RAY USHIKUBO

United States / Japan I Age 17

Ray Ushikubo made his recital debut at a Lang Lang and Friends concert at Segerstrom Concert Hall when he was 8 years old, and his Carnegie Hall debut the following year, playing piano and violin. Highlights of his already active performance career since include concertos with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, San Diego Symphony, Buffalo Philharmonic, and Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra (the latter in a double piano concerto with Jeffrey Kahane). In 2012, he played with Lang Lang on “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno,” and has also performed for From the Top, NPR’s Performance Today, TEDx, and Radio France (with Jean-Yves Thibaudet). Ray has won several piano competitions and is a 2014 Davidson Fellow laureate. He studied piano (with Ory Shihor) and violin at the Colburn Academy, and now attends the Curtis Institute also in both instruments under the piano tutelage of Gary Graffman and Robert McDonald. He listens to heavy metal, watches classic action movies, and loves driving cars.

“Through my music, I hope to make the people all over the world believe in themselves and become the best of what they can be. Music brings the best of my life.”

Competitor Profile

Repertoire

Preliminary Round
BACH Prelude and Fugue in D-sharp Minor, BWV 877
CHOPIN Polonaise in A-flat Major, op. 53 (“Heroic”)
LISZT Transcendental Etude No. 10 in F Minor

Quarterfinal Round

BEETHOVEN Sonata No. 8 in C Minor, op. 13 (“Pathétique”) (I)

CHOPIN Nocturne in B Major, op. 62, no. 1

LISZT Rhapsody espagnole

Semifinal Round

CORIGLIANO Etude Fantasy

CHOPIN Sonata No. 3 in B Minor, op. 58

Final Round

RACHMANINOV Concerto No. 2 in C Minor, op. 18