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SAN FRANCISCO CONSERVATORY OF MUSIC
SPRING NEWS UPDATE 2004
This Spring, the San Francisco Conservatory of Music (SFCM) celebrates the largest graduating class in its history, three of its students perform at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC, and the school achieves a major financial milestone in its fundraising efforts for its new Civic Center home. Among recent SFCM highlights:
GRADUATION
A total of 113 students completed their studies and graduated from SFCM on May 21, marking the largest graduating class in the school's 86-year history.
SFCM at THE KENNEDY CENTER
Conservatory students Edward Abrams, clarinetist, and Elza van den Heever, mezzo-soprano, were invited to join students from seven other leading music institutions in “The Conservatory Project“ at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in May. A showcase of young talent from the nation's leading music schools, the week of performances included programs in classical music, jazz and opera. Other schools participating include Juilliard, Berklee, The Curtis Institute, Eastman, Peabody, the School of Music at Indiana University, and Sheperd.
RELOCATION FUNDING UPDATE
In March SFCM successfully completed a combined $9 million one-for-one matching challenge grant by the late Phyllis Wattis, the Ann and Gordon Getty Foundation and the Bernard Osher Foundation. In meeting the challenge, the SFCM has now raised more than 65% of its $65 million fundraising goal for its relocation to San Francisco's Civic Center.
SAN FRANCISCO SYMPHONY CONCERTMASTER JOINS FACULTY
San Francisco Symphony Concertmaster Alexander Barantschik will join SFCM faculty starting this fall, joining fourteen other SF Symphony members that are also on faculty at SFCM. Previously, Barantschik served as concertmaster of the London Symphony Orchestra (1989-2001) and the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra (1982-2001).
ABOUT SFCM
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
Kathryn Pellegrini
MacKenzie Communications
415.403.0800 ext. 26
kpellegrini@mackenziesf.com
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