The Conservatory enjoyed an academic year and concert season marked by great achievements as well as great expectations. Students and alumni won top prizes in four major national and international competitions. Faculty members spearheaded new departmental projects and garnered acclaim for their own performances on San Francisco's major stages. And throughout the year, a buzz of anticipation grew as a transformative vision for SFCM's future took shape under the school's new leadership. We also paused to remember teachers and colleagues lost during the year. Follow these links to the year's top stories:

President David H. Stull unveils bold plans for SFCM's next century at a special Presidential Evening event. 

A new center at the Conservatory equips students for success in the marketplace of music. 

From opera to chamber music to solo strings, SFCM students and recent alumni scale the heights of major international competitions. 

Conservatory programs in opera, guitar and chamber music break new ground and celebrate new sounds.

Faculty shine in acclaimed solo appearances throughout the year while a quartet of faculty brass players join the debut of a new national ensemble at the Green Music Center in June. 

In memoriam: New Music Ensemble director Joan Gallegos and faculty composer Conrad Susa.    

 A Horn Player's Pursuits
June is a month of serenades for faculty member Robert Ward. The San Francisco Symphony's principal horn player joins colleagues from the country's top orchestras in the debut concert of the National Brass Ensemble on June 12 at Sonoma State University's Green Music Center. The ensemble also features SFCM faculty and San Francisco Symphony principals Timothy Higgins, trombone, and Mark Inouye, trumpet, and faculty member Adam Luftman, principal trumpet with the San Francisco Opera and Ballet. They'll perform the stunning antiphonal music of Renaissance master Giovanni Gabrieli and premiere a piece by award-winning film composer John Williams. (Take Note readers receive a 20% discount on tickets with the code SFCM.)

Before putting down his horn for the summer, Ward returns to the San Francisco Symphony as featured soloist in Britten's Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings in performances from June 19-21. Himself a bit of a Renaissance man, Ward demonstrates his technique and teaching in a new SFCM faculty profile (see featured video at right) and describes his work as a serious amateur genealogist and budding novelist in a recent San Francisco Symphony profile.

Zhou Joins New World Symphony
Fresh from receiving a professional studies diploma last month, violinist Yuping Zhou '14 has been invited to join the New World Symphony (NWS) for its 2014-15 season. NWS members get a crash course in what it takes to play in a major orchestra by performing a full season of orchestral and chamber concerts, going on domestic and international tours and building their chops with lessons, master classes and mock auditions. Zhou will work closely not only with NWS Artistic Director Michael Tilson Thomas, but with numerous other conductors, composers and performers of international stature. Zhou was a student of violin faculty Wei He '98.

Pingel Plays SFJAZZ
Double bass faculty and San Francisco Symphony principal Scott Pingel crosses the street to play a solo "Micro Concert" at SFJAZZ Center on Saturday, June 21 as part of this year's San Francisco Jazz Festival. Pingel's interest in jazz - and in Latin and classical music - led him to pick up the bass as a teenager. Pingel will play three sets of composed and improvised works as well as an original, Bach-inspired interpretation of the jazz standard Stella by Starlight. More information

SF Symphony Records a Different Kind of Classic
The San Francisco Symphony's newly-released recording of West Side Story lends a full symphonic sweep to Leonard Bernstein's beloved score. Concerts last June featured Broadway headliners Cheyenne Jackson and Alexandra Silber and performances by many of the two-dozen Conservatory faculty members who staff the Symphony's ranks. Performing with the chorus under faculty member and Symphony Chorus Director Ragnar Bohlin, SFCM communications staffers Sam Smith and John Bischoff were naturally menacing as Jets and Sharks. (They have since reconciled their differences.) The recording is available for download on iTunes and is released on CD June 10. More information

Erratum The last issue of Take Note incorrectly identified the teacher of soprano Sarah Duchovnay '12, a finalist in this year's Irene Dalis Vocal Competition. She studies with Catherine Cook.

Upcoming Concerts Saturday, June 28, 2 PM  $10/5
Summer Music West | Gilbert & Sullivan Scenes

In This Issue

Opera Parallèle's Anya17

June 20-22

 

Adam Gorb's powerful opera Anya17 illuminates timeless operatic themes as it sheds light on the vital issue of international human trafficking. Opera Parallèle's celebrated team, led by Artistic Director and SFCM faculty member Nicole Paiement and Concept Designer/Stage Director Brian Staufenbiel, invites you to experience Gorb's brilliant score (described by the London Sunday Times as "a marvel of boisterous inventiveness, albeit with a savage snap") and this touching story in its North American premiere. Enjoy a 10% discount on tickets with code: DISC.  

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Ojai Comes to Berkeley
Ojai North Music Festival
June 19-21

Celebrate "music that matters" with this year's Ojai North Music Festival, a laboratory for some of the most distinguished composers and performing artists of our time. Tickets on sale now at calperformances.org.
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Trinity Alps Chamber Music Festival
June 20-29

The Trinity Alps Chamber Music Festival performs six free concerts this month at scenic outdoor venues in northern California. For its fourth season, the festival presents two weekends of music by Brahms and Copland, including performances by SFCM alumni Edwin Huizinga '08, Stephen Fine '08, Hannah Addario-Berry '06 and festival co-founder Ian Scarfe '10.
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