From black and white to a universe of color.

Made up of a wide-ranging piano department and smaller but equally dynamic harpsichord, organ, and collaborative piano programs, our keyboard department transforms students into accomplished performers. You’ll collaborate across departments, perform within the Conservatory and around San Francisco, and develop your style alongside celebrated faculty and visiting luminaries. Small studio sizes foster personalized instruction and support. Undergraduate and graduate music degrees, as well as professional studies certificates, round out a far-reaching program that offers emphases in historical performance, collaborative piano, chamber music, and general instrument studies.

Made up of a wide-ranging piano department and harpsichord, organ, and collaborative piano programs, our keyboard department transforms students into accomplished performers.

With less than 50 students, the SFCM Piano Department prides itself on individualized attention for each student-pianist and extraordinary instruments including New York and Hamburg Steinway Ds in every concert hall.

Our period instrument collection includes six harpsichords including instruments built by Bay Area master builders John Phillips and Kevin Fryer, a Walter copy fortepiano, a large clavichord, and practice pedal organ.

Undergraduate and graduate piano programs include a weekly departmental performance class, an annual concerto competition and orchestra performance, department recitals, classes on historical performance practices, chamber music, and professional development.

Guest-pianist residencies and masterclasses at SFCM have included luminaries like Yuja Wang, Leon Fleisher, Sergei Babayan, Stephen Hough, Richard Goode, Menahem Pressler, Emanuel Ax, Jean-YvesThibaudet, and Daniil Trifonov.