The San Francisco Conservatory of Music provides
Jake Heggie American Composer, Opus 3 Artist
SFCM By the Numbers
FINANCIAL AID
We know college is a substantial investment. We’re here to help you navigate the financial aid process so you can achieve your dreams. Check out our website for more information on:
• Scholarships & Grants
• Tuition & Fees
• Applying for Aid • Loans
• Work Opportunities • Veteran Educational Benefits
“ When I work with students, I try to make them listen as a group as well as being able to focus on their own sound. You can develop a very mature kind of musicianship, where you are able to interact with other musicians, even if they're accompanying you, that encourages them to feel like you're part of this one piece of music together.
”
Wonhee Bae Faculty, Violin/Chamber Music Esmé Quartet
The Next Generation of Musical Leaders
Join a community of over 450 artists from 34 countries shaping the future.
Creatives shine in San Francisco. The city we call home has a long history of welcoming innovators and groundbreakers who bring their big ideas and expand them into game-changing art, technology, and businesses. Our curriculum and collaborations at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music share that DNA.
Since being founded in 1917 by two pioneering women, we’ve built upon a legacy of ingenuity by connecting with local music organizations and tech hubs. The San Francisco Symphony, Ballet, Opera, and SFJAZZ are steps away from campus and employ many of our faculty and alumni. Our Silicon Valley neighbors—Sony, Dolby, Google, and Apple—are also partners and collaborators.
At SFCM, we are lifelong leaders and learners. As a professional school, we are committed to providing an extraordinary education that prepares our graduates to pursue fully engaged lives as citizens of the world. Our core mission is to transform our students: artistically, intellectually, professionally, and individually. With our partnerships with artist-management companies Opus 3 and Askonas Holt and GRAMMY-winning record label, Pentatone, your music education will be incomparable. At SFCM, we educate the whole person, nurturing students who are worldclass musicians on a technical level, with a powerful vision and the tools to manifest that vision in the world.
To learn more about our audition process and scholarship opportunities, please visit our website www.sfcm.edu
Explore San Francisco
Take a look around at some of our favorite places to roam the city.
Chea Kang, Opera Studies · ’25
“My favorite place to unwind and go vintage shopping is the Haight-Ashbury district. It's very colorful and fuels my creativity.”
Kristen Khler · Assistant Dean for Professional Development and Engagement
“I love heading to Patricia's Green sometimes in the early mornings on the weekends, getting a coffee, and sitting on the benches and watching the neighborhood wake up - also, to watch the dogs play! Sometimes there is a
farmer's market there as well, which is fun to wander around too.”
Madison Roesler · Director of Student Development and Belonging
“Although I'm a local, my favorite place in San Francisco is still the viewing area at Pier 39 to watch the hundreds of California sea lions. While it is one of the loudest and smelliest places to be in San Francisco, between all the barking, lounging, fighting, napping, and swimming going on, it is one of the most entertaining scenes to watch on a sunny Sunday afternoon and I will always love going there to see them.”
Justin Sun · Associate Dean & Executive Director of Pre-College
“My favorite place in San Francisco is Golden Gate Park I love exploring the various gardens, museums, and multiple landscapes the park has to offer.”
Mateyko Jazwinski, RJAM · ’24
“ Mount Sutro provides indescribable views of the city, and is home to several incredible hiking trails. The surrounding neighborhood is interwoven by many hidden staircases and inner-city hiking adventures—an unforgettable pairing of epic natural beauty and endearing architecture.”
Outer Sunset
Presidio Chinatown Fisherman’s Wharf
Oracle Park Palace of Fine Arts Ferry Building
Golden Gate Bridge
Golden Gate Park
Ocean Beach
Japantown
The Center of Arts in San Francisco
01 Ann Getty Center for Education (SFCM’s Ann Getty Center)
SFCM’s facility at 50 Oak Street opened in 2006 and has 60 teaching spaces, 29 practice rooms, a cafe, and 3 performance spaces designed to showcase more than 500 yearly performances.
02 The Ute and William K. Bowes, Jr. Center for Performing Arts (SFCM’s Bowes Center)
SFCM’s new 12-story music education and performance hub combines student housing, practice rooms, performance spaces, recording studios, and Classical KDFC radio. 03 SF Symphony
The Grammy Award-winning orchestra is across the street from SFCM's Bowes Center and nearly all principal players are on SFCM faculty.
This internationally renowned company is known for commissioning numerous world premieres and training the next generation of opera stars. Numerous faculty and alumni are ingrained with this company through initiatives like the historic Merola Opera Program and Adler Fellowship Program.
One of the world’s leading dance companies is also a frequent SFCM collaborator. SFCM faculty members are part of the SF Ballet Orchestra and students from the SF Ballet School live alongside SFCM students in the Bowes Center. In 2022, the two organizations partnered to form the Denis de Coteau Fellowship to advance opportunities for musicians with diverse backgrounds. 06 SFJAZZ Center
SFCM is a long-time partner, with extensive overlap between faculty and the SFJazz Collective members. SFCM students frequently play side-by-side with SFJazz members on stage.
Sydney Goldstein Theater
Your New Home For Music
Compose, practice, perform, and record
THE BOWES CENTER
Meet the first “vertical campus.”
This new 12-story, $200 million+, award-winning building in the core of the SF Arts scene transforms the city’s cultural landscape through street-level and rooftop performance spaces and a cutting-edge recording studio. Ninety percent of concerts here are free and open to the public!
This one-of-a-kind building contains modern apartment-style residences, the Classical KDFC radio broadcasting studio, and a restaurant lounge that allows for live student performances. SFCM’s closed campus features around-the-clock security officers in our buildings and allows access only to students, faculty, staff, and guests with badge access.
THE ANN GETTY CENTER
State-of-the-art studios and classrooms designed for the best audio and learning experience.
Our facilities at 50 Oak Street house acoustically mastered spaces (including practice rooms, teaching and recording studios, and concert halls) tailored to specific sound requirements. The building is also home to more than 100 Steinway and Yamaha pianos, a collection of Baroque instruments, and the historic Harris Guitar Collection.
SEE FOR YOURSELF
From our beautiful concert halls to the cutting-edge tech of Studio G, explore our campus yourself! Scan the QR code to get started.
Reimagining the Conservatory Model
A
new model for advancing music and education— SFCM's global initiative with Askonas Holt, Opus 3 Artists, and Pentatone
SFCM is redefining what it means to be a modern conservatory—starting by not limiting itself to being just a conservatory.
In late 2020, SFCM began a series of acquisitions to reimagine how traditionally disparate elements of the music industry could connect. The Conservatory now leads an alliance consisting of artist management companies Askonas Holt and Opus 3 Artists and recording label Pentatone.
musicians to workshop ideas on campus while simultaneously giving students hands-on exposure to shaping new works with these artists.
Together, the partners share an enthusiasm for supporting the success of students and artists by encouraging professional
Recent collaborations include Opus 3 Artist Patricia Racette's staging of The Consul students also performed side-byside with artists represented by Askonas Holt and Opus 3, including the Academy of St Martin in the Fields, Canadian Brass, Tamara Mumford, and Aaron Diehl. Laura Downes and the SFCM Orchestra also recorded Edmar Colón’s "Rhapsody in Blue Reimagined" to be released on Pentatone records.
These growing partnerships with Askonas Holt, Opus 3, and Pentatone are dedicated to supporting the finest artists of our time and cultivating the emerging talent of tomorrow. This is just the beginning. ”
David H. Stull President
Caroline H. Hume Concert Hall
Barbro Osher Recital Hall
Cha Chi Ming Recital Hall
Emerging Black Composers Project
2024 Winner: Tyler Taylor
Your Voice Matters
A Diverse Musical Community
SFCM is committed to raising all voices. We champion the experiences of people who identify across spectrums of gender, sexual orientation, and race and integrate these experiences into our curriculum and performances.
From our Black Student Union and Pride Network to our eclectic student-led Moonlight Society, and our Hiking and Environmentalism club, our student groups provide safe spaces for musicians of all kinds.
Our Emerging Black Composers Project is a 10-year commitment to commission Black artists while providing them with mentorship and the opportunity to perform new works at major orchestras like the San Francisco Symphony. In addition, when it originated in 2022, the Denis de Coteau Fellowship program was intended to advance opportunities for Black musicians in honor of Maestro de Coteau, longtime music director at the SF Ballet and faculty member at the Conservatory. Today, this fellowship is a joint program between SFCM and the San Francisco Ballet, for violinists, violists, cellists, and/or double bassists in SFCM's Professional Studies Certificate program whose personal and professional experiences contribute meaningfully to an expanded sense of diversity in the performing arts.
Join a community where every voice is heard.
sfcm.edu/dei
We really try to cater our educational practices towards each individual student. I am here to help shape their careers.
Jason Hainsworth
Associate
Dean of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Executive
Director, Roots, Jazz, and American Music, and Special Advisor to the President
Curriculum
MORE THAN JUST TECHNIQUE
Our curriculum expands the typical conservatory education by preparing students for opportunities in the modern economy. Our faculty are not just world-class teachers, but working musicians and industry leaders, providing unrivaled mentorship, connections, and guidance.
Courses like our Finance for Musicians class are designed to set you up for success as part of our Professional Development and Engagement Center which readies the artist as a whole for the working world of music. Our Technology and Applied Composition program has one of the strongest job placement rates for music conservatory graduates anywhere. Alumni work in positions such as music producers, sound designers, and recording artists, and are employed by companies like Sony, Spitfire Audio, Electronic Arts, and Ubisoft.
SFCM promotes real-world experience, encouraging students to book gigs and perform at venues on and off-campus. Our deep connections to the SF Symphony, Ballet, Opera, and SFJAZZ also give you the chance for side-by-side performances and our tight-knit studios and small class sizes provide plenty of one-on-one instruction.
EDUCATING THE MODERN MUSICIAN
SFCM offers undergraduate students the option to pursue a concentration in arts leadership, teaching, or technology. These concentrations serve as an opportunity for students to focus on an area of interest and build a larger skill set. Once completed, concentrations will be indicated on transcripts and visible to future employers and graduate programs.
THINK OUTSIDE THE BOX: WINTER TERM
Every January, Winter Term allows students the chance to play in a way they haven’t before. It’s a two-week long opportunity for students to immerse themselves in subjects beyond the standard curriculum. It’s a chance to learn about an interest they’ve never quite had time to explore or to give their career a head start by developing a business or technical skill. Experiment in a different genre, learn to DJ, or create their own concert to name a few!
“
Teaching is about what I can do for someone else. Working with talented students is a privilege. I find it both exhilarating and humbling to watch them become who they want to be. ”
Eugene Izotov Faculty, Oboe
Areas of Study
COMPOSITION
Department Chair: David Conte
Our composition department provides students with faculty mentorship and frequent performance and workshop opportunities,
CONDUCTING
Department Chair: Edwin Outwater
HISTORICAL PERFORMANCE
Department Chair: Corey Jamason
Whether on keyboards, baroque violin, viola, cello, viola da gamba, harpsichord or voice, Historical Performance students learn from faculty with ties to leading early music organizations like the American Bach Soloists and San Francisco Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra & Chorale.
sfcm.edu/historical-performance
PIANO
Department Chair: Yoshikazu Nagai
Collaborative Piano
Department Chair: Tim Bach
Students of our wide-ranging piano and collaborative piano department develop their style alongside celebrated faculty and visiting luminaries, including recent guest artists Yuja
including readings of your work, a student-led new music festival, art song competition, and the large ensemble and chamber cycles.
sfcm.edu/composition
With only one or two students in the program at a time, our conducting program guarantees students the high-level guidance and performance opportunities—in conjunction with the Conservatory orchestra and other ensembles—required to become successful and well-rounded conductors.
sfcm.edu/conducting
GUITAR
Department Chair: David Tanenbaum
SFCM’s guitar department has produced some of the top guitarists in the world, including winners of the Guitar Foundation of America International Concert Artist Competition. Spearheaded by an all-star, international faculty with expertise ranging from early music to cutting-edge modern work, this program also offers access to the historic Harris
Guitar Collection and numerous performance opportunities (especially in chamber music) within the Conservatory. The guitar program honors the historic tradition of classical guitar while cultivating innovation with guitar graduates succeeding on and off the performance stage.
sfcm.edu/guitar
Wang, Jean-Yves Thibaudet, and Daniil Trifonov. Made up of fewer than 50 students, this department prides itself on individualized attention for each pianist, as well as extraordinary instruments including New York and Hamburg Steinway Ds in every concert hall.
sfcm.edu/keyboard
ROOTS, JAZZ, AND AMERICAN MUSIC
Department Chair: Jason Hainsworth
Roots, Jazz, and American Music is a first- ofits-kind program that links a world-class music conservatory to an award-winning jazz concert venue in SFJAZZ. Building on the legacy of alumni like Julian Lage and George Duke, this this program offers an all-star faculty, visits and
STRINGS
Department Chair: Simon James
Home to the world’s best young string players, our strings program provides a variety of solo, ensemble, and orchestra performance opportunities, in addition to backstage access to the San Francisco Symphony, Ballet, and Opera.
sfcm.edu/strings
classes from world-class touring artists, and real-world opportunities at some of the Bay Area’s leading jazz venues. You’ll understand the roots of your music, freeing you to take it somewhere new.
sfcm.edu/roots-jazz-and-american-music
“
I came to the Conservatory because they’re looking towards the future. ”
Edwin Outwater
SFCM’s Music Director Faculty, Conducting
STRING & PIANO CHAMBER MUSIC
Department Chair: Dimitri Murrath
This program is open to graduate students both in pre-formed chamber groups and as individuals. The highly selective program provides students with time to focus on their chamber music skills, through playing with internationally acclaimed guest artists and SFCM faculty in the Chamber Music Tuesdays concert series, and highly focused rehearsals,
coaching and masterclasses for their chamber music ensembles.
The first program of its kind in the nation, it offers an immersive educational experience that combines intensive individual instrumental training with the study of chamber music at the highest artistic level.
sfcm.edu/string-and-piano-chamber
TECHNOLOGY & APPLIED COMPOSITION
Department Chair: Steven Horowitz
The TAC program gives students a direct path into the worlds of audio engineering, film and video game scoring, live performance, emerging media, sound design, and other rewarding musical avenues. Featuring instruction from some of the most visible musicians in the industry today, the TAC program readies you for a cutting-edge artistic life that bridges art and
technology in the most dynamic way imaginable. The technology found in our TAC spaces is so impressive, the Recording Academy held a listening event in our studio for the GRAMMY Awards. Our graduates are scoring Super Bowl commercials, developing audio at huge tech companies, and producing hit songs with some of the biggest stars in music today.
sfcm.edu/tac
THE SONY PROJECT
Each semester visiting artists from Sony Interactive Entertainment work with SFCM TAC students to compose scores for a fictitious video game. The project exposes students to professionals and what life is like in the industry. Working directly with Sony staff, students respond to a prompt that guides them through a narrative arc, enabling them to bring a score to life in their own, unique ways.
VOICE
Department Chair: Catherine Cook
Opera & Musical Theatre Chair: Heather Mathews
Our celebrated faculty will hone your technique and expand your artistry through private voice lessons, studio classes, and professional development courses to help you grow into a business-savvy, well-rounded artist. Our deep ties to SF Opera include its Adler Fellowship and Merola programs, some of the best young artist initiatives in the country. Students also participate in multiple fully staged opera
productions a year from Giulio Cesare to The Enchanted Pig. Far more than just your voice, the curriculum also centers on acting and diction skills–and even stage combat–to prepare you for a complete career on stage. SFCM has also recently expanded its Voice curriculum to openly embrace opera, but also musical theater, and multi-genre performance with microphone, all designed to multiply opportunities for young singers.
sfcm.edu/voice
WOODWINDS, BRASS, AND PERCUSSION
Woodwinds Chair: Jerome Simas Brass Chair: Adam Luftman Percussion Chair: Jacob Nissly
Made up of principal brass chairs of the San Francisco Symphony, local ensemble leaders, as well as principal players of the San Francisco Opera and Ballet orchestras,
the close-knit studio of our woodwinds, brass,and percussion department guarantees individualized instruction, performance opportunities, and industry connections.
sfcm.edu/woodwinds sfcm.edu/brass
sfcm.edu/percussion
“ You determine whether or not you're a star. Being a star is not about how many GRAMMYs you have, your record sales, or seats you sell, it’s about being an artist who gets to chart their own course.
” Timothy Dunn Associate Dean for Student Affairs Principal Designated School Official Deputy Title IX Coordinator
Ensembles
Perform with your peers at the highest level.
Get to know a handful of the ensembles available at SFCM.
Baroque Ensemble
Ensembles big and small perform timeless music from the 17th and 18th centuries.
Chorus
Students develop an instinct for phrasing by connecting notes with the human breath, perform in multiple languages, and encounter a diverse range of periods and style.
Guitar Ensemble
Explore new and traditional music in an ensemble that has a legacy of world premieres and commissions through a department with a world-class faculty and visiting artists.
Jazz Ensemble
Delve into every configuration of jazz group from small combos on up with close supervision from RJAM faculty in Jazz Seminar, Big Band, and Latin Jazz Ensemble.
New Music Ensemble
Perform a variety of works written in the 20th and 21st centuries in concert with leading contemporary composers and premiere works by fellow students.
Opera and Musical Theatre
A program that produces four fully staged opera and musical theatre productions with full or chamber orchestra.
Percussion Ensemble
Perform in two annual concerts that draw from foundational composers like Edgard Varèse and contemporary icons such as Steve Reich.
SFCM Orchestra
Experience a complete overview of classical repertoire and perform multiple concerts a year that prominently feature student soloists.
String and Piano Chamber Music
This highly selective and intentionally small ensemble is the nation’s first such program at the graduate level.
Woodwind and Brass Chamber Music
With individual coaching by industry leaders, this ensemble explores wide-ranging music literature in multiple performances each year.
Recent ensemble concert highlights include Opera and Musical Theatre’s 2024 presentation of Proving Up. “We have been wanting to program a contemporary opera by a female composer and Missy Mazzoil and Royce Vavrek's haunting masterpiece had been on the top of our list,” said Heather Mathews, the chair of the Opera and Musical Theatre program. This production also featured the evolving digital opera hall. These ongoing renovations include dramatic technical upgrades and a full digital proscenium creating a multimedia immersive experience.
VIEW ALL PERFORMANCES AT SFCM.EDU/PERFORMANCES
You’re in Good Company
Here’s what some of your future peers and mentors are saying about SFCM, music, and life.
“The Bowes Center is a safe space that actually gives the students and faculty the preconditions for creativity.”
“One of the things I like about SFCM is that it’s a fairly small school. You get to learn everyone’s names, everyone’s faces and you get to work with these people very frequently. You get to know them as musicians and learn from them. It’s impossible to not be friends with someone from a different department.”
Udit Srivathsan, ’26 Technology and Applied Composition
“When I was doing my auditions... I was asking a lot, ‘Do the departments at this school work with each other? Are they all talking to each other? Are they performing together?’ And I came here and I didn't even need to ask the question because I literally saw it happening.”
“The students we have now are interested in getting up and using their own unique voices to tell stories and I love that for them.”
“When I came to audition, I felt like I’d found my home. The environment was very positive, and after talking with faculty and students, I knew it was the right fit for me. People here are incredibly passionate about their art and love what they do.”
Daniela Gonzales Siu, ’23 Cello
Matt Worth Faculty, Voice
Yo-Yo Ma, Cellist Opus 3 Artist
Jasmine Sahd, ’23 Voice
VISIT SFCM, YOUR NEW HOME
TRANSFORM — INTELLECTUALLY, ARTISTICALLY, PROFESSIONALLY, AND INDIVIDUALLY
The San Francisco Conservatory of Music is committed to creating a challenging and nurturing environment where you can carve a path for a rewarding and exciting profession. Connect with us— on campus or online—as we work together to define what it means to be a 21st-century musician.
CONNECT WITH US
ADMISSIONS apply@sfcm.edu
50 Oak Street
San Francisco, CA 94102 (415) 503-6271
Questions about admissions, attending a performance, or giving to SFCM? Ask our chatbot at sfcm.edu/admissions
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UNCOVER WHAT'S INSIDE
“
I now look at the total picture, and I see SFCM pursuing an ambitious strategy that encompasses the entire music ecosystem. No other conservatory in the world has anything close to their presence in technology, recording, music distribution, career development, concert bookings, and even music journalism.
”
Ted Gioia American Jazz Critic
