Colburn School

The seeds for the Colburn School were planted in 1950, when the University of Southern California founded a preparatory school offering piano lessons to children. In 1980, the California Foundation — established by businessman and arts patron Richard D. Colburn — reimagined the institution as the Colburn Community School for Performing Arts, which set out to provide children as well as adults in Los Angeles with an exceptional performing arts education.

The Colburn Conservatory of Music was established in 2003, admitting students solely on talent or potential and giving them full scholarships for tuition, room, and board. The school added the Trudl Zipper Dance Institute in 2008, a comprehensive dance program for students of all levels. The institute's Dance Academy trains dancers between the ages of 14 and 19 to pursue a professional career. In 2010, the Colburn Music Academy was established, preparing gifted pre-collegiate musicians for conservatory study and performing careers. The ever-growing school is now building the Colburn Center, a 100,000-square-foot project designed by celebrated architect Frank Gehry. Slated to open in 2027, the Colburn Center significantly expands the dance institute's facilities and adds a 1,000-seat concert hall that will host opera, orchestra, and dance performances. 

More than 2,000 students study each year at the Colburn School, and the campus hosts 350-plus public music and dance performances annually. Through all of its work, the institution has become a vibrant center for the performing arts and an inclusive incubator for the promising musicians and dancers of tomorrow.