Fifteen year old Ray Ushikubo has already performed on the stages of Carnegie Hall and Merkin Concert Hall in New York City, and on NBC’s The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. Following his solo orchestral debut at age 10 with the Young Musicians’ Foundation Orchestra at Los Angeles’s Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, Ray has appeared with pianist Lang Lang at Orange County’s Segerstrom Concert Hall, and with pianist and conductor Jeffrey Kahane and the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra at Royce Hall in Los Angeles.
During the 2015–2016 season, Ray performed with the Reno Philharmonic Orchestra with conductor Laura Jackson. In the 2016-2017 season, Ray made his debut with the Pasadena Symphony and Modesto Symphony with conductor David Lockington. He also performed with The Dream Orchestra at the Broad Stage in Santa Monica. He won the 2016 Piano Concerto Competition at the Aspen Music Festival and School, and performed the Grieg Piano Concerto with the ACA Orchestra at Benedict Music Tent in Aspen.
Ray was a recipient of the prestigious Davidson Fellow Laureate Award in 2014. He has been featured several times on the nationally syndicated radio program From the Top. Ray was a featured guest artist on Rob Kapilow’s What Makes It Great? series with a program of Chopin’s solo works at the Cerritos Center for Performing Arts, and at the Griffith Observatory as part of the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s Immortal Beethoven concert series.
Since 2010, Ray has studied piano with Ory Shihor and violin with Robert Lipsett at the Colburn School’s Music Academy.
Repertoire
Round I
Chopin Polonaise-Fantaisie in A-flat major, Op. 61
Bach Prelude and Fugue No. 11 in F major, WTC 2, BWV 880
Liszt Étude d’exécution transcendante No. 10 in F minor, S. 139
Round II
Scarlatti Sonata in B minor, K. 27
Messiaen “Noël”, No. 13 from Vingt regards sur l’enfant-Jésus
Beethoven Sonata No. 31 in A-flat major, Op. 110
Round III
Tchaikovsky Concerto No. 1 in B-flat minor, Op 23