San Francisco Conservatory of Music

San Francisco Conservatory of Music The San Francisco Conservatory of Music educates exceptionally talented musicians from around the world For more information, visit sfcm.edu.
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Founded in 1917, the San Francisco Conservatory of Music is the oldest conservatory in the American West and has earned an international reputation for producing musicians of the highest caliber. Its faculty includes nearly 30 members of the San Francisco Symphony as well as Grammy and Latin Grammy Award-winning artists in the fields of orchestral and chamber performance, classical guitar, and jaz

z. The Conservatory offers its 400-plus collegiate students fully accredited bachelor's and master's degree programs in composition and instrumental and vocal performance. SFCM was the first institution of its kind to offer world-class graduate degree programs in chamber music and classical guitar. Its Pre-College Division provides exceptionally high standards of musical education and personal attention to more than 200 younger students. SFCM faculty and students give nearly 500 public performances each year, most of which are offered to the public at no charge. Its community outreach programs serve over 1,600 school children and over 6,000 members of the wider community. Notable alumni include violinists Yehudi Menuhin and Isaac Stern, conductor and pianist Jeffrey Kahane, soprano Elza van den Heever, Blue Bottle Coffee founder James Freeman and Ronald Losby, President, Steinway & Sons - Americas, among others. The Conservatory's Civic Center facility is an architectural and acoustical masterwork, and the Caroline H. Hume Concert Hall was lauded by The New York Times as the "most enticing classical-music setting" in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Not bad for someone who's only been able to vote for seven months! SFCM Pre-College alumna Starla Breshears has won the ...
06/15/2026

Not bad for someone who's only been able to vote for seven months!

SFCM Pre-College alumna Starla Breshears has won the grand prize at the 41st annual Irving M. Klein International String Competition, taking home two additional prizes for best solo Bach performance and best sonata performance.

Breshears, 18, won the grand prize, which includes $5,000 cash as well as a raft of performance contracts. The Klein win builds on a landmark year for Breshears, who studied at SFCM from 2015-2025. In March, she joined the San Francisco Symphony's cello section, becoming the youngest musician in the venerable ensemble.

"Starla's artistry and dedication was evident from her early start at the Conservatory," Pre-College Executive Director Keelin Davis said, while Breshears' private teacher Jean-Michel Fonteneau called her "one of the most gifted young cellists I have encountered in my five decades of teaching."

Read more: https://bit.ly/4enQqC7

There is no better place for a musical startup than SFCM. Held as part of the Arts Leadership Institute, SFCM's Musical ...
06/12/2026

There is no better place for a musical startup than SFCM. Held as part of the Arts Leadership Institute, SFCM's Musical Startups Incubator Pitch event gave students a daylong opportunity to show off original business ideas to Bay Area investors and mentors, including "Guitar Hero" co-creator Charles Huang.

A trio of ambitious student projects stood out this year:

🎮 PracticePro: An app by Irene Giovannetti ('26) that "gamifies" musicians' practice sessions.

🧘 Resonant States: A sound bath series by Zoe Lee ('26) that combines yoga, mindfulness meditation, and music.

🎵 Return Interval: A production company by current students Ben Kitchen and Luca Robadey behind Dunes, an immersive multimedia experience utilizing spatial audio and reactive lighting projections.

"We're working really hard on figuring out a way to make it scalable so that anything from a string quartet to a symphony can play it or it can be 'put on' in say, The Sphere in Las Vegas," Kitchen says. "That's the ultimate goal."

Read more: https://bit.ly/4uxnspI

SFCM faculty member and San Francisco Symphony Principal Harp Katherine Siochi is taking on a statistician's dream: a na...
06/10/2026

SFCM faculty member and San Francisco Symphony Principal Harp Katherine Siochi is taking on a statistician's dream: a nationwide survey of harp audition repertoire. Organized into a handy resource for teachers and students, the community-driven project catalogs data from decades of audition lists to track the most frequently appearing orchestral excerpts.

"My goal is for it to be a resource that allows students and professionals to actually learn, statistically, the most frequently appearing excerpts," Siochi explains. The detailed data helps students strategically prioritize the most commonly required pieces during their degrees.

Because orchestral harp positions are incredibly rare, having this data is a game-changer for applicants. "Those jobs, especially in the bigger cities, just don't open up very frequently," Siochi notes. "You really have to be super-solid and stand out to make the cut."

Read more: https://bit.ly/4ghFvwm

06/09/2026

Those high notes? Absolute gold.

Claudia de Lourdes Díaz delivers a beautiful performance of "Chi il bel sogno di Doretta" from SFCM’s Season Finale Opera Showcase production of Giacomo Puccini’s "La Rondine."

Heather Matthews, Director of Opera and Musical Theater noted, "Every year, our students have access to multiple high-level productions: It's as if we're operating a regional opera and musical theatre company every academic year."

Recent upgrades to the Caroline C. Hume Concert Hall, including dramatic technical upgrades and a full digital proscenium, create a multimedia immersive experience for the performers and audience alike.

Learn more about voice studies here: https://bit.ly/4vvaVUo

The SFCM Roots, Jazz, and American Music (RJAM) Big Band is headed to the Monterey Jazz Festival! This marks the ensembl...
06/08/2026

The SFCM Roots, Jazz, and American Music (RJAM) Big Band is headed to the Monterey Jazz Festival! This marks the ensemble's debut at the longest continuously-running jazz festival in the world.

Big band repertoire offers a valuable learning experience, pushing students' musicianship beyond small-group dynamics. "We're always trying to work on building our students' repertoire so that when they're out of school, they can recognize pieces," says RJAM Executive Director Jason Hainsworth. To challenge the band, they will perform "My Centennial," a complex piece featuring intricate rhythms and a challenging range for the brass.

In today's industry, big band experience is crucial for "portfolio musicians" looking to expand their gig opportunities. Catch the RJAM Big Band's performance on Saturday, September 26 at Monterey Jazz.

Read more: https://bit.ly/4uRimFw

06/08/2026

Drum solo > everything else.

RJAM drummer Tania Cosma ('26) performs "The Fox" by Kenny Dorham.
Our Roots, Jazz, and American Music (RJAM) program takes a holistic view of jazz from its inception to its thriving present. RJAM students work in an innovative model of apprenticeship with all-star faculty, including members of the SFJAZZ Collective.

Learn more about jazz studies at SFCM here: https://bit.ly/49MsMOv

06/04/2026

Billy Childs didn't just visit campus. He took it over.

Here's a look back at an incredible week with the six-time Grammy-winning jazz pianist:

🎺 Sitting in with the RJAM Big Band and sharing the stage for a sold-out live performance in Hume Concert Hall.

🎼 Working closely with our small jazz combos during the weekly RJAM convocation.

🎥 Joining the TAC Forum to critique student projects and model professional peer feedback.

🍴 Lunch with the Black Student Union.

📝 Visiting composition seminar with David Conte.

Here's to a whole New World.Percussion student Will Morgan has landed a seat in the New World Symphony (NWS) in Miami, F...
06/03/2026

Here's to a whole New World.

Percussion student Will Morgan has landed a seat in the New World Symphony (NWS) in Miami, Florida, a prestigious orchestral academy for early-career musicians.

Morgan, who studies with Percussion Department Chair Jacob Nissly at SFCM, attributes much of his success to learning from an active orchestra principal. "Jake helped me so much with what people actually care about on an audition panel," Morgan says.

Succeeding also required a major mindset shift. "I used to put so much pressure on myself to perform," he recalls. To strike a balance, Morgan reconfigured his headspace, using early morning practice sessions and cycling as a form of meditation. "A lot of those thoughts were trying to take the pressure off of myself," he says. "If I mess up, that's fine... Of course it can be me to advance, I'm putting in the work."

That new perspective paid off on the day of his NWS audition.

🔗 Learn more about Will's journey here: https://bit.ly/4a97Yke

It’s only fitting that, for her first official concerts this weekend in the City by the Bay as Music Director Designate ...
06/03/2026

It’s only fitting that, for her first official concerts this weekend in the City by the Bay as Music Director Designate for the San Francisco Symphony, Elim Chan is conducting Debussy’s "La Mer." 🌊🎶

As your Civic Center neighbor, congratulations on your historic appointment! With nearly two dozen SFS members serving on our faculty, the entire SFCM community is thrilled to welcome you to the neighborhood and celebrate a new era of music-making in San Francisco.

📸 Cody Pickens

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50 Oak Street
San Francisco, CA
94102

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Wednesday 7am - 11pm
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Friday 7am - 11pm
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