President Stull Outlines Vision for Conservatory's Next Century
 President David H. Stull outlined a new vision for the Conservatory at an invitation-only event on Thursday, March 27. Before a crowd of more than 300 Conservatory supporters, leading philanthropists, guest artists and journalists, Stull announced initiatives that will transform the Conservatory inside and out. The Strategic Vision and Plan includes a new residence hall with a café, performance space, rehearsal rooms and apartments for visiting faculty; a newly-conceived curriculum that offers business classes and courses taught by top academics, complementing the pursuit of musical excellence with interdisciplinary context and professional development; a new composition major for technological media that draws on the resources of major Bay Area technology and recording companies; and new partnerships with the Conservatory's Civic Center neighbors including SFJAZZ, San Francisco Opera and the San Francisco Symphony. Read more.
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The Ann and Gordon Getty Challenge
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The Ann and Gordon Getty Foundation has pledged $1 million in support of the Conservatory's Strategic Vision and Plan, a bold set of initiatives announced by President David H. Stull on March 27 to guide the school into its second century. The Ann and Gordon Getty Challenge is the first step towards igniting community interest in the plan and helping launch the Conservatory's vision for the future. The challenge grant will match all donations to the Conservatory received by June 30, 2014. Help us meet the challenge! Make a donation.
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Adams Reigns at the Met
 Soprano Julie Adams '13 was declared a winner of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions following her performance at the Grand Finals Concert on Sunday, March 30. Adams was one of two students of voice faculty César Ulloa (also pictured at right) to win top honors. As a winner, Adams receives a $15,000 cash prize and joins the ranks of top Met stars who began their careers as National Council winners. Read more.
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 Spring Opera Covers New Ground
A "surreal" chamber opera that finds seven slightly paranoid travelers stranded with their luggage at an unidentified way station, Postcard from Morocco has no plot, a score that touches on operetta, Wagner and even ragtime... and a reputation as a provocative and powerful ninety minutes of opera. The first international success by Pulitzer Prize and Grammy Award-winning composer Dominick Argento, Postcard arrives at the Conservatory on April 10 with performances through April 13. A co-production with Portland Opera, Postcard draws on the talents of stage director Kevin Newbury, known nationally for his productions at San Francisco Opera and other major companies. Music director Curt Pajer promises the Opera Program's first-ever collaboration with a professional opera company will be a spectacle and a journey that rewards student performers and audiences alike.
Thursday-Saturday, April 10-12, 7:30 PM
and Sunday, April 13, 2 PM.................. 
Concert Hall, $20/$15
More information Purchase tickets
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Feeney Wraps Alumni Recital Season
 A performer of expansive energy and restless curiosity, violinist Krista Bennion Feeney '81 concludes this season's Alumni Recital Series on Monday, April 14. Feeney serves as concertmaster of the Orchestra of St. Luke's, has founded and led numerous award-winning chamber ensembles, and debuted works by composers as varied as John Adams, Terry Riley and Paul McCartney. She'll be joined by faculty members Corey Jamason, harpsichord, and Elisabeth Reed, viola da gamba, as well as alumnus Adam Cockerham '13 on theorbo and baroque guitar and grad student Laura Gaynon '14 on cello for a program spanning the baroque era with works by Bach, Biber, Leclair and Vivaldi.
Monday, April 14, 8 PM................
Concert Hall, $20/$15
More information Purchase tickets
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Concerts This Week
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Faculty violist and String Department Chair Jodi Levitz performs Bach's Cello Suites Nos. 1, 5 and 6 on Friday, April 4. Levitz, who calls the suites her "desert island pieces," completes a journey she began last year with a recital featuring the three other suites. Friday, April 4, 8 PM............................ Recital Hall, $20/$15 More information Purchase TicketsConrad Susa will be remembered in a concert on Saturday, April 5 celebrating his distinct voice, both as a composer and teacher. Students, faculty and friends will perform favorite works by Susa including the Joyce Madrigals, a scene from the opera Transformations and his popular arrangement of Shenandoah. Saturday, April 5, 8 PM St. Mark's Lutheran Church 1111 O'Farrell Street, San Francisco, Free More information |
Liu on the Air
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Used by permission of American Public Media
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The radio program Performance Today will broadcast three programs featuring double bassist Tian Yang Liu '13 as its Young Artist in Residence. Liu visited the show's studios in St. Paul, Minnesota this winter, accompanied by Conservatory pianist and alumnus Keisuke Nakagoshi '06, to record pieces by Piazzolla, Sarasate and others. He also performed Frank Proto's A Carmen Fantasy, a composition which led him to victory at last year's International Society of Bassists Solo Competition and one he reprises in concert with the Conservatory Orchestra on May 3. The broadcasts will air beginning April 2 on 287 public radio stations across the country and stream on the Performance Today website. Liu studies with Scott Pingel.
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Belden Appointed Trustee
Investment counselor and arts aficionado Louis Belden has been named to the Conservatory's Board of Trustees. It's a return for Belden, who served previously from 1993 to 2007. During 60 years in the investment counsel business, Belden founded several firms including Belden and Associates which merged with Rand & Associates in 2012. A devoted fan of Mahler, Belden calls his own attempts to learn an instrument as a youth "disastrous." Instead, he has pursued his interest in the arts by serving on the boards of the Museum of Modern Art in San Francisco, the Clark Center for Japanese Art and Culture in Hanford, California and the Cameron Art Museum in Wilmington, North Carolina. Belden is also a board member of the World Affairs Council.
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Cullison Named VP of Advancement
 The Conservatory has a new chief fundraiser. Stacy Cullison began work as Vice President of Advancement on April 1. She assumes the office from Bess Touma who transitions to become Associate Vice President for Development Affairs to the President, a newly created role that will focus on fundraising for new Conservatory initiatives. Cullison has a background in arts and educational philanthropy. For the past three years, she has had a senior role overseeing a $1 billion campaign for the Stanford University Medical Center. Before that, she spent ten years in development at San Francisco Opera and is credited with stewarding the donor relationship that ultimately yielded a landmark $35 million gift in 2005. Cullison, a lifelong musician, is a member of the San Francisco Symphony Chorus, a pianist and organist.
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Upcoming Concerts
Friday, April 4, 8 PM $20/$15............
Faculty Artist Series | Jodi Levitz, viola
Saturday, April 5, 8 PM FREE
Conrad Susa Memorial Concert
St. Mark's Lutheran Church
1111 O'Farrell Street, San Francisco
Sunday, April 6, 11 AM FREE
Trumpet Department Recital
Monday, April 7, 7 PM FREE
Master Class | Manuel Barrueco, guitar
Tuesday, April 8, 8 PM FREE
Piano Department Recital
Thursday-Saturday, April 10-12, 7:30 PM
Sunday, April 13, 2 PM $20/$15.........
Opera Program | Postcard from Morocco
Kevin Newbury, director, Curt Pajer, conductor
Sunday, April 13, 2 PM FREE
Harp Studio Recital
Monday, April 14, 8 PM $20/$15........
Alumni Recital Series
Krista Bennion Feeney '81, violin
Tuesday, April 15, 8 PM FREE
New Music Ensemble | Student Compositions
Nicole Paiement, director
Tuesday, April 15, 8 PM FREE
Cello Department Recital
Wednesday, April 16, 8 PM FREE
Voice Department Recital
Wednesday, April 16, 8 PM FREE
Baroque Ensemble | Chamber Music
Corey Jamason & Elisabeth Reed, directors
Thursday, April 17, 8 PM FREE
Percussion Department Recital
Thursday, April 17, 8 PM FREE
String and Piano Chamber Music
Friday, April 18, 8 PM FREE
Accompanying Department Recital
Saturday, April 19, 8 PM RR*............
Baroque Ensemble | Concerto Competition Winners
Corey Jamason & Elisabeth Reed, directors
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View our performance calendar for complete information including concert changes and updates. RR* = Reservations required. Call the Box Office for tickets and reservations at 415.503.6275. Conservatory SupportersTo reserve tickets, please contact June Hom at 415.503.6201 or jhom@sfcm.edu. To become a Conservatory supporter visit our website.
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 | A fresh look around and ahead for the
San Francisco Conservatory of Music |
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A Website is BornRemember the days before the internet? Yeah, neither do we. But evidence of such an epoch was recently unearthed by archivist Tessa Updike in an SFCM newsletter from April 1998 announcing the launch of SFCM's very first website, designed by clarinetist Bruce Chrisp '95. The article offers a "gee whiz" chronicle of new features and excitedly mentions "recent visitors to the site... from Japan, Spain, Colombia, Sweden and Italy." With great prescience, the site's boosters wrote, "It is tremendously important to have a presence on the World Wide Web considering that the site is often a student's first impression of the Conservatory."
Website Gets a Face-liftWe hope you take note of the latest changes to our website, including: a photo carousel of events and top news, convenient links to performances, an expanded newsroom with stories about the entire Conservatory community and a collection of videos with new perspectives on SFCM. Take a look around!
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The 70s Live On...
DECADES Prevue
Saturday, April 12, 8 PM
The time-traveling concert series DECADES debuts at the Conservatory next fall, but fans of pop music from any century can get a sneak peak next week at the venerable San Francisco nightclub Bimbo's 365. DECADES will profile popular music from single decades of the past three centuries (1770, 1870 and 1970), with a final look ahead to music of the twenty-first century (ca. 2070). The DECADES Prevue features Bach, Puccini and Mozart and classics by The Rolling Stones, The Beatles, Bob Marley and more. The Magik*Magik Orchestra, founded by Minna Choi '09, makes a special guest appearance. Proceeds support the series and help fund SFCM student scholarships.
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Pacific Boychoir Brings Vienna to San Francisco
Saturday, April 26, 8 PM
You need not travel to Europe to hear a fine boys choir and orchestra singing music from the city of musicians. The Grammy award-winning Pacific Boychoir Academy presents The Sound of Vienna, a concert of classical choral music, featuring the unique and rich sound of men and boys accompanied by orchestra at St. Ignatius Church in San Francisco. The program includes Haydn's Missa Sancti Bernardi von Offida (Heiligmesse), Mozart's Te Deum, Beethoven's Choral Fantasy, Schubert's Ständchen (Op. 135) and Strauss waltzes for treble voices. Performers also inlcude the Magik*Magik Orchestra and SFCM staff pianist Miles Graber. Use the code SFCMinVienna to get an extra 10% off when ordering tickets.
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Symphony Parnassus
Plays Bloch
Sunday, April 13, 3 PM
Symphony Parnassus performs Schelomo for cello and orchestra by Ernest Bloch with soloist Oliver Herbert in their spring concert at the Jewish Community Center of San Francisco. Music director and Conservatory bassoon faculty Stephen Paulson also conducts Mendelssohn's Fingal's Cave Overture and Beethoven's Fifth Symphony. Symphony Parnassus features post-graduate violinist Douglas Kwon as concert master and alumna Gina Gulyas '13 as acting principal flute.
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Switchboard's Seventh
Saturday, April 12
2-10 PM
The Switchboard Music Festival returns to San Francisco's Brava Theater on April 12. Now in its seventh year, Switchboard has become a home to bands and composers who jump genres in a way that might short-circuit conventional venues. The eight-hour marathon offers a rich amalgamation of sounds: gamelan, bagpipes, hiphop, jazz and more. Founded by Conservatory grads Jeff Anderle '06, Ryan Brown '05 and Jon Russell '03, the festival features numerous alumni this year, including guitarists Mobius Trio, Splinter Reeds and pianist Kate Campbell '04, in addition to the renowned Kronos Quartet (premiering a piece by Brown) and a string orchestra of up-and-comers from San Francisco School of the Arts. |
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