Workshops
Registration for Spring 2025 Workshops is now open!
Performer's Lab
Faculty: Aenea Mizushima Keyes
Dates: Sundays on April 13, April 27, May 4, and May 18 from 1:30 - 3:30 PM (PT)
Location: In-person the Ann Getty Center for Education (50 Oak Street) and the Bowes Center (200 Van Ness)
Cost: $200
Prepare for your next performance at the interactive Performer’s Lab!
Coach and instructor, Aenea Mizushima Keyes, leads the Performer’s Lab! with exercises and related discussion topics to explore creative flow and joyful, expressive performance. Test new skills inside the Performer's Lab! 50 Oak Street classroom and the beautiful Cha Chi Ming Recital Hall located at the Bowes Center! Continue engaging in the workshop's innovative performance suggestions by actively listening to classmates during coached performance explorations. Additionally, this unique Performer’s Lab! workshop supports CE performers by offering two in-person sessions before the May 11 CE Solo Recital. New and returning students learn together through discussion, explorations, and engaged listening.
- Introduction to Mindful Awareness and The Complete Musician (April 13) - In-person (1.25 hours) - A time to meet your instructor and workshop colleagues, share performance experiences and goals, and explore mindful awareness. Through discussion, students explore key workshop concepts. New students have priority to play out a work-in-progress. All students are encouraged to engage in supportive listening and provide positive feedback.
- Performance Awareness (April 27) - In-person (2 hours) – In simple yet effective exercises led by your instructor, explore performance awareness and time saving practice tips. Through group discussion, further explore The Complete Musician. Priority for performing a work-in-progress goes to students who have not yet performed. Classmates continue to engage in active listening and positive feedback.
- Prepare to Perform (May 4) - In-person (2 hours) – All students are invited to play out a work-in-progress. Apply new skills with coached on-stage exploration. Expressive possibilities of a performance space are explored alongside techniques for replacing tension with creative flow. Students engage in active listening while classmates perform.
- NO CLASS: CE Spring Solo Recital (May 11) – Students are encouraged to support classmates by attending this CE performance in-person or online.
- Next Steps for the Complete Musician (May 18) - In-person (1.5 hours) – Students explore sustainable next steps, while sharing workshop and performance discoveries. Engage in further exploration, which may include structure improvisation to expand Performance Awareness. Participate in wrap-up discussion with feedback.
All instruments and levels are welcome; performance is not required; new and returning students learn together through discussion, explorations, and listening.
Faculty
SFCM instructor and coach, Aenea Mizushima Keyes, brings over 20 years of coaching experience to her work with students and professionals. Her international performances include innovative work as a soloist, chamber musician, and violinist-composer, and tours in the United States, Europe, Russia, and Japan. Aenea’s improvised compositions inspired by visual art have been showcased by the SFMOMA, the Asian Art Museum, the Oakland Museum, and London’s British Museum. Recordings as violinist and founding member of MusicAEterna include “Seasons” and “At the Museum,” featuring Aenea’s original compositions and MusicAEterna’s signature ChamberImprov. Aenea has also premiered works at Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center, including Carman Moore’s Mass for the 21st Century. M.M., National Academy of Music, Bulgaria; B.A., Sarah Lawrence College, USA.
The Poised Musician: Alexander Technique for Confident, Effortless Performing
Instructor: Sarah Wood
Dates: Sunday, February 9, 2025 from 4:00 - 6:00 PM (PT)
Location: In-person at the Bowes Center (200 Van Ness)
Cost: $60
In this class we will explore how the Alexander Technique can work for you, the performing musician! Gain insight into the musculoskeletal system and how to use your body with more ease. You will come away with tools for increasing your presence onstage, injury prevention, and ideas for how to access greater awareness, connection to your body, and dynamic movement while playing.
This workshop is great for both young and more established musicians. The class will be a mix of lecture, discussion, and hands-on work, so bring your instruments and be prepared to run through a short excerpt of a work in progress. All musicians are welcome!
Instructor
Sarah Wood
Violinist Sarah Wood has appeared as a soloist with the San Francisco Philharmonic, the San Francisco Civic Symphony, the Music in the Mountains Festival Orchestra, and the Villa Sinfonia, Panache, and Icicle Creek Chamber Orchestras. Internationally, she has performed in Canada, Austria, Germany, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Hungary, Tunisia, and on Easter Island. She is a founding member of the Circadian String Quartet (2013-2016), a Bay Area group well known for their inventive and intense programming.
As an orchestral leader, Sarah has served as concertmaster for the Auburn Symphony and has held tenured positions as Assistant Principal Second Violin with the Berkeley Symphony, acting Assistant Concertmaster with the California Symphony, Principal Second with the Greeley Philharmonic, and section violinist with the Boulder Philharmonic. She currently is a regular substitute violinist with the San Francisco Symphony, and most recently won a position with the San Jose Symphony.
A dedicated educator, Sarah has taught violin, viola and chamber music for over 20 years. From 2009-2012 she served as Lina Bahn’s Teaching Assistant at the University of Colorado at Boulder, and from 2014-2016 she was on faculty at the Crowden School. She is a certified Suzuki Method teacher, having earned her certification with the legendary pedagogue Dr. William Starr.
Sarah earned her Doctor of Musical Arts in violin performance from the University of Colorado at Boulder, where she studied with Lina Bahn and Karoly Schranz. She also holds a B.M. and M.M. in violin performance from the Cleveland Institute of Music, where she was a student of Paul Kantor & William Preucil. A California native, she has also worked with Zaven Melikian, Robin Sharp, and Cathy van Hoesen. Since 2018 she has also been a participant of several of violinist Nathan Cole's highly regarded professional courses.
Sarah completed here AmSAT certified training in the Alexander Technique in 2022 at the Alexander Education Center in Berkeley, CA. She has assisted teaching classes at the San Francisco Conservatory Collegiate, Preparatory and Continuing Education departments, and the practices of the Technique are incorporated into her teaching and playing as methods for injury prevention, stress management, and performance enhancement.
An Afternoon with Mads Tolling: A Jazz & Improvisation Intensive
Instructor: Mads Tolling
Dates: Sunday, March 2, 2025 from 1:00 - 4:00 PM (PT)
Location: In-person at Cha Chi Ming Recital Hall at the Bowes Center (200 Van Ness)
Cost: $100 for participants and $25 for observers
SFCM Continuing Education is partnering with Amateur Music Network to bring world-renowned violinist Mads Tolling for a workshop in jazz techniques for string players! Now’s your chance to learn the techniques of jazz string-playing with a modern master!
In this intensive 3-hour workshop, you’ll learn the shuffle bow and chop, and work on strumming and improvising. This way as a string player you can sound legit in a jazz jam session and fit right in. Mads will give you the tools, techniques and know-how to take your groove playing to the next level. All string players will benefit from this exploration of technical and stylistic elements of jazz playing. We anticipate a really fun afternoon of music-making, culminating in a “jam session” that will inspire you. All levels are welcome!
The public is also invited to observe the workshop. You will get a great sense of the magic behind jazz playing and it will be a joy to experience the generosity of this great mentor.
To register, please visit the Amateur Music Network webpage!
Instructor
MADS TOLLING is an internationally renowned violinist and composer originally from Copenhagen, Denmark, now living in San Francisco. As a former nine-year member of both bassist Stanley Clarke’s band and the celebrated Turtle Island Quartet, Mads won two Grammy Awards, and he was nominated for a third Grammy in 2015. He was the 2016 winner of the DownBeat Critics Poll Rising Star Violin Award. Mads has performed with Chick Corea, Ramsey Lewis, Kenny Barron, Paquito D’Rivera, Leo Kottke and Sergio & Odair Assad. Mads is a current member of Bob Weir’s Wolf Bros & Wolf Pack Band.
After graduating Berklee College of Music in 2003, he was recommended by Jean-Luc Ponty to join Stanley Clarke’s band. He has since been featured on NPR’s Morning Edition, and his recordings have received rave reviews in Washington Post, San Francisco Chronicle, Strings Magazine and DownBeat Magazine. Mads has performed for Danish royalty – Prince Frederik & Princess Mary – at the celebration of The Danish Embassy’s 50-year Anniversary. Since 2021, Mads has been a member of Bob Weir & Wolf Bros project as part of the Wolf Pack with tours across the US, including at Red Rocks, The Greek Theatre and Radio City Music Hall. He is featured on Weir’s album Live in Colorado. Mads has written several arrangements of Grateful Dead tunes for the band, some of which are now also part of the Mads Men repertoire.
Mads has twice been commissioned to write violin concertos – for Oakland Symphony and Pacific Chamber Orchestra. He has performed his symphonic works and soloed with orchestras around the US and Japan.
Mads now leads his own groups – Mads Tolling Quartet and Mads Tolling & The Mads Men. His release, Playing the 60s, is a reimagination of classic songs from 1960s film, TV and radio, such as “A Taste of Honey,” “Hawaii 5-0” and “Mission: Impossible.” The album features vocalists Kenny Washington, Kalil Wilson and Spencer Day, and it spent two months on US jazz radio’s top 30.
With his groups, Mads has performed over a thousand concerts around the world, including at The Hollywood Bowl, Library of Congress and at the Bay Area’s Paramount and Herbst Theatres. As a featured Yamaha Artist, Mads leads clinics and masterclasses in the US and internationally.
Ready, Set, Go!
Faculty: Pasha Sabouri and Mimi Zweig
Dates: January 2026
Location: In-person at the Bowes Center (200 Van Ness)
This unique workshop is designed to help violinists and violists explore musical development through the understanding of tension and release. Over the course of this 3-day workshop, participants will learn how to help you guide your students towards artistry, with a more natural approach to playing. Be ready to try out the teaching techniques, and come away with new concepts and tools for your studio. We encourage all teachers to bring your students or videos for personalized feedback!
- 9:00 AM to 12:00 PM - A time to engage in lectures and discussions on key topics.
- 1:30 PM to 4:30 PM - Hands-on application of key topics discussed in the morning session.
- Key Topics include:
- Understanding and mastering tension and release in playing
- Tone
- Set-up technique
- Shifting, vibrato, bow strokes
- Scale sequence
- Etude sequence
- Selected repertoire for beginning, intermediate, and advanced level students
Reserve your spot soon!
This special workshop is limited to 30 teachers to ensure an intimate and focused learning environment to all.
If you have any questions, please contact the Continuing Education Office at
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Faculty
Pasha Sabouri is one of the most sought-after and respected American violin pedagogues of the new generation. He has performed in recitals and concerts in Holland, Sweden, Austria, Germany, UK, throughout the United States and Canada. A passionate educator and a published author whose acclaimed book "Upbeat" guides middle and high school students and their families on the road to professional musical education and career. His students are competing and featured in such competitions and media outlets as Menuhin Competition, Sphinx Competition, Dallas Symphony’s Lynn Harrell Competition, ENKOR Competition, and NPR's From The Top, winning the coveted "Jack Kent Cooke" Award.
Pasha Sabouri is the founder and Artistic Director of the Texas Strings Festival, and it’s affiliate Master Series - a year-round educational initiative which provides the students with extraordinary opportunity to be guided and inspired by leading musicians of the day. Throughout the years the students of TSF have had the privilege to work with such luminaries as Miriam Fried, Vadim Gluzman, Paul Kantor, Ida Kavafian, Jan Mark Sloman, Jinjoo Cho, Nadja Salerno Sonnenberg, Robin Wilson, Grigory Kalinovsky and William Hagen. He is also the founder and leader of Teachers’ Lounge – an online teachers collective designed to support and empower his colleagues with innovative ways of teaching and studio development.
Based in the San Francisco Bay Area, Dr. Sabouri is currently violin faculty at UCSB and is Head of Strings at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music Pre-College. He has also had the privilege to serve as Adjunct Professor at Concordia College as well as Artistic Director at the Concordia College Music Academy in Austin, Texas. Prior to this position, he was appointed Lecturer Violin Professor at Centenary College in Shreveport, Louisiana, and has also been faculty at Encore Chamber Music Institute, Omaha Conservatory of Music Institute, the Brian Lewis Young Artist Program, and has adjudicated at Carnegie Hall NYO/2 program, Jack McGehee and UT Concerto Competitions.
Pasha Sabouri has appeared as a soloist at the opening of the Edinburgh Festival, performed with the Texas Chamber Orchestra, Las Vegas Philharmonic, Henderson Symphony, and the Ottawa Sinfonette. He was awarded the first prize at the National Federation of Music Clubs Young Artist Competition, and was named National Finalist for Music Teachers National Association, The Texas Young Artist, and the Coeur D’Alene Competitions.
Mimi Zweig is professor of music in violin at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music and director of the Indiana University String Academy. She joined the Jacobs School of Music faculty in 1976.
Zweig studied with Louis Krasner, Samuel Kissel, Raphael Bronstein, and Tadeusz Wroński. She has been a member of the Syracuse Symphony, American Symphony under Leopold Stokowski, and Indianapolis Symphony. She has developed pre-college string programs across the United States since 1972.
Zweig has given master classes and pedagogy workshops in the United States, Mexico, Canada, Israel, Japan, Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Chile, and throughout Europe. Her innovative web-based teaching tool, Mimi Zweig StringPedagogy.com, is accessed worldwide.
American Public Television released the Emmy-nominated documentary Circling Around—The Violin Virtuosi, featuring IU String Academy students, in spring 2006.
In 2019, Zweig was the recipient of the American String Teachers Association Artist Teacher Award. Her students have won numerous competitions and teach and perform worldwide.