Building on the success of its chamber music celebration last season, the San Francisco Conservatory of Music will present the San Francisco-Shanghai International Chamber Music Festival for the first time at its campus on 50 Oak Street in San Francisco, March 12-16. Created with the Shanghai Conservatory of Music, this is the second installment of a festival inaugurated in Shanghai in May as a part of a five-year agreement between the sister-schools to produce annual events in alternating locations. The San Francisco Conservatory’s participation in the festival is made possible by a generous grant from the Cha Foundation of Hong Kong.

Directing the festival are San Francisco Conservatory faculty Jodi Levitz, co-chair of the chamber music program and chair of the string department, Mack McCray, chair of the piano department and co-chair of the chamber music program, Wei He, a member of the San Francisco Conservatory’s violin faculty and Jensen Lam, director of the Shanghai Conservatory’s chamber music atelier.  Representing the Shanghai Conservatory in San Francisco will be a delegation of 15 leading administrators, faculty and students, including Xu Mengdong, executive vice president, lauded pianist Li Jian, conductor and director of the keyboard department, violinist Fang Lei, principal of the pre-collegiate division and noted composition professor Zhu Shirui. Rounding out the roster of participants are hand-picked students from the pioneering chamber music degree program of the San Francisco Conservatory, which last year celebrated its 25th anniversary as the nation’s first school to offer a chamber music degree.

Following several days of master classes, rehearsals and coachings, joint ensembles of faculty and students from both schools will perform together in concerts on March 15-16. To fulfill its mission to honor tradition as well as encourage new music for the chamber repertoire, the festival also commissions pieces each year from faculty and students at both conservatories. This year’s concerts feature chamber music by Brahms, Karl Amadeus Hartmann, Hindemith, Shostakovich and Tchaikovsky as well as the premieres of four compositions specially commissioned for the festival.

Faculty composers commissioned for festival premieres include San Francisco’s Elinor Armer, winner of the Gerbode Foundation New Music Composition Award and co-founder of Composers, Inc., whose works are published by J.K. Elkus and Son; and Shanghai’s Zhu Shirui, recipient of numerous German fellowships, prizes and commissions and one of China’s foremost composers, whose works have been performed throughout the world. In addition, a public demonstration of the sheng, a traditional Chinese wind instrument resembling the harmonica, will take place in connection with a rare performance of a work for string quartet and that instrument written by current Shanghai Conservatory President Shuya Xu.

Prior to the concert on March 15, a private reception for donors, patrons and community leaders is planned in partnership with the Asia Society and the Asian Art Museum, with a special appearance and remarks about the importance of U.S.-China relations by Nicholas Platt. A former ambassador to Pakistan, the Philippines and Zambia, Platt accompanied President Nixon to Beijing in 1972 and held important diplomatic posts in Beijing and Tokyo. He is also former president of the Asia Society in New York and author of The China Boys.

Strong ties binding the schools make this an auspicious long-term partnership. Building on the 30-year sister-city affiliation between Shanghai and San Francisco and initial educational exchanges, both conservatories entered into a ‘sister-school’ agreement in February 2010, opening the door for closer cooperation. There has been remarkable growth in this relationship since 1981, when the first Shanghai Conservatory students arrived at the Conservatory’s campus on Ortega Street. Today, more San Francisco Conservatory students come from the Shanghai Conservatory than from any other institution. 

“This festival, a cultural exchange between the United States and China, is a deeply meaningful example of how world powers can and do get along, in this instance through a mutually shared love for music,” says Colin Murdoch, president of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.

Shuya Xu, president of the Shanghai Conservatory of Music, also sees a bright future for the collaborative endeavor. “I believe that this international chamber music festival will elevate the reputation of both institutions as worldwide leaders in chamber training and performance and provide San Francisco audiences world class performances of chamber repertoire both classical and new.”

Alexander Brose, the San Francisco Conservatory’s associate vice president for advancement, takes an even broader view of the festival’s ramifications. “The sister cities of San Francisco and Shanghai are key centers in the Pacific Rim, whose strategic importance defies political geography. They have long enjoyed a special relationship, and this festival of our two schools offers a model for how different cultures can collaborate, celebrate, learn from each other, and make art together.”

Ticketed concerts are $20 general admission, $15 for students, seniors and Friends of the Conservatory. Call the Box Office for tickets at 415.503.6275 or purchase online at www.sfcm.edu. All concerts are held at 50 Oak Street, San Francisco.
 

Shanghai-San Francisco Conservatory Timeline

For over 30 years, the Shanghai and San Francisco Conservatories of Music have cultivated a special relationship. The first students from the Shanghai Conservatory came to study in San Francisco in 1981, only one year after leaders from San Francisco and Shanghai signed the first Sister City agreement between the United States and China. That initial cohort of musicians included Weigang Li, who later became first violinist of the Shanghai String Quartet, and San Francisco Symphony violinist Chunming Mo, among others. Over the next 30 years, many of Shanghai’s most promising graduates came to the San Francisco Conservatory to continue their training.

In the last seven years, many faculty and senior officials from the Conservatory have made annual visits to Shanghai. These visits by President Murdoch, faculty members Jeff Anderle, Wei He, Mack McCray and Axel Strauss, and Associate Vice President for Advancement Alexander Brose served to bolster ties between the conservatories. San Francisco faculty and students played concerts and taught master classes at Shanghai and invited Shanghai faculty to do the same in San Francisco, thereby raising the prestige of both institutions and solidifying the schools’ relationship.

In 2010, the conservatories of music in both cities decided to formalize their ties into a sister-conservatory partnership, paving the way for future collaborations by the two esteemed institutions. At the forefront of these collaborations is an international chamber music festival, which will have its inaugural installment in May 2011. The joint festival represents yet another step towards assuring a long-lasting relationship between the two schools.

Timeline:

1979: San Francisco Mayor Dianne Feinstein forms a committee with the goal of establishing the first sister-city relationship between the United States and China.

1980: Sister City Relationship Established: Mayor Feinstein signs an agreement on January 28 formally establishing a friendship city relationship.

Isaac Stern, a San Francisco Conservatory alumnus, travels to China to teach at the Shanghai Conservatory. The documentary filmed about his travels, Mao to Mozart, wins the Academy Award for Best Documentary.

1981: Cultural exchanges begin including art, dance, theater, education and music programs.

Conservatory President Milton Salkind travels to the Shanghai Conservatory of Music and auditions students to enroll at the San Francisco Conservatory. Five students attend later that year, including Weigang Li and Chunming Mo, as well as violinist Jue Yao and pianists Paner Ying and Jian Li.

1992: Philadelphia Orchestra principal cellist and Shanghai Conservatory alumna, Hai-Ye Ni, graduates from the San Francisco Conservatory undergraduate program.

2004: Admissions Director Alexander Brose travels to the Shanghai Conservatory to begin discussing potential collaborations.

2005: Mack McCray, chair of the piano department, travels to the Shanghai Conservatory with Brose to conduct a series of master classes.

2006: McCray returns to the Shanghai Conservatory, having been invited to take part in a week-long piano symposium. While there he teaches a series of master classes and performs to a sold-out He Luting Concert Hall at the Shanghai Conservatory.

San Francisco Conservatory violin professor Axel Strauss travels to the Shanghai Conservatory with Brose to conduct a series of master classes.

2007: President Colin Murdoch visits the Shanghai Conservatory with Brose and meets with President Liqing Yang and Vice President Xianping Zhang.

2008: Murdoch, violin professor Wei He and Brose visit Shanghai to observe classes and discuss future collaborations with President Yang and Vice President Zhang. The idea of becoming “sister conservatories” is proposed.

San Francisco Conservatory piano professor Yoshikazu Nagai collaborates with Shanghai Conservatory faculty and students as part of the Beijing International Music Festival, hosted that summer in Shanghai.

2009: In October, Brose returns to the Shanghai Conservatory to meet with newly appointed president Shuya Xu to discuss the possible sister-conservatory relationship and to invite Shanghai Conservatory representatives to the upcoming Shanghai Celebration Concert in San Francisco.

In December, the San Francisco Conservatory Board of Trustees and the Trustee Committee for Academic Affairs and Student Life approves a proposal to sign a memorandum of understanding with the Shanghai Conservatory, thereby giving permission to initiate the Conservatory’s first-ever sister-conservatory relationship.

2010: In February, Shanghai Conservatory Vice President Yandi Yang and composition professor Qiangbin Chen visit the San Francisco Conservatory for the ceremonial signing of an official Sister Conservatory Memorandum of Understanding and to attend the Conservatory’s Shanghai Celebration Concert.

The San Francisco Conservatory hosts a Shanghai Celebration Concert in conjunction with the Asian Art Museum’s own Shanghai Celebration, which encouraged Bay Area organizations to produce Shanghai-centric programming in celebration of the 30th anniversary of the sister-city agreement between San Francisco and Shanghai. San Francisco Conservatory faculty, students and alumni, many of whom also attended the Shanghai Conservatory, performed pieces written by San Francisco and Shanghai Conservatory composers to a sold-out audience. Celebrated mezzo-soprano Zheng Cao, herself a graduate of the Shanghai Conservatory, headlines the evening.

In June, Brose, San Francisco Conservatory faculty Jeffrey Anderle and Wei He and current students (and Shanghai Conservatory alumni) Yinbin Qian and Hanqian Zhu travel to Shanghai to take part in the Shanghai Expo’s San Francisco-Shanghai Sister City Week, with San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom and former mayors Willie Brown and Frank Jordan. Included in the trip are performances at the Sister City Committee’s Gala Dinner, a Shanghai Celebration Recital at the Shanghai Conservatory and meetings with President Xu about a potential international chamber music festival between the two schools.

In August, the San Francisco Conservatory welcomes nine new students from the Shanghai Conservatory, two of whom attend for one semester as part of an official study-abroad program co-sponsored by the Shanghai City Government and the Shanghai Conservatory. The San Francisco Conservatory now welcomes more students each year from the Shanghai Conservatory than any other school in the world.

In December, a delegation from the Shanghai Conservatory including Vice President Xianping Zhang, Dean Xianglin Zhou, Middle School Director Lei Fang and International Office Director Xiaoyi Chen visits the San Francisco Conservatory for meetings with President Murdoch, Dean Poole, He and Brose to discuss future collaborations, specifically an international chamber music festival in Shanghai in May 2011. A concert and dinner celebrating the San Francisco visit is hosted on the Caroline H. Hume Concert Hall stage.

2011: In April, the San Francisco Conservatory welcomes the return of Weigang Li, a celebrated alumnus of both the San Francisco and Shanghai conservatories, for the inaugural installment of the Alumni Recital Series. Li was one of the first five Shanghai students to study at the San Francisco Conservatory in 1981 and is now first violinist of the Shanghai String Quartet.

In May, thanks to a generous grant by the Cha Family Foundation of Hong Kong, seven members of the San Francisco Conservatory chamber music and composition faculty, as well as five current San Francisco Conservatory students and three staff members, will travel to Shanghai to take part in the inaugural installment of an international chamber music festival. Designed to both celebrate masterworks of the repertoire and encourage new works for the chamber ensemble, the festival will be an annual occurrence over five years, with the next installments taking place in San Francisco during 2012, in Shanghai during 2013, and so on.

Shanghai Photos

Click on a picture below to see it in a larger size.

Alex Brose, Wei He and Colin Murdoch in front of the Shanghai Conservatory of Music, 2008.	Alex Brose, Composition Professor Qiangbin Chen, Colin Murdoch, Shanghai Conservatory Vice President Yandi Yang, Chairman Liu of Shanghai and COnsul General Gao of San Francisco at City Hall following the signing of the Sister Conservatory agreement, February 2010.
The Sister Conservatory agreement is signed.	Mezzo-soprano Zheng Cao performs at the San Francisco Conservatory's Shanghai Celebration Concert, February 2010.
Shanghai Conservatory Vice President Yandi Yang and Composition Professor Qiangbin CHen with Shanghai Conservatory alumni and current SF Conservatory students.	A poster in front of the Shanghai Conservatory advertises the Shanghai Celebration Concert during San Francisco-Shanghai Sister City Week, part of the Shanghai Expo, June 2010.
The SF Conservatory welcomes Shanghai Conservatory Vice President Xianping Zhang, Dean Xianglin Zhou, Middle School Director Lei Fang and International Office Director Xiaoyi Chen to San Francisco, December 2010.	The entire San Francisco Conservatory of Music delegation and members of the Shanghai Conservatory faculty enjoy a dinner at Meilongzhen Restaurant, one of Shanghai’s oldest eateries.
San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom and other members of the Shanghai-San Francisco Sister City Committee cut the ribbon in front of the Urban Best Practices Pavilion to commence “San Francisco-Shanghai Sister City Week” at the Shanghai Expo.	The world-renowned singing group Chanticleer, including Conservatory graduate Ben Jones, sings at the Sister City Week Gala Dinner.
San Francisco Conservatory students and their relatives pose for a photo after the “Shanghai Celebration Recital” at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music.	A larger-than-life sign advertises the San Francisco Conservatory of Music’s recital at the Shanghai Conservatory.
Conservatory alumni, faculty, staff and current students pose in front of the sign advertising the “Shanghai Celebration Concert” at the Shanghai Conservatory.	Conservatory faculty Wei He and Associate VP for Advancement Alexander Brose pose with Shanghai Conservatory composition faculty member Qiangbin Chen (middle left) and Vice President Yandi Yang (middle right) after a meeting at the Shanghai Conservatory.
San Francisco Conservatory performers Yinbin Qian, Hanqian Zhu and Jeff Anderle take a bow during the “Shanghai Celebration Recital” at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music.