Colburn School

I was fortunate enough to have been among the guests invited to the opening of the Colburn School of Performing Arts two Sundays ago. Since CalArts will be a neighbor of the Colburn School once our own new theater opens at the Walt Disney Concert Hall site, it was with particular interest that I made my way among the assembled civic, arts and education leaders into this gracious new building.

Before conducting the Colburn Orchestra at Walt Disney Concert Hall on Sunday night, across the street from the newly renamed Colburn Way (one block of 2nd Street), the renowned British conductor Neville Marriner was handed the Richard D. Colburn Award in a small ceremony on stage. Marriner was the first music director of the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, which Richard D. Colburn, Los Angeles' legendary music benefactor, helped bankroll. The concert was presented by the Colburn School in honor of the centenary of its founder, who died at 92 in 2004.

"It's a completely new experience," said Matthew Zuber, a 21-year-old bassoonist studying at the Colburn School. "I've never done an opera before. " He was referring to his participation -- along with 21 other young musicians at the downtown conservatory -- in a new collaboration between Colburn and Los Angeles Opera's Domingo-Thornton Young Artist Program. That union gets its first showcase this weekend, when the combined forces present two one-act operas: Ernst Krenek's "The Secret Kingdom" and Viktor Ullmann's "The Emperor of Atlantis.

"It's a completely new experience," said Matthew Zuber, a 21-year-old bassoonist studying at the Colburn School. "I've never done an opera before. " He was referring to his participation -- along with 21 other young musicians at the downtown conservatory -- in a new collaboration between Colburn and Los Angeles Opera's Domingo-Thornton Young Artist Program. That union gets its first showcase this weekend, when the combined forces present two one-act operas: Ernst Krenek's "The Secret Kingdom" and Viktor Ullmann's "The Emperor of Atlantis.

On Sunday, the Colburn School of Performing Arts will dedicate its new home alongside the Museum of Contemporary Art and the future site of the Music Center's Walt Disney Concert Hall. Although parts of the school have been open for months, the school's formal unveiling marks the arrival of the latest addition to a string of projects meant to transform downtown Los Angeles' Grand Avenue into a bustling cultural haven.

In a music instruction room, 9-year-old Eric Liang of Fullerton scrunches his face for a flicker of a moment as he plays a composition for the violin by Fritz Kreisler. The problem isn't his playing or the music. From the classroom on the other side of the wall comes the thundering of drums. In a much larger room where Ballet I is under way, three young girls do their steps while facing a broad mirror.

A crowd of construction workers, some sporting T-shirts reading "I Built the Colburn School of Performing Arts 1997-1998," sat on the dust-filled steps of the facility's new 416-seat auditorium a month before seats--and students--were scheduled to arrive. Munching on chicken-and-pesto sandwiches provided by their hosts, they peered intently at the stage. Out walked 12-year-old Cynthia Gong, Timothy Braun, also 12, and 11-year-old Eugenia Chang, wearing hard hats of their own.

Richard D. Colburn, a wealthy businessman whose own dreams of being a professional musician fueled his generous and lifelong commitment to music and music education, died Thursday at his home in Beverly Hills. He was 92. "He'd been very tired the last few days," said his daughter, Carol Colburn Hogel. "But, still, this was unexpected."

Colburn exec: Miguel Angel Corzo, president of the University of the Arts in Philadelphia and a former director of the Getty Conservation Institute in L.A., has been named president of the Colburn School in downtown L.A. Beginning in July, he will oversee both the Colburn School of Performing Arts and the Colburn Conservatory of Music.

Growing up on a San Diego farm, Richard D. Colburn and his brothers were given two choices: doing chores or studying a musical instrument. Richard chose the latter. Had he better instruction, he could have "out-Heifetzed Heifetz," the 86-year-old businessman says, his piercing blue eyes evidencing a hint of a twinkle. Instead, Colburn went on to become the Heifetz of music patronage--one of the most generous benefactors on the Los Angeles arts scene.

Nigel Armstrong, a 21-year-old recent graduate of L.A.'s Colburn School, has made the violin finals in classical music's equivalent of the Olympics — the quadrennial International Tchaikovsky Competition in Russia that's best known stateside for Van Cliburn's triumph during the inaugural running in 1958. Americans celebrated it as a victory over the Soviets on their own turf during those Cold War days, and Cliburn, a pianist from Texas, returned to a ticker tape parade on Manhattan's Broadway and lionization on the cover of Time magazine.

Arts patron Anne Bass never intended to become a filmmaker, but somehow she ended up directing and producing "Dancing Across Borders," a documentary she presented in Beverly Hills on Tuesday. The screening benefited Center Dance Arts, which supports the performance series and educational programs of "Glorya Kaufman Presents Dance at the Music Center." "I fell into it sideways," Bass said, explaining that she originally hired a director to string together the footage of Sokvannara (Sy)

In Chicago they build things right -- and that goes for dance companies. In January, Joffrey Ballet of Chicago displayed its artistic vitality in Los Angeles with its splendid staging of Frederick Ashton's postwar masterpiece "Cinderella" at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. And now Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, the next offering of Glorya Kaufman Presents Dance at the Music Center, also augurs well. From humble beginnings in 1977 as a jazz-dance ensemble, the troupe of 17 virtuoso dancers has surged to international prominence on its high-quality delivery of eclectic, sophisticated European choreography.

Monday Evening Concerts Where: Zipper Concert Hall at the Colburn School, downtown L.A. When: 8 p.m. Monday Price: $27 Also: "Meet the Composer: Frank Denyer," 11 a.m. Sun., Goethe-Institut; $5. Contact: (310) 836-6632, www.mondayeveningconcerts.org

A snail shell . . . a smooth paving stone . . . a sardine can. These are among the unorthodox instruments English composer Frank Denyer uses in his music. On Monday night at the Colburn School's Zipper Hall, the new-music series Monday Evening Concerts presents the premiere of Denyer's "Out of the Shattered Shadows 2," along with the U.S. premieres of his "Hanged Fiddler" and "Woman, Viola and Crow." "I'm looking for a tone of voice with little rhetoric," Denyer, 67, said recently over breakfast in Little Tokyo, understating the deep intimacy of a sound world created by such things as mango seeds, bones and even moth cocoons.

Six years ago, soon after the foursome that makes up the Calder Quartet graduated from USC, the group began to get noticed. Even those who saw these young men as a bit green thought they might be on their way to something big. The critic Alan Rich, not known for dispensing praise lightly, called the Calders a new hope for a resident quartet in L.A. With good looks, mainstream musical flair and earnest ambition, the group was on many observers' most-likely-to...

The Colburn School of Performing Arts salutes the Sweet Strings program ("Inner-City Kids Need Violins," Voices, Oct. 21). The instructor mentioned, who originally offered to teach for free in the program, is full-time Colburn School teacher Chan Ho Yun, and we strongly support his efforts. The Colburn School has donated string instruments to the program and will continue to do so whenever possible. The commentary mentions the "really expensive" lessons at Colburn, but I want to point out that we pay well-deserved professional salaries to our faculty and also offer broad need-based scholarships based on generous income-based qualifications.

Robert Epstein, in his column "Low-Profile Programs Give High Hopes to Young Talent" (Feb. 6), said the Dance Gallery died last year. I am writing to correct this. The Dance Gallery has entered into discussion with the R. D. Colburn School of Performing Arts to build a facility for education and presentation of music and dance. The Dance Gallery's site in California Plaza will be redesigned to integrate the teaching and performance program of the Colburn School with that of the Gallery.

Sel Kardan, president and chief executive of the Music Institute of Chicago since 2005, has been named president of downtown L.A.'s Colburn School, overseeing the Colburn School of Performing Arts and the elite Colburn Conservatory of Music. Kardan assumes the new post in September. He replaces Miguel Angel Corzo, who abruptly resigned in October after serving as president since July 2007. In an interview Thursday, Kardan said that his experience at the Music Institute of Chicago, one of the nation's oldest community music schools, would serve him in reconciling the perceived differences in the goals of Colburn's community and professional programs.

Miguel Angel Corzo, president of the Colburn School of Music since July 2007, has resigned the post effective immediately, Colburn School board chairman Robert S. Attiyeh said Wednesday. Susan Keran Solomon, vice chairwoman of the board, will take a leave of absence from that position to assume the role of interim president. According to a statement released by the school, Corzo stepped down "to seek other challenges in the promotion of the creative economy and dedicate his time to the pursuit of these goals."