Sounding Point Academy

The application deadline for Sounding Point Academy 2026 is this weekend! Start your application today at the link in our bio 🎻 Questions? Reach us at [email protected] ✨

Get ready for an unforgettable summer! Apply by February 2 to learn from Sounding Point Academy's outstanding faculty. 🎻

🔔 Announcing our 2026 SPA Guest Artist, Ray Ushikubo! Read the full bio on our website! 🔔

Ray Ushikubo, praised for his “disciplined focus and clarity… and marvelous dynamic nuance” (Arts Knoxville), is a Japanese-American pianist and violinist who has performed as soloist with major orchestras across the United States. Recent highlights include performing selections from Piazzolla’s Four Seasons with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Sibelius’s Violin Concerto with the Colburn Orchestra under Esa-Pekka Salonen.
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A Davidson Fellow Laureate and Young Steinway Artist, Ushikubo won first prize at the 2017 Hilton Head International Piano Competition and the 2016 Aspen Piano Concerto Competition, and was a prizewinner at the 2023 Klein International String Competition. He has performed with orchestras including those of Aspen, Buffalo, Florida, Fort Collins, Hilton Head, Modesto, New West, Pasadena, Pensacola, Portland, Reno, San Diego, Westchester, and Winston-Salem—often appearing on both piano and violin in the same concert.
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An avid chamber and collaborative musician, Ushikubo has performed with pianist Lang Lang at Segerstrom Concert Hall and on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. He has appeared with Jean-Yves Thibaudet on Radio France, and at Musique & Vin au Clos Vougeot alongside cellist Gautier Capuçon. With the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, he has been featured as a violin soloist in Vivaldi’s Concerto for Four Violins with Martin Chalifour, Philippe Quint, and Cho-Liang Lin, and as a pianist in Bach’s Concerto for Two Keyboards with Jeffrey Kahane.
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Born and raised in Los Angeles, California, Ushikubo double-majored and 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, Pamela Frank, and Aaron Rosand. Currently, Ushikubo double-majors at the Colburn Conservatory of Music, where he studies piano with Fabio Bidini and violin with Robert Lipsett.
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Ushikubo performs on the 1741 “Playfair” Guarneri del Gesù, generously on loan from Colin Maki Inc.

🔔 It’s World Violin Day! 🔔 We’re celebrating by practicing (of course) and by announcing an instagram takeover with Sounding Point violinist, Katrina Stroud! Join us Sunday, December 14 for a day in the life of a violinist, captured by one of our fantastic program alums. Tune in to our stories tomorrow!

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Katrina Stroud started violin at the age of three and received her Bachelors degree at the Robert McDuffie Center for Strings. She is currently pursuing a Masters degree at the University of Michigan with Fabiola Kim. In 2023, she won second prize in the St. Paul String Quartet Competition and was a quarter-finalist in the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition. Katrina has performed at the Fabian Concert Series, New Canaan Chamber Music, Andy and Friends, and USCB Chamber Music series. She serves as Principal Second violin in the University of Michigan University Philharmonia Orchestra and has been Concertmaster and Principal Second Violin in the Macon-Mercer Symphony Orchestra. She has performed with the New World Symphony and the Adrian Symphony Orchestra as a substitute musician and has spent her summers at the Aspen Music Festival and School with Robert Lipsett, Rome Chamber Music Festival and other programs worldwide.

SPA 2025 by the numbers! 8 recitals and over 320 lessons later ✅

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Applications for summer 2026 are OPEN! Check out the link 🔗 in our bio for more information!

SPA 2025 by the numbers! 8 recitals and 320 lessons later — another summer in the books ✅

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Applications for summer 2026 are OPEN! Check out the link 🔗 in our bio for more details!

Happy Fall from Sounding Point Academy! 🍁 Throughout the year, we will feature our fabulous students and faculty as they perform around the world!

With that, we are thrilled to spotlight Yvette Kraft, a Sounding Point Academy student from 2020-2025, and one of the newest members of the San Francisco Symphony! ✨

It’s hard to believe that it has been two months since the end of SPA 2025! As we head into the Fall, we are still thinking about some of these wonderful performances from this past summer. 💙 Stay in touch!