About the Colburn School @ ZipperHall.com

Experience the Power

The Colburn School started as a small preparatory program, as part of the

Richard D. Colburn

University of Southern California’s School of Music in 1950. It became an independent institution in 1980, and in 1986, it was renamed in honor of Richard D. Colburn, Board founder and patron. Over time The Colburn School has grown to be one the finest pre-collegiate performing arts schools in the world.

This highly visible urban building is prominently located in the heart of Los Angeles’ downtown “cultural necklace,” adjacent to the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA), across the street from The Walt Disney Concert Hall, and near the Los Angeles Music Center, Our Lady of The Angels Cathedral, and California Plaza’s Water Court.

Designed by renowned architectural firm, Hardy Holzman Pfeiffer Associates, the building’s location corresponds the position, proportions, and rhythms of its façade to those of Architect Arata Isosaki’s adjacent MOCA, although the actual materials of its walls and shapes of its roof pavilions are distinctively its own. The 55,000 square-foot complex sits atop Grand Avenue. A landscaped plaza is built over an adjacent side street to connect the Colburn School and MOCA. The plaza provides an outdoor venue for performances and receptions and also continues an existing link to California Plaza’s promenade.

The Colburn School provides music, dance and drama training to more than 1300 students who range in age from two and a half to eighty. It has a deep commitment to education, community outreach and audience development through its programs, concerts and activities. The seventy member faculty includes distinguished teachers and performers of national and international fame. It is the only pre-college, non-degree granting school in California accredited by the National Association of Schools of Music.

The Colburn School’s distinguished alumni include San Francisco Symphony Director, Michael Tilson Thomas; jazz pianists Patrice Rushen, Eric Reed and Donald Vega; internationally acclaimed young violin soloists Anne Akiko Meyers, Leila Josefowicz; violist Nokuthula Ngwenyama; Metropolitan Opera singer, Danielle de Niese. Former students hold principal chair positions in the symphony orchestras of Chicago, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Philadelphia and New York.

For More Information go to The Colburn School Website.