Colberg began his musical studies at the age of four in his native Puerto Rico. Recipient of numerous awards including the Alpha Delta Kappa Foundation Fine Arts grant, Colberg was honored by the House of Representatives of Puerto Rico in 1985, and again by the Senate in 1994 for his achievements in the classical music field.  He is a graduate of the Peabody Institute of Music,  His main teachers include Alexander Schneider, Saul Ovcharov, Charles Libov and Shirley Givens. Mr. Colberg has also been on the violin faculty of the Peabody Institute of Music and on the viola faculty of the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music

 

As an active chamber musician, Mr. Colberg has collaborated with such artists and organizations as, Marvin Hamlish, Gary Karr, Milton Katims, Augustin Hadelich, Samuel Sanders, Joseph Silverstein, Jaime Laredo, Sharon Robinson, The Sitka Summer Festival, Arizona Musicfest Festival, the Muir, Cypress and Ariel String Quartets and with the Silk Road Festival in China. 

 

In October 2018, Mr. Colberg premiered his own Viola Concerto, with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra. He has performed this work with numerous orchestras, including the Puerto Rico Conservatory Orchestra, Carolina Philharmonic,  and Música de Cámara in New York City. The second movement of his concerto was used as the competition piece for the 2014 Primrose International Viola Competition and the third movement has been used in the Sphinx competition since 2023. In June of 2018, The Rant - For Two Violas, was also premiered at the International Viola Congress in Los Angeles. In 2022 his compositions for string quartet and percussion where released on an album titled Talking to Myself  in which he also played all the parts. His newest album for string quintets and percussion titled Baylamoose was released in 2024 and again, he performs all the parts on the album.  

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ON A PERSONAL NOTE:

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My grandfather played records all day. Through the eyes of a boy, his library was like what I imagined the Library of Alexandria must have been like. Books everywhere, but also lots of records, all accompanied by the smell of booze, olives, leather and moisture. His tastes in music spanned the globe. By the time I was five, I had heard the world. One sunny day (when is it not sunny in Puerto Rico?), when I was four, he put on a record that changed my life – "West meets East" by Yehudi Menuhin and Ravi Shankar. When I heard what was coming out of the record player, I said – “I have to play THAT”. From that moment, I knew I was a musician and nothing else would do. Truth be told, I meant I wanted to play the sitar ("that"), however, I’m not sure if there was even one single sitar in Puerto Rico at the time – so a violin had to do. I hit the ground running and dedicated myself to the instrument. 

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When I was five years old, my family was visiting with the Governor of Puerto Rico, Don Luis Muñoz Marin, at his farm house. He asked me to play something for him, but I was too shy at the time to say yes. After some heavy negotiations between the Governor and me, we agreed I would play around the corner of the house, away from people, under a palm tree.

 

How do you get to Carnegie Hall? Don’t get hit by a coconut.”

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