As we look back on the past year, we are thrilled to celebrate the extraordinary accomplishments of our graduating Conservatory students and alumni who have secured professional positions with leading orchestras around the world. These achievements are a testament not only to their talent and dedication, but also to the rich, immersive experience they received during their time at Colburn. With access to exceptional faculty, abundant performance opportunities, and world-class facilities, our students are well-prepared to meet the demands of a professional music career. We are proud to see so many Colburn musicians contributing to the global orchestral community.
What a difference a moment can make.
By late April, Jasmine Ji had wrapped up an appearance at the Palm Springs International Piano Competition—at 13, she was the youngest pianist to take the stage. She also was completing her first year of studying at the Colburn Community School of Performing Arts in the studio of Vanessa Fadial, DMA, and looked forward to attending festivals this summer, including a return to the acclaimed Montecito International Music Festival. All that suddenly took a backseat when Ji was offered an opportunity to make her orchestral debut at the 112-year-old Smetana Hall in Prague, Czech Republic. She quickly accepted.
The North Czech Philharmonic had to fill a featured role for its May 3 concert when another young musician pulled out. That’s when a friend reached out to Dr. Fadial to inquire about Ji’s availability. Apparently, she had made an indelible impression on him during coaching sessions at the Montecito Festival last summer.
“He thought I could listen and communicate with string instruments, and I believe that’s one of the reasons he recommended me,” says Ji.
Exceptional Experience
Preparing for a debut is never a simple task, much less a surprise invitation only a few weeks before the event. Fortunately, Ji had performed Mendelssohn’s Piano Concerto No.1 in G Minor, Op. 25 in Palm Springs, and the piece remained fresh in her repertoire.
“The concerto was still in my fingers and I could play it with ease. I like that there’s a lot of diversity and technique within the concerto, but there’s also a lot of musical aspects in it,” she says.
With guidance from Dr. Fadial, she further polished the performance as well as studied how to accompany a full orchestra.
“With an orchestra, sometimes you need to know where you should lead and other times you need to know where you’re supposed to balance,” she recalls. “For Prague, Dr. Fadial told me to play through the orchestra part in order to know it really well.”
While admittedly nervous for her debut, Ji appreciated the welcoming reception she received by the musicians and truly embraced the moment.
“My nervous level was kind of like a decrescendo throughout the performance; I was a little nervous at the beginning, but then I calmed down throughout the first movement, and it got a lot better for the rest of the concerto,” she says. “I just reminded myself that the whole point is to share the music.”
Although the details of the event came about unexpectedly, Ji’s confidence as an artist wasn’t a surprise. The Community School has instilled her with growing assurance while advancing her skills.
“Colburn has helped so much with my stage confidence. Performance opportunities, like the Friday Night Recitals, contribute to that along with feedback from teachers,” she says. “I think Colburn has shaped this path to Prague and I honestly couldn’t have done it without the support of my teachers here.”
And it was definitely a moment that made a difference to this young artist.
“It’s something I’ll always remember and treasure, and I’ve learned a lot from it,” she concludes.
For Trudl Zipper Dance Institute student Mackenzie Carroll, move-in day last fall was full of excitement and anticipation for the year ahead. She knew it would be filled with opportunities to advance her dance skills and learn from the esteemed faculty and peers. But she wasn’t prepared to kick off the year by running into an old friend on day one. Then again, an elevator encounter with Yejoon Kwon wasn’t out of the ordinary. She first met the Music Academy violin student at the Interlochen Arts Camp when they were both 10 years old.
“We actually met again in the ninth grade while attending Walnut Hill School for the Arts in Natick, Mass.,” recalls Kwon. “There, we met on move-in day at the elevator!”
Fast Friends
While attending the summer camp nearly 10 years ago, Kwon and Carroll quickly discovered mutual interests and a natural friendship formed.
“I thought Joon was a really nice person, really funny, and good to hang out with,” says Carroll. “She’s also extremely talented, which was really cool to be around.”
“And Mackenize was really funny,” adds Kwon.
After camp wrapped, they separated ways until running into each other again at Walnut Hill and immediately renewed their friendship. However, after a year, Kwon transferred to the Colburn Music Academy.
“I wanted to focus more on music and felt like the Music Academy would be a more fitting school for me,” she says.
Then this fall, Carroll chose to finish her high school experience at the TZDI Dance Academy.
“Joon and I had another friend who was at the Dance Academy, so I asked her about the school and it seemed like a really cool place,” she says.
Support Network
Although the friends didn’t share classes together this year, they enjoy each opportunity to see each other on campus.
“I occasionally bump into Mackenzie on the fourth or fifth floor while she does schoolwork,” says Kwon. “She inspires me to do my schoolwork.”
“It’s been really nice having Joon here, knowing she’s here and she’s a good friend,” adds Carroll.
Of course, throughout their time at Colburn, both have found friendships with fellow students and faculty mentors, and agree these connections have prepared them for the next stage of their performing arts careers. Kwon will attend the San Francisco Conservatory of Music on full scholarship and Carroll heads to the University of Oklahoma School of Dance.
And who knows, where and when these friends will encounter each other again.
“Well, the San Francisco Ballet is very close to the conservatory, so maybe I’ll see Mackenize walking by some day,” says Kwon.
Creative. Varied. Accomplished. Influential.
These are just a few adjectives describing the extensive career of Jim Walker, a founding flute faculty member for the Colburn Conservatory of Music.
By the time he joined the School in 2007, Walker had composed an eclectic career, which only added to the value he has imparted on upon his students.
“My career proved to be multi-tiered and multi-faceted in ways I never planned or hoped for in my younger years,” he says.
Now, Walker readies to embark on a new journey: retirement.
An Unexpected Path
Walker’s musical escapade began under the tutelage of his father, a jazz clarinetist and public school band director, and his mother, a church organist. In addition to the flute, the young musician played around with bass clarinet, piano, and saxophone. After high school, he moved on to the University of Louisville in his home state of Kentucky before seeking professional performance opportunities, which included a stint with the U.S. Military Academy Band at West Point Military Academy and an appointment as Associate Principal Flute in the Pittsburgh Symphony. Eight years later, he headed west for the Principal Flute position with the LA Philharmonic. (Below: Jim Walker with the LA Phil Principal Winds in 1979.)
But Walker’s artistic wanderlust wouldn’t be quieted. After his tenure with LA Phil, he explored a longstanding inclination for jazz by forming Free Flight. The jazz-classical fusion quartet delivered television appearances and a number one record. He also ventured into the realm of studio recording, working with a variety of producers and musicians, including luminaries Paul McCartney and John Williams. Throughout his career, however, Walker has always been a teacher.
“My role clearly has been to mentor classical flutists who dream of a career as a performer or teacher,” he says. “Having a career that covered more bases than normal has allowed me to speak somewhat knowingly about those career areas that are not often a part of the traditional conservatory setting.” (Below: Free Flight during a soundcheck for the Johnny Carson Show in 1981)
Before arriving at Colburn, Walker taught at Duquesne University, Carnegie-Mellon, and the University of Pittsburgh as well as served as Senior Lecturer and Coordinator of Flute Studies at the University of Southern California’s Thornton School of Music. Of course, for the past 18 years, Walker taught Flute and Chamber Music at the Colburn Conservatory of Music.
“Truthfully, being a part of the Colburn School Conservatory meant I was rubbing shoulders with some of the most talented musicians, both teachers and students,” says Walker. “I also loved getting to know the production staff well enough to be taken into their Fantasy Football league!”
Now, Walker looks forward to devoting his time and attention to more personal matters.
“I will do my best to learn to slow down and smell any roses that still exist in my orbit. I have two grandsons turning one year old (five weeks apart) and I plan to spend much more time watching them grow into hockey-playing flute players,” he says. “Also, golf with Richard Beene is a very big part of my retirement plan! Currently, our decades-old betting games have me down $10. I have to turn that around to get my head above sea level asap.”
On Saturday, April 26, the Colburn community celebrated Walker’s eclectic and impactful career, including performances with both current and former students. Walker’s finale will be as Keynote Speaker for the Conservatory Commencement on May 5, which is open to the public and will be livestreamed. (Below: Jim Walker and students from the Conservatory and Music Academy perform on the Celebration Concert in April.)
A New Era
Colburn School also welcomes Demarre McGill as Professor of Flute for the Conservatory and Music Academy for the upcoming 2025-26 and 2026-27 school years.
McGill is a recipient of the Avery Fisher Career Grant and Sphinx Medal of Excellence and is a co-founder of Art of Élan, an organization dedicated to innovative programming. Additionally, he is a celebrated soloist and chamber musician, including Principal Flute for the Seattle Symphony and appearances with leading orchestras. McGill is a founding member of the Myriad Trio and former member of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center’s Bowers Program.
As an educator, McGill was Associate Professor of Flute at the University of Cincinnati College Conservatory of Music and artist faculty member for Aspen Music Festival and School, as well as presenting master classes internationally.
“I am honored and excited to join the faculty at the Colburn School, an institution known for its commitment to artistic excellence and the cultivation of outstanding musicians,” says McGill.
As a cellist, every time Samantha Adams-Blanco draws her bow across the strings, she brings notes etched onto musical manuscripts to life. She never envisioned being the one to put those notes to paper. That is, until she began to explore composition. Adams-Blanco is one of numerous Colburn students to explore their talents and musical point of view as part of the LA Phil’s Composer Fellowship program over the past eight years.
Founded by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Steven Stucky and administered by Program Director Andrew Norman and Teaching Artist Daniel Allas, the fellowship offers high school-aged students a tuition-free opportunity to express themselves through the process and production of creating original music.
While attending Colburn Community School of Performing Arts, Adams-Blanco started to explore the idea of writing music. “I had written a piece for a dance that was for solo cello,” she recalls. “My friend saw it and thought that I might be interested in the program, so I applied with that piece.”
She also submitted a video of a Colburn performance for the Fellowship application and was selected for the two-year program, which follows a traditional school calendar. Adams-Blanco attended from 2022–24. During her first year, she concentrated on orchestration. The next year, she composed a piece titled Limina. However, the experience entailed more than writing a melody and coming up with chord changes. Each fellow’s piece is performed by members of the LA Philharmonic, chamber groups, or other orchestras, including reading sessions with the musicians. They also attend more than 20 concerts and interact with many guest artists and contemporary composers.
“Once your piece was read through, you had a short amount of time to give comments, but that was the really difficult part of it,” says Adams-Blanco. “You spent so long …thinking about how it would sound like, and there would always be things that could be better. … You have to think what would be the most critical feedback that could take it to where you want it to be.
“I always found it really difficult to give those comments, to think about and hear my own music, but when I look back, I think it was an extremely valuable experience,” she said.
Now studying at the San Francisco Conservatory, Adams-Blanco incorporates many of the skills and lessons she gained in the fellowship while advancing her musicianship as a cellist.
“I think being in the program really encouraged me to be curious about all aspects of life and art,” she says. “It taught me how to look through another lens to critically analyze music.”
Fellowship Roster
From cello to horn, piano to trombone, flute to Jazz Workshop, a variety of talented Colburn School students have enhanced their musical education through the LA Phil Composer Fellowship Program.
2024–25 Emma Siebenaler, Cello Chloe Kirk, Piano and Cello Charlie Cohn, Jazz Piano
2023–24 Samantha Adams-Blanco, Cello Alexis Cai, Flute Bryan Chiu, Horn
2022–23 Samantha Adams-Blanco, Cello Bryan Chiu, Horn
2021–22 Norah Fong, Cello
2020–21 Elijah Alexander, Trombone Norah Fong, Cello Joey Karz, Piano
2019–20 Elijah Alexander, Trombone Stanford Fram, Piano Micangelo Ferrante, Composition William Jae, Piano Joey Karz, Piano Apsara Kasiraman, Piano and Violin Leo Major, jazz workshop
2018–19 Apsara Kasiraman, Piano and Violin Leo Major, Jazz Workshop
The latest addition to the School’s stellar fleet of pianos—a Steinway & Sons direct from the manufacturer—recently traveled more than 2,700 miles, crossed three time zones, and left an East Coast winter for its new home on the West Coast. Indeed, it has had an interesting journey, which was carefully overseen by Neema Pazargad, Colburn’s Director of Piano Technology.
Finding the right fit for Colburn began with a preliminary visit to Steinway & Sons in Astoria, New York, last fall. Geoff Rich and Jerry Kohl accompanied Colburn President and CEO Sel Kardan for a behind-the-scenes tour of the manufacturing facility. Then the painstaking work began. The following timeline explains the expert attention required to select and prepare a piano for the caliber of musicianship demonstrated by Colburn’s students, performing faculty, and guest artists.
January: Careful consideration
Pazargad and Carol Colburn Grigor Piano Chair Fabio Bidini arrived at the manufacturer’s selection room to evaluate newly crafted pianos.
“They had five concert grands prepared, and we spent a few hours playing them,” says Pazargad. “It’s always a fun experience, but a little bit of a nervous and pressure-filled experience, too. We’re trying to pick a piano for a venue but we don’t get to actually hear it in the venue until it arrives.”
After putting each piano through a series of assessments—judging mechanical functions, tonal performance, and its ability to sustain sounds—the duo made their selection.
“I was leaning towards the piano that had the most tonal output,” said Pazargad.
Early February: The piano arrives at Colburn
Brand-new instruments aren’t immediately top performers. After traveling cross-country, it needed time to acclimate and stabilize.
“Everything is new: The strings are new and still stretching. The action is still new, so it goes through several rounds of tunings and regulation. Once the strings and action are where they’re going to be we can really dive into the voicing,” Pazargad explains. “By the time it was ready for its inaugural concert it had probably maybe close to 40 hours of my work on it.”
Late February: The Steinway takes up residence in Zipper Hall
After a couple weeks in the Piano Technology workshop, the team transferred the Steinway to Zipper Hall. Finally, Pazargad could listen to how it coupled with the space.
“On stage in Zipper Hall it really was like, ‘Wow, this is a great sounding piano.’ It is just a beautiful, beautiful sounding piano,” he says.
To experience the piano’s first performance in the space, the generous donors who made it possible arrived for a mini-concert. Terri and Jerry Kohl and Koni and Geoff Rich listened to performances by Conservatory and Community School students, and Geoff Rich treated the group to a performance of his own! Now the piano is part of the School’s collection, and you may see it onstage at an upcoming performance in Zipper Hall.
The Steinway & Sons concert grand is a gift from Terri and Jerry Kohl and Koni and Geoff Rich. We are grateful for their generosity, which is creating remarkable opportunities for our students to develop their artistry at the Colburn School.
Live performances will always create a unique and intimate connection between performers and audience members. Embracing today’s technology, however, allows the Colburn School to introduce our programs, students, faculty, and guest artists to individuals near and far who want to experience the arts. Livestreaming welcomes audiences from around the world to many of our performances. Colburn’s YouTube channel allows viewers to watch past events at their convenience. Now, as a partner with Bloomberg Connects, we welcome even more visitors to virtually explore the world of the Colburn School.
Created by Bloomberg Philanthropies, the free app connects users with curated content and guides to more than 760 museums, galleries, parks, gardens, and other venues located in more than 30 countries. Millions of people from around the world use it to browse through text, video, and audio content of exhibits, collections, artwork, city landmarks, performances, and more. Plus, the technology has been designed with accessibility features, such as voiceover, captions, and audio transcripts.
As part of the Connects community, app users who venture to the Colburn School profile can read about the Music Academy, Conservatory of Music, Community School of Performing Arts, and Trudl Zipper Dance Institute. They can spend time on the “Performances” section to read about the Colburn Orchestra, Colburn Chamber Music Society as well as the Colburn Contemporary Ensemble or the Colburn Baroque Ensemble. They can click around to watch our students dance on stage and listen to highlights of select performances.
The app allows users to “Explore Our Spaces” and view the Grand and Olive buildings as well as enjoy various perspectives within our prestigious Zipper, Thayer, and Mayman performance halls. They can take an exclusive “Behind the Scenes” peek inside the Heifetz Studio, which is typically closed to the public. Also, experience a glimpse of campus life through a gallery of photos of students, faculty, and community members gathering in the courtyard or inside the Colburn Café, and even a photographic sampling of the Café’s mouth-watering menu items.
Bloomberg Connects also offers an opportunity to share news of the School’s community initiatives and explain how our supporters, through their generosity, provide the next generation of artists access to excellence in performing arts education.
“Being a partner with Bloomberg Connects matches Colburn’s commitment to bringing the world of performing arts to all who wish to enjoy the magical moments created on stage through music and dance,” said Jennifer Kallend, Colburn’s Vice President of Communications. “It enhances our reach, but more importantly, enhances people’s lives by sharing the arts without restriction.”
Quick Facts About Bloomberg Connects 4.3 million users 766 partners 32 countries 44 languages
The app is free and can be downloaded to iOS and Android systems.
Download the app
At Colburn, students transform passion and dedication into excellence in all that they do, and that translates to professional success. In the short time since the Conservatory of Music was founded in 2003, over 400 orchestral instrument alumni have graduate, and over 140 hold professional orchestra positions with at least 75 in principal, associate, assistant, or other comparable positions.
Since the start of the 2024-25 school year, our Conservatory students and alumni have made news over and over as they win prestigious positions in orchestras worldwide. Keep an eye out at a concert hall near you. The newest orchestra member on stage just might be from Colburn!
Recent Positions:
See recent accomplishments for students in all units here.
“To sing is an expression of your being, a being which is becoming.” — Maria Callas
Acclaimed soprano Maria Callas was an enigma throughout much of her career. The press zoomed in on her personal life while critics exalted her stage presence and, at times, labeled her voice as “unconventional” or “flawed.” Perhaps that complexity is what drew Academy Award-winning actress Angelina Jolie to the lead role in Maria. The biopic was released in limited theaters last month and is currently streaming on Netflix.
Becoming the iconic Callas posed more than just another acting role for Jolie. The film’s director, Pablo Larrain, pushed her to sing like Callas along with actual recordings.
“I thought, ‘Oh, I’ll pretend-sing and I’ll get through this. Then it was very clear to me that you can’t pretend opera and then I was scared,” Jolie explained during the New York Film Festival this fall, reports USA Today.
To recreate Callas’s operatic performances, the movie’s vocal coach, Eric Vetro, tapped his friend Michael Stevens, Chair of the Vocal Department for Colburn’s Community School of Performing Arts.
“He asked me to help with the language and voice teaching because he doesn’t really do opera,” says Stevens. “And since, potentially, we were going to be singing in Italian, French, and German, it was important to have a person who could do voicing and language.”
In addition to teaching at Colburn since 1996 and chairing the department for 16 years, Stevens has carved out a comprehensive career as an artist. He’s performed as a chorister for the LA Opera and sung with the Santa Barbara, San Diego, and Long Beach operas along with other ensembles and choirs around Southern California.
Not only was Maria his first foray into filmmaking, but his challenge was to instill Jolie with enough knowledge of opera performing and Callas’s style and idiosyncrasies in a short seven months. For example, Stevens notes that Callas’s breathing didn’t always occur where one might expect it.
“She certainly had amazing breath control and could sing a note for a long time. But sometimes she was fairly frail, especially as she started to age. When you see her take a big breath, you really see the chest come up and then collapse at the end, which is sort of a no-no in singing. However, it was definitely something I wanted Angelina to notice and use as part of her own technique,” he explains.
“We tried to make sure the pronunciation was correct, and there are some places where Callas didn’t pronounce things exactly like maybe she ought to. So, we had to listen carefully to all of the recordings,” Stevens adds. “One of the main things was making sure Angelina’s mouth looked like what a singer’s mouth looks like. By the end, the postures of her face and lips were very similar to what Callas did, and they definitely looked like a singer.”
Of course, Stevens relied on the teaching techniques he’s devised from years of training aspiring young performers, such as singing in different languages.
“We just went over the Italian language like I would with one of my Colburn students; we very slowly plotted it out,” says Stevens.
Although scheduling sessions meant accommodating both the film production and Jolie’s multiple commitments, Stevens commends her devotion to learning the genre.
“We actually got a lot done in relatively little time and she is such a busy person. She really did work hard at this, practicing every day,” he says. “I think she did great and I was very proud of the results.”
While promoting Maria, Jolie explains how cathartic the experience became for her personally.
“For anybody here who hasn’t sung at the top of their lungs, it’s a crazy thing to do,” she said at the Film Festival. In a video interview with Larrain for Vogue, she added, “ I found [opera music] so deep in the human experience. It’s very grounding so I put it on now to just kind of think and settle.”
Stevens also found a new appreciation for Callas, which he highlights for his Colburn students.
“It’s nice to be able to use Callas as someone who’s doing the same sort of thing that I’m teaching, and I can use her as a demonstration model,” he says. “Knowing that it really affected the performance with Angelina is a good reason for me to incorporate that in my own teaching.”
Presenting Dance as Visual Music
The quote “see the music, hear the dance” is widely associated with legendary choreographer and dance educator George Balanchine. As founder of the School of American Ballet and artistic director of the renowned New York City Ballet company, he challenged dancers, musicians, and audiences to open their eyes and ears to a new way of experiencing the relationship between dance and music.
However, the quote most likely stemmed from Glenway Wescott in a review of Balanchine’s work for the December 1963 issue of Show magazine: “Suddenly I see the music; suddenly I hear the movements of the dancers.”
Trudl Zipper Dance Institute’s 2024–25 Artistic Director Janie Taylor says Balanchine believed the audience would hear music differently if he accentuated every nuance with movement. Adopting this perspective creates a more intimate experience, one that’s been celebrated for more than a decade with Colburn’s annual See the Music, Hear the Dance performance. This year’s event takes place on November 3 at the 2245 studio, home to the LA Dance Project.
“This space is a studio theatre that allows the audience to have a very up-close, intimate experience. I felt this was a perfect setting for the purpose of dissecting a work and being able to see and feel every detail demonstrated,” says Taylor. She selected the duet from Appassionata, a ballet by Benjamin Millepied, set to music by the same name composed by Beethoven.
In addition to enjoying a top-caliber performance, audiences are treated to unique, behind-the-scenes perspectives when musicians and dancers share the process of collaboration through discussions and demonstrations. This year, TZDI faculty and dance historian Dr. Jill Nunes Jensen leads the conversation with guest dancers Jennifer Stahl and Steven Morse, both of whom appear through the courtesy of San Francisco Ballet, Tamara Rojo, Artistic Director.
Stahl is a principal dancer and performs a wide array of repertoire, including originating featured roles in works by some of today’s top choreographers. Morse hails from Southern California and trained at the Long Beach Ballet Arts Center, Lauridsen Ballet Center, Maple Conservatory of Dance, and the San Francisco Ballet School. He joined the San Francisco Ballet in 2009 and was named a soloist in 2017.
They are joined by pianist Hyejin Park, who is an Artist Diploma candidate at the Colburn Conservatory of Music. She has received numerous awards including at the Amigdala International Competition, the Orbetello Competition in Italy, the ICA International Competition in Vietnam, and the YMIC Competition.
“I am thrilled to share this year’s program with you,” says Taylor. “I have no doubt that you will leave feeling enlightened and inspired.”
See The Music, Hear The Dance take
s place this Sunday, November 3 with performances at 2 pm and 5 pm at L.A. Dance project’s studio and performance space: 2245.