San Francisco Conservatory Launches New Chamber Music Festival with Shanghai Conservatory

As a capstone to the silver anniversary celebration of its chamber music program, the San Francisco Conservatory of Music announces the launch of an annual international chamber music festival with its sister school, the Shanghai Conservatory of Music. The inaugural festival will be held in Shanghai May 8-12, 2011, as part of “Shanghai Spring,” one of China’s largest music events. Future festivals will rotate in alternate years between San Francisco and Shanghai. The festival is made possible by a generous grant from the Cha Foundation of Hong Kong.

Representing the Conservatory at the festival will be faculty members Jean-Michel Fonteneau, Axel Strauss, Wei He, Yoshikazu Nagai, Ian Swensen, David Conte and Mark Sokol, in addition to a number of hand-picked students. Following several days of master classes, rehearsals and coachings between Shanghai student groups and San Francisco Conservatory faculty, joint ensembles of faculty and students from both schools will perform together in concerts on May 11-12. To fulfill its mission equally to honor tradition and encourage new music for the chamber repertoire, the festival will also commission pieces each year from faculty and students at both conservatories. This year’s concerts feature chamber music by Tchaikovsky, Schubert, Schumann and Prokofiev as well as the premieres of four compositions specially commissioned for the festival.

Strong ties binding these institutions make this an auspicious long-term partnership. Building on the 30-year sister-city relationship between Shanghai and San Francisco, both conservatories entered into a ‘sister-school’ agreement in February 2010, opening the door for increased faculty and student exchanges and heightened artistic collaboration. Visiting delegations from each school soon followed, to Shanghai in June and to San Francisco in December. At least half of the many Chinese students now studying at the Conservatory in San Francisco are from Shanghai, and the first official exchange students from Shanghai Conservatory enrolled this fall. Echoing this increase in commerce, Weigang Li (‘82), first violinist of the Shanghai Quartet and an alumnus of both conservatories, kicks off a new Alumni Artist Recital Series at the San Francisco Conservatory on April 23. And just as the San Francisco Conservatory pioneered the first chamber music degree program at an American conservatory, so too the Shanghai Conservatory recently established the first chamber music program of its kind in China.

“Although chamber music is certainly not new to China, it is now a growing focus for many of the country’s conservatories, particularly Shanghai, as educators acknowledge the benefit of chamber training and create programs offering performance opportunities for students and faculty alike,” says Alexander Brose, associate vice president for advancement at the Conservatory in San Francisco. Jensen Lam, violist and founding director of the Shanghai Conservatory’s chamber music program, concurs. “The Shanghai Conservatory of Music has taken a leading role in emphasizing the importance of chamber music education when it established China’s first chamber music atelier in 2007,” says Lam. “With the curricular studies currently in place, and further projects in the works, the Shanghai Conservatory of Music is proving to be on the forefront of chamber music in China.”

Co-artistic directors of the festival are Fonteneau, chair of the San Francisco Conservatory’s chamber music department; He, a member of the San Francisco Conservatory’s violin faculty; and Lam. Faculty composers commissioned to contribute pieces for premiere at the festival include San Francisco’s Conte, well known in the Bay Area and beyond for both operatic and choral works, and Shanghai’s Pei Lu, who has composed for Yo-Yo Ma’s Silk Road Project and whose music the Washington Post has called “extremely smart, colorful, delectable and kinetic.”

Throughout the season, the Conservatory has been celebrating the 25th anniversary of its chamber music degree program with performances that bring together faculty, students, alumni and guest artists. In addition to the Shanghai festival, this year Conservatory faculty and alumni have established San Francisco Conservatory Chamber Music in Marin, a concert series in San Rafael showcasing conservatory students, faculty and alumni. Guest artists in the Conservatory’s Chamber Music Masters series this season include pianists Gilbert Kalish and Menahem Pressler, violinist Robert Mann, violist Kim Kashkashian and cellist Bonnie Hampton, who helped found the degree program in 1985. Capping the end of the season is the Conservatory’s Chamber Music Marathon on Sunday, April 17, when more than 15 student groups are scheduled to perform in four full concerts over a single day.

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.