San Francisco Conservatory of Music

08/20/2025

SFCM Composition Chair David Conte's ruby work anniversary (40 years!) is off to a great start.

Following the release of a new album of his chamber pieces, "Intimate Voices," from SFCM Alliance partner and record label Pentatone Music, Conte's work will open SFCM's Fall 2025 season of performances with the SFCM Orchestra on September 27, while his Faculty Artist Series (FAS) recital on December 7th will feature two world premieres of his work.

Fittingly for the anniversary, Conte's new album is a collection of pieces inspired by SFCM. "Most of the pieces were prompted by invitations to compose for SFCM faculty and alumni colleagues," he says. The group configurations, he adds, "historically have drawn out the most profound utterances from many great composers, and it's both exciting and humbling to work in these genres. I'm in exalted company."

Conte is a direct link to iconic teacher Nadia Boulanger, whose teaching and traditions he passes on to his students. "Composing is not necessarily easy," he says. "It requires effort, work, and mastery. But anything worth doing is not necessarily easy."

SFCM Composition Chair David Conte's ruby work anniversary is off to a great start.

08/19/2025

"Playing the national anthem at a major sporting event had always been a dream of mine," guitarist Mario To says. He was able to check that one off his wishlist, as the 2024 graduate played the opening rendition of "The Star-Spangled Banner" at an Oakland Roots game in July.

To had never played a venue the size of the Oakland Coliseum, which seats 6,500 fans. "The echo of the Coliseum is enormous and it took me a while to get used to it," he said. "But it was still exciting and I felt extremely welcomed by the audience," he added.

The Conservatory's Hire SFCM program offers opportunities like this for SFCM students and alumni. Hire SFCM performances have included high-profile artists like SFJAZZ Collective Music Director Chris Potter, the Kronos Quartet, and even All-Elite Wrestling, the nation's second-largest professional wrestling organization.

As a soccer fan might say, "the beautiful game" opened with beautiful music when Mario To performed the national anthem at a recent Oakland Roots SC game.

08/15/2025

“Do You Want to Do This Alone or Together?”

Most musicians dream of performing, not negotiating pay or reading contracts. But at a mock contract negotiation hosted by SFCM’s Professional Development and Engagement Center this summer, AFM Local Six President Kale Cumings made the case to students that understanding your rights is part of building a sustainable career.

“The main point about a union is that you don’t have to do all that work alone,” he said. “There are thousands of people that are already doing it.”

Cumings described the union as a social justice group working to give musicians equal power at the negotiating table. He encouraged students to start building solidarity now. “The most valuable lessons and the most poignant support you will ever receive will come from your colleagues.”

PDEC’s event gave students hands-on exposure to real-world challenges, and tools to meet them together.

Most aspiring musicians dream of performing, not the world of contracts, taxes, and negotiating their pay.

08/12/2025

One recent SFCM graduate has composed a path right to a local Emmy award.

2025 Technology and Applied Composition (TAC) graduate Theo Popov was on hand to accept an award for his composition work on Possible Selves: Overcoming the Odds in Foster Care on July 25 as part of the 2025 Los Angeles Area Emmy Awards.

“It is a beautiful story, equal parts heartrending and heartwarming, and a uniquely insightful glimpse into the California foster care system,” Popov said of the film.

During his time at SFCM, he was one of 15 students in the inaugural Sound and Cinema Fellowship with SFFILM, where TAC students handled original score, sound design, and sound mixing on four different films that premiered at the San Francisco International Film Festival in April 2025.

08/11/2025

Composition alum Nicolás Lell Benavides' new opera about iconic California labor leader Dolores Huerta would have been heavy enough thematically, but the fact that the two were cousins made the work's creation and premiere an emotional process.

"I just couldn't fathom what it would be like to go through that and I just became obsessed with this moment in history," Benavides says. "What does it take to deal with that and keep moving forward and fighting?"

Oakland's West Edge Opera premiered "Dolores" this month with a cast jam-packed with SFCM alumni—five of the seven principal roles alone were grads. "I just didn't really notice until we were in rehearsal," Benavides says, "and that was just pure coincidence: We hired based on who we wanted in the cast."

Read more about Bevavides' work, the opera's enthusiastic reception, and why he thinks everyone needs a mentor they can trust—and eventually outgrow—in the comments.

📸 Kenneth Kellogg and Corey Weaver

08/09/2025

Professor Richard Savino is a walking history of the guitar and quite a few of its predecessors. He played trumpet in his New York City high school marching band and sang in its choir, until a familiar incident in the lives of many guitarists: The Beatles’ performance on The Ed Sullivan Show in February of 1964.

From the folk boom of the era into the guitar hero era of Jimi Hendrix and Eric Clapton, Savino stayed hooked, picking up an electric guitar and, while still in high school, playing in bands in places like the famed Bitter End in Manhattan. But after a few years in the debauched world of rock ’n’ roll, he decided the scene wasn’t for him.

He won a Carnegie Hall debut competition and was chosen to play in the first big masterclass Andrés Segovia ever gave in New York in 1982. Drawn to the social nature of ensemble work, Savino gravitated to period instruments, specializing in a Stradivarius-copy Baroque guitar, a 12-string vihuela, and a six-string guitar modeled on an early 19th-century René Lacôte. His expertise led to a European tour with Joyce DiDonato prepared in just two days.

“I like to collaborate, and playing in chamber groups demands a level of collaboration and communication that, to me, is at the heart of what makes music fun. That’s the first thing I tell my students.”

Full story in the comments.

08/05/2025

Over a million gamers have now heard SFCM faculty and alumni on the soundtrack for Death Stranding 2, one of the most anticipated AAA games of the year.

The PS5 game from legendary game designer Hideo Kojima features Technology and Applied Composition (TAC) faculty Daria Novoliantceva, Amelie-Anna Hinman (Assistant Director of the Roots, Jazz, and American Music department), and TAC alum Joi Marchetti handling orchestration and vocals.

“I was very, very excited about this project not only because it’s a huge game, but also because video games have always been so important to me,” Hinman says. “When I was a little girl, I would sneak into the computer room at night without my parents knowing and play video games with the sound off... Diablo II had this outrageously amazing soundtrack, so what I would do is listen to the soundtrack during the day so I could sort of play it in my head when I was playing the game on mute at night.”

Read more in the comments.

08/04/2025

Some teens go to camp for the summer. Ava Pakiam soloed with Filarmonía Orchestra in Veracruz and Tlaxcala.

The 15-year-old SFCM Pre-College student has studied with faculty member Simon James since she was seven. This summer marked her third engagement with conductor Jorge Vazquez, who first discovered her performances on social media.

“My favorite part was hearing them clap rhythmically after we finished the Tchaikovsky Concerto,” Ava said. “It was so exciting to hear them start clapping together to call me back out there!”

Ava also received a 2025 Salon de Virtuosi Career Grant, one of just five artists or ensembles selected from an international pool. SFCM’s Pre-College division offers immersive programs for musicians 18 and under, providing tailored instruction and an artistic framework for the next generation.

07/30/2025

Some San Francisco students will have a jump-start on their "what I did on my summer vacation" essays when they return to school this fall.

The Conservatory’s Summer@SFCM program wraps with a harp recital, bringing an end to another season of lessons, intensives, and performances across six of SFCM’s departments.

Students new and returning were able to polish their skills, perform, and make new friends.

“This is likely to be the most you’ll ever improve in a week,” said 15-year-old guitarist Meezahn.

Applications for Summer@SFCM 2026 open December 1.

07/28/2025

Eric Choate had a pretty good couple of days in June. SFCM’s Choir Director made his Carnegie Hall debut on June 22, conducting R. Vaughan Williams’ 'Dona Nobis Pacem' with The New England Symphonic Ensemble.

But he hardly got to bask in the experience: Backstage at Carnegie, he got a call from his wife, fellow SFCM alum Ellen Leslie, who was singing the soprano solo in Paris’ historic La Madeleine church the next day. She asked if he could be a last-minute replacement organist. “My wife called me while I was backstage at Carnegie Hall and said, ‘Since you’re going to be here tomorrow anyway, can you play?’ I mean, of course I had to say yes.”

Choate hopped on a red-eye to Paris, made it to La Madeleine for rehearsal, and played that night on the very same organ that Fauré and Saint-Saëns once played. “It was insane, but when the universe puts something like this in front of you, the answer is always yes.”

His whirlwind 48 hours are the kind of opportunities he encourages students to embrace: “Say yes to opportunities, be a good colleague, be a good musician, work hard, find music that inspires you, and attach yourself to people who value you.”

Full story in the comments.