Applications Open for Colburn School’s Music Academy

Applications to the 2025/26 edition of the pre-college program will close on January 10, 2025

Founded in 2010, the Colburn School’s Music Academy provides pre-college training for exceptional young musicians aged 12 to 18, who are pursuing professional music careers.

Alongside private instruction with the Colburn School’s esteemed faculty, the Academy also provides studio classes, chamber music, music theory, history, and ear training — plus career development and personal presentation courses. 

Students accepted to the program perform regularly, both on campus and throughout LA, and participate in a series of masterclasses. 

As part of the program, they will also perform in the Academy Virtuosi ensemble, coached by Margaret Batjer, concertmaster of the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra. The Academy Virtuosi give regular public performances and have appeared in concert with Ray Chen and Anne Akiko Meyers.

As in previous years, the 2025/26 edition of the Academy will run for 30 weeks from late August to early May the following year.

The program’s string faculty includes Margaret Batjer, Martin Beaver, Robert Lipsett, and Tatjana Masurenko, among others.

Additionally, pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet will serve as the Academy’s Artist-in-Residence — a role he has held since 2014, working with students in all units.

Past guest artists of the Academy have included Midori, Augustin Hadelich, Ida Kavafian, Christian Tezlaff, Sheku Kanneh-Mason, Kim Kashkashian, Gil Shaham, and more.

Many of its alumni have gone on to study at schools such as the Cleveland Institute of Music, the Curtis Institute of Music, Harvard University, London’s Royal College of Music, Colburn Conservatory, The Juilliard School, San Francisco Conservatory of Music, New England Conservatory, Eastman School of Music, and more. 

Music Academy students have also won numerous international competitions and attended summer programs including the Aspen Music Festival and School, Tanglewood, Perlman Music Program, Heifetz International Music Institute, Morningside Music Bridge, Yellow Barn, and Meadowmount School of Music.

With a deadline of January 10, apply for the Colburn Music Academy here. 

Those who pass the pre-screening round will be invited to participate in an audition in March 2025.

“Colburn's Music Academy is not that different than a great college conservatory experience," Margaret Batjer told The Violin Channel. “In fact, all of our students are exposed daily to the Conservatory environment through attending concerts, and participating occasionally in the Colburn Conservatory orchestra and master classes. The faculty at the Academy are also all teachers at conservatories or Universities and have first-hand experience in how to prepare students technically and musically to successfully matriculate into a great college program.”