Executive & Artistic Director

Thor Steingraber

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The Colburn Orchestra

Yehuda Gilad, Music Director

Carlos Miguel Prieto, Conductor

Zi Yang Low, Violin

Mert Yalniz, Assistant Conductor

Sun | Oct 26 3pm

Run time: approximately 1 hour and 45 minutes, including a 20-minute intermission

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Program | Program Note

The Colburn Orchestra Musicians

The Colburn Orchestra and Music Director Yehuda Gilad

Carlos Miguel Prieto

Zi Yang Low | Mert Yalniz

An Interview With Carlos Miguel Prieto

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The Soraya

Our Supporters | The Soraya Team

The Colburn Orchestra and Music Director Yehuda Gilad

Now in its 22nd season, the Colburn Orchestra is the flagship ensemble of the Colburn Conservatory of Music. Under the direction of Music Director Yehuda Gilad, the Colburn Orchestra performs across Southern California in venues including Walt Disney Concert Hall, Ambassador Auditorium, The Soraya, Soka Performing Arts Center, Cerritos Center for the Performing Arts, The Wallis, BroadStage, and Segerstrom Concert Hall, as well as on the Colburn campus in Zipper Hall. Dedicated to serving the greater Los Angeles community, the Colburn Orchestra performs for schools in neighboring communities every year, giving five concerts in a one-week period to schoolchildren of all ages.

Since the inception of the Orchestra, Gilad and the esteemed Colburn faculty have invited leading guest artists to perform with the Colburn Orchestra to mirror a professional orchestral experience. Esa-Pekka Salonen, head of the Colburn Negaunee Conducting Program and the Maestro Ernst H. Katz, Chair of Conducting Studies, regularly leads the orchestra. Previous visiting conductors include Lionel Bringuier, Gustavo Dudamel, James Conlon, Stéphane Denève, Miguel Harth-Bedoya, Sir Neville Marriner, Kurt Masur, Peter Oundjian, Carlos Miguel Prieto, and Michael Tilson Thomas. Acclaimed artists such as Mstislav Rostropovich and Itzhak Perlman actively worked with the orchestra during its inaugural year. The ensemble made its United Kingdom debut at the Edinburgh International Festival in 2018, followed by a performance in Dublin.

Colburn Orchestra recordings include a live recording of Mahler’s Symphony No. 5 led by guest conductor Gerard Schwarz (Yarlung Records); an album of works by Menachem Wiesenberg (Live Classics) featuring Ronald Leonard performing Wiesenberg’s Cello Concerto; and If You Love for Beauty (Yarlung), featuring works by John Adams, Chausson, Handel, and Mahler with mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke.

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The Colburn Orchestra is generously underwritten by Eva and Marc Stern. This performance is generously supported by Molly and Brian Kirk.

Carlos Miguel Prieto

Known for his charisma and expressive interpretations, Mexican conductor and Grammy winner Carlos Miguel Prieto has established himself not just as a major figure in the orchestra world but also as an influential cultural leader, an educator, and a champion of new music. He started his tenure as Music Director of the North Carolina Symphony at the beginning of the 2023–2024 season.

From 2007 to 2022, Prieto was the Music Director of the Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional de México, the country’s leading ensemble. He was also Music Director of the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra from 2006 to 2023, where he helped lead the cultural renewal of New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina. Prieto led the Louisiana Philharmonic to a successful Carnegie Hall debut and a Grammy in 2024. In 2008, he was appointed Music Director of the Orquesta Sinfónica de Minería, which led to a Latin Grammy nomination for Best Classical Music Album and a Grammy award for Best Classical Composition. In 2023, Prieto led OSM in a successful tour of the United States, and in 2024 had an impactful residence at Bravo! Vail Music Festival.

‍Recent highlights include engagements with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, NDR Elbphilharmonie, Frankfurt Radio Symphony, the Hallé, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Spanish National Orchestra, Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Strasbourg Philharmonic, and Auckland Philharmonia.

Prieto is in demand as a guest conductor with many of the top North American orchestras, including Cleveland, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Atlanta, Dallas, Toronto, Minnesota, Washington, New World, and Houston. He has enjoyed a particularly successful relationship with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and the North Carolina Symphony. In 2023, Prieto made his hugely successful BBC Proms debut at Royal Albert Hall, and at the Hollywood Bowl with the Los Angeles Philharmonic in 2024.

Since 2002, Prieto has conducted the Orchestra of the Americas, which draws young musicians from the entire American continent. A staunch proponent of music education, he served as Principal Conductor of the Youth Orchestra of the Americas from its inception until 2011 when he was appointed Music Director. In 2018, Prieto conducted the orchestra on a tour of European summer festivals, which included performances at the Rheingau and Edinburgh festivals as well as Elbphilharmonie Hamburg. He has also worked regularly with the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain and the NYO2 in New York.

Prieto is renowned for championing Latin American music as well as his dedication to new music. He has conducted over 100 world premieres of works by Mexican and American composers, many of which were commissioned by him. Prieto places equal importance on championing works by Black and African American composers, such as Florence Price, Margaret Bonds, and Courtney Bryan, among others.

Prieto has an extensive discography that includes Deutsche Grammophon, Naxos, and Sony labels. He was recognized by Musical America as the 2019 Conductor of the Year. A graduate of Princeton and Harvard universities, Prieto studied conducting with Jorge Mester, Enrique Diemecke, Charles Bruck, and Michael Jinbo.

Zi Yang Low

Malaysian violinist Zi Yang Low is currently pursuing his bachelor’s degree at the Colburn

Conservatory of Music in Los Angeles under the mentorship of Martin Beaver. Recognized for his elegant stage presence, musical sensitivity, and compelling artistic voice, Low is emerging as a distinctive presence among the new generation of violinists.

Low has garnered numerous accolades, including second prize and the jury prize at the Trondheim International Chamber Music Competition with Trio Tokava. He is also a grand prize winner of the GSF Singapore Festival. Low won first prize at the Virtual International Competition Malaysia, Ipoh Music Festival, Brilliant Talent Discovery Awards International Music Competition, Malaysia Youth Music Festival, Euroasia Violin Competition, and Singapore Raffles International Music Festival. As both a soloist and chamber musician, he has performed with the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra, Malaysian Philharmonic Youth Orchestra, and Selangor Philharmonic Orchestra. Low has also worked closely with artists such as Marc Coppey, Tatjana Masurenko, Paul Watkins, Ettore Causa, and Gerard Salonga, and has appeared at festivals such as the Ravinia Steans Institute, Heifetz International Music Institute, Meadowmount School of Music, APEC Music Festival, Singapore Violin Festival, and the Miyakojima Youth International Music Festival.

Low began violin studies at the age of 4 following early piano training, and previously studied with Ming Goh and Małgorzata Potocka in Malaysia. Low was a Kohl Scholar at the Colburn Music Academy.

Low performs on a 1718 Francesco Ruggieri violin, generously loaned by the Rin Collection in Singapore.

Mert Yalniz

Turkish-German conductor, pianist and composer Mert Yalniz has been described as “extremely individual, charismatic and convincing” (Osthessen News), his piano playing as “passionate, enthusiastic and highly virtuosic” (Braunschweig Newspaper), and his compositions as a “statement from the new generation” (Heidelberger Frühling). This season, he will make his debut with the NDR Radiophilharmonie in Hanover, Germany, where he will conduct Beethoven’s Triple Concerto with pianist Igor Levit, Weber’s Clarinet Concertino, Chausson‘s Poème, and Wagner’s Wesendonck Lieder. Yalniz is also a Salonen Fellow in the Negaunee Conducting Program at the Colburn School and on the conducting staff of the San Francisco Symphony, assisting Esa-Pekka Salonen internationally.

Recent performances include Grieg’s Piano Concerto with the Uniorchester Leibniz and Kammerorchester Braunschweig; Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 2 with the Göttinger Symphonieorchester and Deutsches Juristenorchester, Bach’s Concerto in D Minor, and Joaquín Turina’s Rapsodia Sinfonica with the Beethoven Orchester Hessen; and Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue with the La Tempesta Orchestra. Yalniz made his debut at the international music festival Heidelberger Frühling, performing excerpts from Frederic Rzewski’s The People United Will Never Be Defeated! and conducting and playing in his nearly 45-minute composition People Fantasy for chamber ensemble. In 2023, he debuted at the KKL as part of the Lucerne Piano Fest and played his first concerts in the United States at the Soundboard Institute, performing classical repertoire, his own compositions, and improvisation. Yalniz also participated in the festival Overture of the Heidelberger Frühling and worked with the Ballet of Difference and its director Richard Siegal on their production based on Rzewski’s The People United Will Never Be Defeated! variations, which he performed in full alongside the choreography.

Yalniz has regularly attended the Panula Academy of maestro Jorma Panula in Finland and worked with several orchestras on various repertoire, such as Mendelssohn’s Hebrides Overture with the Theater für Niedersachsen Philharmonie, Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 4 with the Philharmonisches Kammerorchester Wernigerode, and Ravel’s Ma mère l’Oye and Bizet’s Carmen Suite No. 1 with the Pori Sinfonietta. He also attended conducting master classes with Joana Mallwitz and the International Conducting Workshop & Academy led by Matthias Bamert and Ken Lam.

Yalniz has won first prizes as a pianist in the national music competition Jugend musiziert as well as the Eduard Söring Prize, a highly regarded prize from the Deutsche Stiftung Musikleben and the NDR Kultur-Förderpreis. In 2015 and 2017, he was a prize winner at the International Grotrian Piano Competition in Braunschweig, Germany, and received a scholarship from the Louis Spohr Gesellschaft. In 2016, Yalniz won first prize at the International Young Talent Music Competition in Istanbul and was awarded the special award for Best Musical Interpretation. Additionally, he won first prize at the Hamburg Instrumental Competition and received the Trübger Special Prize for Young Pianists which provided him a debut recital at the Laeiszhalle in Hamburg. In 2022, Yalniz received both the jury prize and the audience prize at the international competition of the 15th Pianale Piano Festival in Fulda, Germany. He has been part of the Yehudi Menuhin Live Music Now Hannover program, visiting social institutions and regularly giving concerts for people who have reduced access to live concerts due to their health.

Yalniz has attended piano master classes with Levit, Bernd Goetzke, Jacques Ammon, Konstanze Eickhorst, Francesco Libetta, Gülsin Onay, Uta Weyand, Matti Raekallio, William Fong, Markus Schirmer, Filippo Gamba, and Roland Krüger. In 2022, he began studying piano with Levit at the Hanover University of Music, Drama and Media.