Incoming Conducting student Grace Wahlen ('28) has already jump-started her first semester at SFCM, following the department's chair, Conservatory Music Director Edwin Outwater, to performances with the Cleveland Orchestra and Colorado Symphony.

Outwater's performances aren't even the only prominent ones Wahlen has been attending while preparing for her conducting studies, thanks to a family connection.

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Grace Wahlen at Red Rocks Amphitheatre.

"No one in my immediate family was a professional musician," Wahlen says, save for her great-aunt Eleanor, who played chamber music with famed conductor Herbert Blomstedt, who, among many other postings, was Music Director for the San Francisco Symphony from 1985-1995, when he was succeeded by Michael Tilson Thomas.

"But just this past year, decades later, I was able to reach out to Blomstedt, and he very graciously invited me to observe many of his rehearsals and concerts," Wahlen says. Ninety-nine years old, Blomstedt is still performing, and Wahlen was able to see him conduct Anton Bruckner's seventh and ninth symphonies, in Berlin and Stockholm, respectively.

Wahlen moved around frequently in her youth, spending time in Russia, the Philippines, Canada, and England. As a pianist and horn player, she says, "I've always loved chamber music. In my recitals, I would do solo pieces, but often I'd finish with a sextet or octet. I played in a piano trio for many years, and those settings are how you meet some of the people who become your best friends later on. So for me, conducting an orchestra kind of has that aspect of chamber music but on a larger scale."

Triple-majoring in music education, piano performance, and horn performance in her undergrad, Wahlen honed in on conducting, because, as she says, "With conducting, there's something so special about the synergy between a conductor and an orchestra's musicians," she says. Depending on how things go, there are many challenges that come along with that dynamic, but when you achieve a collaboration that works really well…I don't know if anything can beat that. It's magical, almost sacred, and kind of addicting, but in a wonderful way."

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Grace Wahlen and Edwin Outwater at the Cleveland Orchestra.

Outwater's multifaceted career was a deciding factor in Wahlen's path to SFCM. "I was looking at different programs with my conducting mentor in Colorado, Andrés Felipe Jaime, and Edwin Outwater was who we were most impressed with. He seemed to be a fantastic teacher, but beyond that he's also extremely active professionally. Someone of his age, who's still relatively young but getting to conduct the Cleveland Orchestra, the BBC Proms, the San Francisco Symphony, plus the cool ideas he has programming anything from drag shows with Peaches Christ to the Soundbox series. All of the different projects he has going really fascinated me."

She was also struck by a simple step Outwater took at her audition. "Out of all the auditions I did, Edwin was the only one—right before the audition started— to really carefully double-check my name and how to say it," Wahlen says. "That may seem like such a small thing, but for all my life, my name has been one that so many people misspell or mispronounce. So just him going that extra step instantly made me feel more at ease." (For the record, it's pronounced wall-een.)

"Edwin was also so proactive about saying, 'Let me know when you're available, we can meet,'" Wahlen says. "So we've met two or three times over Zoom already this summer, even though I haven't even officially started studying, which is really nice." Outwater also invited her to his performances with the Cleveland Orchestra and the Colorado Symphony this summer, the latter of which was held at Colorado's famed Red Rocks Amphitheatre, "basically right there in my backyard," Wahlen says. (Wahlen attended the University of Northern Colorado, just over an hour's drive from Red Rocks.)

The Colorado Symphony was supporting Phish guitarist and singer Trey Anastasio, and "that performance was also awesome because I came up after rehearsal to chat briefly with Edwin and just kind of mingle," Wahlen recalls. "Trey went out of his way to chat with me for a few minutes, and he was so down-to-earth; I remember thinking, 'This is so special and unusual.' By the end of the show, he was like, 'You know, I can't wait to eventually do a show with you someday.' The whole vibe and connections of that experience were so wonderful."

Wahlen acknowledges that the relative scarcity of female conductors was "a point of struggle, in a way" during her musical journey. But, she adds, "One of the biggest things I'm excited about coming to San Francisco is that I identify more as non-binary, and I want to be exposed to more people, more musicians, composers, and artists in that space. Not necessarily to say, 'That's everything I'm gonna be and do when I get out into the professional field.' But I really do care about that a lot."

Wahlen envisions a career like Outwater's, she says, "having the opportunity to do all of the main standard things like your Brahmses, Mahlers, and Rachmaninoffs, but also getting to explore collaborations in pop, rock, metal, LGBTQ+ musicians, contemporary composers, early music." Ultimately, though, her ideal comes back to her chamber music experience connecting with other musicians. "If I can find an orchestra I connect with that connects with me and we feel like we can really help each other… That's everything I want: A wonderful relationship with an orchestra at a really high level."

Wahlen will have her first turn at the SFCM podium on September 26th, guiding the SFCM Orchestra through Jennifer Higdon's blue cathedral.

Learn more about studying conducting at SFCM.