your support matters

Students received over $11 million in scholarship support this year, and the School hosted more than 300 live and virtual performances, free to the public. Your gifts make this possible. If you share our unshakable passion for music and dance, we invite you to join us in cultivating future generations of performers, audiences, creative thinkers, and arts leaders by making a gift today.

colburnschool.edu/give

“ I have designated a planned gift in my estate for the Colburn School because I believe it will be around for the future, and will continue to prepare students for life via the study of music and dance performance. It does this at the very highest level, and having long-term resources to count on means the school can evolve and develop as it needs to. It’s a vote for the future of the school and its mission.”

77% of the School’s operating budget is made possible through philanthropy

Gifts from individuals, institutional partners, our trustees, and legacy gifts allow us to provide unparalleled educational and artistic opportunities.

Endowing of the Gaylord “Nick” Nichols Chair, Center for Innovation and Community Impact

Our dear friend Gaylord “Nick” Nichols, who was a fierce advocate of Colburn’s community engagement activities, left an estate gift to the Colburn School to endow the Gaylord “Nick” Nichols Chair, currently held by Dr. Nathaniel Zeisler, Dean of the Center for Innovation and Community Impact. His gift is a tribute to the School’s decade-long commitment to community engagement initiatives, and innovation and entrepreneurship in the arts, and will ensure this work in perpetuity.

Honoring Marilyn Ziering

In February, a celebration in honor of Marilyn Ziering—the namesake for the Colburn School’s Ziering-Conlon Initiative for Recovered Voices—was held at the home of her daughter Rosanne Ziering. This special event featured performances by Colburn students, alumni, and faculty, and remarks by Artistic Director James Conlon to raise a toast to the program’s founding supporter.

Colburn Travels Abroad

In 2023, our Colburn students benefitted from two unique travel programs funded by our donor community.

The Sibelius Academy Exchange Program offered the Olive Trio— consisting of students from the Colburn Music Academy—a chance to spend a week in Helsinki at the Sibelius Academy. The students immersed themselves in a rare week-long cultural encounter, which included taking up residence in the artist commune where Sibelius himself lived with his family.

In May 2023, artist-in-residence Jean-Yves Thibaudet, faculty members Clive Greensmith and Tatjana Masurenko, and Conservatory students Aubree Oliverson, Duncan McDougall, and Javier Morales-Martinez performed in renowned locations in London, Dublin, Berlin, and Paris, including at the Frank Gehrydesigned Boulez Saal in Berlin. This international experience playing alongside celebrated performers shapes a young artist’s career in unparalleled ways. A very special thank you to the patrons who helped fund this tour, some of whom traveled with us. Programs like these make the Colburn experience so unique and extraordinary for our students, and it is the generosity of our donors that makes this possible for them.

leadership board of directors chairman

Andrew Millstein life chairman emeritus

Carol Colburn Grigor vice chairmen

David D. Colburn

Diane Naegele directors

Daniel L. Avchen

Robert N. Braun, M.D.

Henry Choi

Richard W. Colburn

Alice Coulombe

Jennifer F. Diener

Anthony E. DiResta

Darren Edwards

Greg Guyett

Carol F. Henry

Catherine Colburn Høgel

Bob Kelly

William T. Kennedy

Molly Kirk

Aliza Lesser

Robert E. Lewis

Beverly C. Marksbury

Worthy McCartney

Greg McWilliams

Ann Moore

Mahnaz Newman

Heinrich Schelbert, M.D., Ph.D

Harry B. Suh

Keith Terasaki

Peter W. Wardle

Dylan Yolles honorary life directors

Robert S. Attiyeh

Toby E. Mayman in memoriam

David N. Barry

Iona Benson

Edmund D. Edelman

Robert B. Egelston

Warner Henry

Ann Ronus