San Francisco Conservatory of Music Students Invited to Perform in Kennedy Center's The Conservatory Project
SAN FRANCISCO, February 6, 2004 —  The San Francisco Conservatory of Music has been selected as one of eight leading conservatories in the country to participate in The Conservatory Project by the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.

Students from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music participating in this year's inaugural The Conservatory Project are Edward Abrams, clarinetist and Elza van den Heever, mezzo-soprano. Abrams currently studies conducting with Michael Tilson Thomas, clarinet with David Breeden and piano with Paul Hersh. He will be conducting the New World Symphony at Carnegie Hall in April with Michael Tilson Thomas's Conducting Workshop. Van den Heever currently studies with Sylvia Anderson. In 2002, she was selected as the Pacific Regional Finalist in the Metropolitan Opera Competition and also participated in San Francisco Opera's Merola Opera Program.

The Conservatory Project was created to develop and showcase young talent from the nation's leading conservatories. The inaugural week of performances will include programs in classical music, jazz and opera. Participants will also be critiqued by world-renowned musicians including Leonard Slatkin and Plácido Domingo.

Colin Murdoch, President of San Francisco Conservatory of Music comments, “We are thrilled to have the opportunity to join other fine music institutions in showcasing some of our most talented young musicians. This is also an exceptional occasion for our students to work with some of the world's most prominent artists.“

The Conservatory Project will take place in the Kennedy Center's Terrace Theater May 24-31, 2004 as part of the Kennedy Center's 'Performing Arts for Everyone'. In the future the project will be presented bi-annually in late winter and late spring.

Participating institutions include:

• Berklee College of Music, Boston, Massachusetts
• The Curtis Institute of Music, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
• Eastman School of Music at the University of Rochester, Rochester, New York
• The Juilliard School, New York, New York
• The Peabody Conservatory of Music at Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland
• The San Francisco Conservatory of Music, San Francisco, California
• The School of Music at Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana
• The Shepherd School of Music at Rice University, Houston, Texas

About the San Francisco Conservatory of Music
The San Francisco Conservatory is one of the leading music schools in the world. Each year, the Conservatory serves more than 1,300 students through its Collegiate, Preparatory, and Adult Extension Divisions and its summer programs. Its students and faculty also present more than 1,620 public performances-most of them free-to more than 24,000 Bay Area residents and visitors annually. In September 2003, the Conservatory began construction on its new $80 million teaching, performance, rehearsal and practice facility in San Francisco's Civic Center that will essentially double the Conservatory's size from its current 37,000-square-foot facility in the Sunset District. Scheduled to open in 2006, the new San Francisco Conservatory of Music at Civic Center provides dramatic improvements in classroom, studio and practice spaces as well as several new venues for public performances, including a 450-seat state-of-the-art Concert Hall. For more information, please call 415.759.3415 or visit www.sfcm.edu.

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Press Contact:

Carla Pasqualini Director of Marketing and Communications
415.759.3415
cjp@sfcm.edu