“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.
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.
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.
The Colburn School recently announced that Maeesha Merchant will join the Senior Leadership Team as Chief Financial Officer and Vice President of Business Development. In this position she will play a critical role in ensuring the financial health of the institution, developing and implementing fiscal management and reporting strategies across the School. Merchant will also lead the effort to identify and develop new business and revenue opportunities for the School, working cross-departmentally and in close coordination with the President and CEO and board of directors. She will join the Colburn leadership team in the Fall.
“Maeesha Merchant brings tremendous experience in both the nonprofit and for profit sectors, including expertise in strategic planning and the development of new business models,” said Colburn President and CEO Sel Kardan. “This background, along with her passion for innovation and education, will be invaluable as the Colburn School continues its commitment to accessible excellence in performing arts education and pursues strategic investments that will create additional resilience for the institution in the years ahead.”
Merchant comes to the Colburn School from California Institute of the Arts (CalArts) where she served as SVP of Finance and Operations, Chief Financial Officer, Chief Innovation Officer. In this role, she oversaw global initiatives, finance and accounting, analytics and IT, operations and facilities, and human resources. In addition, she was responsible for strategic planning and innovating new business models. She was instrumental in steering CalArts’ Strategic Visioning project, laying the framework to guide CalArts through the next 50 years; and strengthening CalArts’ financial position through the creation of new revenue streams.
An active member of the National Association of College and University Business Officers (NACUBO), Merchant was recently honored with the 2020 Service to NACUBO Award for her outstanding contributions to the association’s professional development programs. Merchant has served on NACUBO’s New Business Officers Alumni Panel, mentoring program, Advisory Group on Leadership Diversity, and several program committees.
Prior to CalArts, Merchant spent twelve years as a management consultant working for Deloitte Consulting and (Mercer) Oliver Wyman and as an education technology entrepreneur. Merchant has experience across multiple states, countries, and industries (public sector, higher education, financial services, automotive). Her experience includes large-scale business transformations, strategic and financial planning, business process optimization, and analytics. In her consulting career, Merchant worked with several CXO clients to identify strategic imperatives and implement recommendations. She led successful operational transformation efforts for the Human Services department in the State of Michigan and in New Mexico by leveraging both process and technology while emphasizing the importance of change management.
Merchant is passionate about innovation and entrepreneurship and founded her own education technology startup that served K-12 schools in Asia. She has worked with the XPRIZE Foundation to solve the world’s grandest challenges using exponential technologies and enablers. She has developed offerings around the future of various industries and their respective evolving innovator ecosystem. Moreover, she is greatly involved with the local community and has designed and implemented a high school curriculum for LAUSD to equip students with the knowledge and skills to leverage disruptive technologies.
Merchant graduated Magna Cum Laude from the prestigious Jerome Fisher Management and Technology Program at the University of Pennsylvania with three degrees in Finance, Biomedical Science, and International Relations.
“When reflecting upon the future of education, I imagine a future that breaks barriers: socioeconomic and racial barriers to a world-class education, as well as, structural barriers between K-12, higher education, and adult learning,” said Merchant. “The Colburn School portrays this future by embracing both access and lifelong learning. I am honored to join the Colburn community and am extremely grateful to be a part of an organization that has pivoted during these extraordinary times while focusing on its purpose and the way forward.”
This past month, the Colburn community transitioned from attending lessons, eagerly rehearsing for upcoming performances, and anticipating the rest of the spring semester to sheltering in place and navigating arts education online. Our faculty and staff have been working tirelessly so that students across all areas of the School can stay connected to the performing arts and continue training through virtual instruction, coaching, and . We are striving to make sure we can all turn to the performing arts as a source of comfort in this time of uncertainty.
Our goal is for Colburn’s vibrant community to remain safe, connected, and engaged, so we have taken a number of actions to establish remote learning. Faculty in the Community School, Conservatory, Music Academy, and Trudl Zipper Dance Institute have developed online curriculums to ensure that students will be provided with an uninterrupted learning experience. Students are able to attend private lessons, group lessons, and lectures virtually and stay in touch with their peers and faculty. All students in degree-granting programs will stay on track and graduating seniors will be able to earn their degrees.
Learn more about our transition to online learning.
In particular, faculty in the Trudl Zipper Dance Institute have developed an extensive real-time interactive curriculum, with technology that allows them to teach and provide feedback to students as if they were physically in class. Our Jumpstart programs in the Community School, taught primarily by our Gluck Teaching Fellows in the Conservatory, will also be able to resume later in April by connecting the Conservatory teaching fellows virtually with Jumpstart students in their homes.
In addition to the shift to online instruction, another focus was ensuring that all residential students who had to move out of Colburn’s dormitories were housed and supported. Staff helped to relocate each student to a friend or relative’s house. Conservatory, Music Academy, and Dance Academy students were provided with over $45,000 of meal, travel, and housing stipends. Conservatory pianists, percussionists, and harpists who are away from their instruments were also matched with private instruments in homes in Los Angeles, rental studios, and other creative practice options so they can continue their training uninterrupted.
Read more on student hosting.
We remain committed to supporting our students, faculty, and staff throughout this period. Now more than ever, we rely on the arts to stay connected as a community. We are grateful to have the support of you, our community members, as we traverse these unprecedented times, and look forward to having you back on campus.
The wait is almost over! In just a few weeks, we’ll be announcing Colburn’s jam-packed 2019–20 season, filled with intimate concerts, thrilling dance performances, and unbridled talent.
This year, Colburn’s young artists will be joined on stage by a long list of renowned guests, and we’ll hear works by the heavy hitters of classical music—Wagner, Dvorak, Mahler, and more—and enjoy a weeklong celebration of Beethoven’s 250th birthday.
Our distinguished faculty artists will shine in specially curated recitals, and Zipper Hall will be home to performances by royal wedding cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason and New York City Ballet stars.
From the Baroque to the contemporary, from modern dance to ballet, the 2019–20 season has something for everyone.
Keep an eye on your inboxes and mailboxes for a full listing of performances happening on campus and across Southern California this year.
We look forward to seeing you at Colburn, your intersection for the arts.
I’m thrilled that this expansion will help the Colburn School bring music and dance more deeply into the lives of thousands of students of all ages and will welcome all members of the public. Carol Colburn Grigor
I’m thrilled that this expansion will help the Colburn School bring music and dance more deeply into the lives of thousands of students of all ages and will welcome all members of the public.
An exciting new stage in the growth of the Colburn School and the entire Downtown Los Angeles cultural community has begun, with the announcement that Frank Gehry will design a major campus expansion adjacent to the School’s current site. This ambitious project, together with Walt Disney Concert Hall and The Music Center, the Museum of Contemporary Art and The Broad, will make this area of Downtown one of the largest concentrations of performing- and visual-arts organizations in the world, a true cultural hub for all of Los Angeles.
Located along Second Street on a parcel of land acquired in 2016, Colburn’s campus expansion will include state-of-the-art performance venues—a 1,100-seat concert hall, a 700-seat studio theater, and a 100-seat cabaret-style space—that will give Colburn its first hall for full-size orchestra performances, a venue for its burgeoning dance program and for opera, and a range of options to meet the demand of partner institutions and community stakeholders. The expansion will also include much-needed classroom, rehearsal, and housing spaces for the growing Colburn community.
The Colburn School selected Gehry for his deep connection to the city of Los Angeles, particularly downtown, and his record of accomplishment of creating remarkable performance spaces and educational institutions. President and CEO Sel Kardan says, “In selecting Frank Gehry for this ambitious project, we have chosen an architect with an extraordinary track record of designing educational and performance spaces, an unshakeable sense of public purpose, deep roots in Los Angeles, and a commitment to the young people of this region and young artists around the world.”
Joining Gehry will be an all-star, all-LA team that includes Yasuhisa Toyota of Nagata Acoustics, the acoustician for Walt Disney Concert Hall, and Michael Ferguson of TheatreDNA, who, as a member of Theatre Projects, consulted on Gehry’s New World Center in Miami.
Colburn School Campus Expansion Map
In a statement, Carol Colburn Grigor emphasized that this is a historical moment for the school, saying “Music runs in our family, passed down to us from our father. I’m thrilled that this expansion will help the Colburn School bring music and dance more deeply into the lives of thousands of students of all ages and will welcome all members of the public. Walt Disney Concert Hall is one of the most breathtaking buildings ever created for music performance, so I know that Frank Gehry is the perfect architect to design our expansion.”
The Colburn School moved to its home at 200 South Grand Avenue in 1998, when Grand Avenue between the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion at First Street and the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) at Third Street was parking lots and undeveloped land. In 2007, Colburn expanded, opening the adjoining Olive Street building, with new rehearsal, performing, and living spaces.
Colburn’s investment in downtown paid off, and it now sits in the middle of a vibrant cultural corridor. Today, students play alongside members of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, dance in The Music Center’s Nutcracker, ponder art with educators at MOCA, and visit The Broad between classes.
The expansion of the Colburn School will foment Gehry’s impact on the area, living aside his other high-profile projects: the celebrated Walt Disney Concert Hall and his mixed-use Grand Avenue Project that he is designing for the Related Companies. His team will now begin the concept design phase of Colburn’s expansion, the next cultural jewel for Los Angeles.
If you are a member of the media and wish to download the press release and high-resolution images visit the press section of our website.
The Colburn School is Expanding