Director Toby Mayman on the chance the School would step in. Recognizing the historical and architectural value the studio represented as well as the inspirational value the environment could provide students, Mayman immediately presented the proposal to Richard D. Colburn. According to a 1999 article in The Los Angeles Times, the School’s benefactor promised $40,000 only if Mayman matched the sum. She accepted the challenge and succeeded. Next came the unprecedented task of dismantling, moving, and rebuilding the studio entirely inside another building.  

Piecing Together the Future 

Architect Harold Zellman managed the “reverse engineering” of dissembling the studio. His team photographed, labeled, and painstakingly wrapped each one of the nearly 1,000 pieces.  

However, construction of the Grand Avenue campus needed to be completed first, so the dismantled Jascha Heifetz studio went into storage for years. Then in 1999, the pieces were unpacked and fastidiously reconstructed based on a computer model created during the dissembling. The challenge was to not only recreate the unique environment just as Heifetz left it, but also bring it up to current safety codes. 

Today, the Heifetz Studio remains a moment in history. The room still houses the musician’s blue-green daybed, file cabinets adorned with cartoon clippings, the custom-built desk designed by Wright, and even a built-in television and turntable. 

“Because there are no right angles and the shape of the ceiling, I can’t imagine a more ideal acoustic environment to teach in,” says Lipsett, whose has conducted classes in the studio for the past 25 years. “There is a golden element to the sound, an aura to the sounds. All the teaching spots in Colburn are great, but when I come into the Heifetz Studio, I have been transported to an older time. There is not a day that goes by that I am not humbled to work in this place.  

“But, I have never, and will never, sit in the chair behind his desk. That is Heifetz’s place, and out of respect, I cannot sit there,” promises Lipsett.  

Photos by Abby Mahler.

The Herbert and Trudl Zipper Archives Collection—An Archivist’s Perspective

For almost a year, I have had the pleasure of working on the Herbert and Trudl Zipper Archival Collection. The collection arrived in a state of mild organization but has since gone through extensive archival processing: surveying, arranging, describing, and preserving the collection. During my initial survey of the collection, I discovered incredible artifact after incredible artifact: a 1920s newspaper clippings featuring glowing reviews of a teenage Trudl Dubsky’s performance with the Bodenwieser Dance Group, a telegram from Leonard Bernstein wishing Zipper “all the best” on opening night of the Brooklyn Symphony Orchestra (which Zipper revived), and a 1953 cassette tape containing a Zipper conducted Manila Symphony Orchestra performance of Beethoven’s “Eroica,” just to name a few. As of now, the collection has largely been arranged in an order that respects how Zipper had it organized and in a way that will make the collection accessible to interested researchers. The collection has also been stabilized through preservation activities like removing rusty staples, placing photographs in protective sleeves, and rehousing materials in acid-free folders and boxes. Another preservation tactic that doubles to foster access is digitization. Early in the project, I acquired a fantastic scanner to digitally preserve select papers, photographs, concert programs, newspaper clippings, etc.

I have also enlisted the USC Digital Library to help me digitize materials I am unable to digitize myself, including fragile scrapbooks, music manuscripts, concert posters, and cassette tapes. Just this past week, I received an email from USC’s Digital Library containing a file made from the lone film reel in the collection. Due to the physical condition of the reel, I was unable to discern the content before sending it off for digitization, so I downloaded the file with much anticipation. The payoff was more than I could have hoped for, the reel contained a 1954 film of Zipper conducting the Manila Symphony Orchestra for local school children. Zipper was known for school concerts he conducted in Brooklyn, Manila, Chicago, and Los Angeles. To have footage of him from the 1950s conducting a school concert is quite the find. It is moments like these that make my work extremely gratifying.

While my work is not done, it has progressed well, and I look forward to sharing more of the collection as the project progresses. If you have not wandered past the library recently, you can view an exhibit featuring materials from the collection about a famous Manila Symphony Orchestra performance conducted by Herbert Zipper following the liberation of Manila in 1945. The exhibit was curated by the fantastic UCLA graduate school intern, Chris Miehl, who helped me process and digitize the collection. For now, please enjoy the materials you see here from the extraordinary lives of the Zippers.

This project was made possible in part by the Institute of Museum and Library Services and the generous support of Ann Moore.

Learn more about the Herbert and Trudl Zipper Archives Collection