Program
The Colburn School Onstage: Pianists Chi-Jo Lee and Ray Ushikubo
Chi-Jo Lee, piano
Ray Ushikubo, piano
Chi-Jo Lee, piano
L’isle Joyeuse
CLAUDE DEBUSSY (1862 - 1918)
Theme and Variations from 5 Pieces, Op. 15
GEORGE N. GIANOPOULOS
Moments Musicaux, Op. 16
SERGEI RACHMANINOFF (1873 - 1943)
Andantino
Allegretto
Andante cantabile
Presto
Adagio sostenuto
Maestoso
INTERMISSION
Ray Ushikubo, piano
Polonaise Héroïc in A-Flat Major, Op. 53
FREDERIC CHOPIN (1810 - 1849)
Sonata No. 8 in C Minor, Op. 13 ‘Pathetique’
LUDWIG V. BEETHOVEN (1770 - 1827)
Grave -Allegro di molto e con brio
Adagio cantabile
Rondo: Allegro
Paganiniana
NATHAN MILSTEIN (1903 - 1992)
Chi-Jo Lee
Chi-Jo Lee, is currently pursuing an Artist Diploma in piano performance at the Colburn Conservatory of Music. Having earned her master’s degree from Colburn in 2023 under the tutelage of Fabio Bidini. As a keyboard instructor at the Colburn Academy since 2023, she shares her knowledge with young musicians. Prior to her time at Colburn, Chi-Jo honed her craft under the guidance of pianist André Watts at Indiana University Jacobs School of Music. Her musical journey has taken her to venues in the United States, Italy, Japan, China, and Taiwan.
As a solo pianist, she won prizes at The Wideman Piano competition, The Odyssiad festival and competition, and the concerto competitions at Indiana University and at the Colburn School. She made her radio live show solo debut at the WFIU public station in Indiana. She was recently a semi-finalist at The Gurwitz Competition in the United States.
As a native of Taiwan and a chamber music enthusiast, her piano trio was the 2022 winner of the Eslite chamber music audition. Prior to this achievement, she received multiple prizes from Taipei Education Department competition on both solo piano and piano trio from 2011 to 2015.
Chi-Jo, as a chamber musician, collaborated with esteemed artists such as Susan Graham, Andy Akiho, Tessa Lark, and Arnaud Sussmann, as part of the Colburn Chamber Music Society. She performed at La Jolla Musi Society and “Le Salon de Musiques” in the San Diego chamber series. Additionally, she has engaged in collaborative projects with the LA Opera. Her performance was reviewed and featured in publications such as The San Diego Union-Tribune (2023) and The Santa Barbara Independent (2022).
Her interest in Contemporary Music was sparked during her time as an Alto singer in NOTUS, the Contemporary Vocal Ensemble directed by conductor-composer Dominic DiOrio. She has been a part of Colburn School’s Contemporary Ensemble and has performed compositions by Steve Reich, Guillaume Connesson, Christopher Cerrone, Andy Akiho, Juri Seo, Nico Muhly, and others.
Ray Ushikubo
Known for his “disciplined focus and clarity…and marvelous dynamic nuance” (Arts Knoxville), Ray Ushikubo is a 22-year-old Japanese American pianist and violinist who has performed on the stages of Carnegie Hall and Walt Disney Concert Hall and appeared on NBC’s The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. Ushikubo made his orchestral debut at age 10 with the Young Musicians Foundation Orchestra in Los Angeles’ Dorothy Chandler Pavilion with Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 1 alongside conductor Teddy Abrams. A recipient of the prestigious Davidson Fellow Laureate Award in 2014, Ushikubo was named a Young Steinway Artist and won the 2017 Hilton Head International Piano Competition as well as the 2016 Piano Concerto Competition at the Aspen Music Festival and School. Ushikubo was featured as a Young Artist-in-Residence of the national radio broadcast Performance Today with host Fred Child, and he has been featured on NPR’s From the Top, where he was named a Jack Kent Cooke Young Artist.
Ushikubo has collaborated with pianist Lang Lang in Orange County’s Segerstrom Concert Hall and with pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet on Radio France. He has performed as violin soloist in the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra’s 2014 Strad Fest Gala; Vivaldi’s Four Seasons alongside violinists Martin Chalifour, Philippe Quint, and Cho-Liang Lin; and the opening concert of the 2017 La Jolla Music Society SummerFest with violinist Chee-Yun Kim. He performed as piano soloist at the Los Angeles Japanese American Cultural & Community Center (JACCC) for a peace ceremony memorializing victims of the atomic bomb attack on Hiroshima; the ceremony also featured the acclaimed singer-songwriter Jackson Browne. He has appeared as a guest artist on Rob Kapilow’s What Makes It Great? at the Cerritos Center for the Performing Arts, on San Diego’s Mainly Mozart Festival series Mozart & the Mind, and at the Griffith Observatory as part of the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s Immortal Beethoven festival, performing Beethoven’s “Moonlight” Sonata.
Ushikubo received his bachelor’s degrees at the Curtis Institute of Music, where he studied piano with Gary Graffman and Robert McDonald and violin with Shmuel Ashkenasi and Pamela Frank. Currently, Ushikubo is pursuing Master of Music degrees at the Colburn Conservatory of Music, where he studies piano with Fabio Bidini and violin with Robert Lipsett.