Anne Akiko Meyers To Be Commencement Speaker for Colburn School's Largest-Yet Graduating Class

April 6, 2023, 2:08 PM · Violinist Anne Akiko Meyers will serve as the featured keynote speaker at the Los Angeles-based Colburn School's 2023 Conservatory of Music Commencement, where she also will be awarded an Honorary Doctorate from the School. The commencement will take place on May 1. A native of Southern California, Anne is a Colburn alumna, having received her early training at Colburn’s Community School with Alice and Eleonore Schoenfeld.

Violinist Anne Akiko Meyers.

"Growing up I studied at the Colburn School, and have been in awe of its transformation into one of the world’s finest artistic institutions, under the leadership of President Sel Kardan," Anne said. "I am profoundly moved to receive this honorary doctorate and celebrate together with the Colburn Graduating Class of 23."

Since that time of her early studies, both Anne and the Colburn School have blazed parallel paths of achievement and growth.

Anne went on to study at the Juilliard School with Dorothy DeLay, Masao Kawasaki, and Felix Galimir, and signed with management at age 16 to launch her international performing and recording career. She has been awarded the Avery Fisher Career Grant and the Distinguished Alumna Award from the Colburn School, and is a member of the Board of Trustees of the Juilliard School. These days, Anne performs as a soloist with orchestras around the world, in recital, and as a prolific recording artist with more than 40 releases. She is one of today’s greatest champions of living composers, having commissioned and premiered important new works to massive critical and audience acclaim.

When Anne studied at Colburn in the early 1980s, the school itself was on the cusp of a major period of growth and change. Founded in 1950 as a small preparatory school for the University of Southern California, the school had functioned as a community school for its first 30 years. In 1980, Richard D. Colburn stepped in as its benefactor, helping the school to become an independent, not-for-profit institution.

The school was named after Colburn in the late '80s, after which serious plans started taking shape. In 1998, the school moved to its current location on Grand Avenue, and in 2003 the first official class of 15 students were welcomed to the Colburn Conservatory of Music. The expansion has continued to Colburn's infrastructure, programs and student body, with the addition of a 12-story residence, Colburn dance programs, the Colburn Music Academy, the Negaunee Conducting Program and more. This spring, the Conservatory will graduate 61 students - the largest number in the history of the school.

Students speakers for this year's graduation will include student violinist Aubree Oliverson, who studied with Colburn's Jascha Heifetz Distinguished Violin Chair Robert Lipsett, and conductor Ross Jamie Collins, who was part of the inaugural class of Salonen Fellows. Students in the current class have already secured positions with the Atlanta Symphony, Charlotte Symphony, Florida Symphony, New World Symphony, North Carolina Symphony, Pacific Symphony, Pershing’s Own United States Army Band, San Diego Symphony, and Victoria Symphony, among others. Conservatory Commencement is open to the public, and tickets are not required.

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Anne Akiko Meyers To Be Commencement Speaker for Colburn School's Largest-Yet Graduating Class

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