Colburn Orchestra

Now in its 21st season, the Colburn Orchestra is the flagship ensemble of the Colburn Conservatory of Music. Under the direction of Music Director Yehuda Gilad, the Colburn Orchestra performs across Southern California venues, including Walt Disney Concert Hall, the Ambassador Auditorium, Royce Hall, The Soraya, Soka Performing Arts Center, Cerritos Center for the Performing Arts, The Wallis, BroadStage, and Segerstrom Concert Hall, as well as on the Colburn campus in Zipper Hall. Dedicated to serving the greater Los Angeles community, the Colburn Orchestra performs for schools in neighboring communities every year, giving five concerts in a one-week period to schoolchildren of all ages.

Since its inception, Gilad and the esteemed Colburn faculty have invited leading guest artists to perform with the Colburn Orchestra to mirror a professional orchestral experience. Previous visiting conductors include James Conlon, Gustavo Dudamel, Miguel Harth-Bedoya, Neville Marriner, Kurt Masur, Nicholas McGegan, Ludovic Morlot, Michael Tilson Thomas, and Esa-Pekka Salonen, head of the school’s Negaunee Conducting Program and the Maestro Ernst H. Katz Chair in Conducting Studies. Acclaimed artists such as Mstislav Rostropovich and Itzhak Perlman actively worked with the orchestra during its inaugural year. The ensemble made its UK debut at the Edinburgh International Festival in August 2018, followed by a performance in Dublin.

Colburn Orchestra recordings include a live performance of Mahler’s Symphony No. 5, led by guest conductor Gerard Schwarz (Yarlung Records); an album of works by Menachem Wiesenberg (Live Classics), featuring Ronald Leonard in Wiesenberg’s Cello Concerto; If You Love for Beauty (Yarlung), featuring works by John Adams, Chausson, Handel, and Mahler with mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke; and Paul Chihara: Viola Concerto & Music for Viola (Bridge Records).

The Colburn Orchestra is generously underwritten by Eva and Marc Stern.