Ensembles

an orchestra rehearsal from behind the first violin section

Our performance programs give you ample room to challenge yourself and experience playing different styles of music in a variety of settings and groups. Whether you’re looking to add your voice to a brass choir, play first oboe in the Conservatory Orchestra, or try your hand at Baroque music, there’s a place for you.

By honing your ability to play with others, you’ll strengthen and clarify your own voice. You’ll also gain the performance experience you need to launch your career.

SFCM presents over 500 performances a year, including solo recitals by students, faculty, and guest artists, small ensemble concerts, fully staged operas, and symphonic programs. And you’ll be heard: More than 26,000 people attend Conservatory performances each year.

Baroque Ensemble

As a member of the Baroque Ensemble, you’ll gain a sense of period performance practices and expand your repertoire with Baroque masterworks that have served as the foundation for the compositional development of Western harmony and voice leading.

Brass Chamber Ensemble

Brass Choir is a weekly class for all brass majors at SFCM. It’ll help you develop your ensemble skills through regular reading rehearsals, orchestral repertoire readings, and preparing for public recitals.

Brass Choir

SFCM Chorus

Stand out as an individual while working as a cohesive unit. Every concert makes a point of highlighting our students as soloists, offering the visibility students need to advance their artistry.

Clarinet Ensemble

Clarinet Ensemble, led by Jerome Simas, is committed to commissioning and performing works by living composers.

Guitar Ensemble

Guitar Ensemble, under the direction of David Tanenbaum, has an extensive history of exploring new and traditional music both on and off the school campus.

Improvisation

Creating original music in the heat of the moment is a skill unlike any other. But like any skill, it can be learned.

New Music Ensemble

New Music Ensemble places students in the classical music of their own time and recent generations. As a member of the ensemble, you’ll perform a variety of works written in the 20th and 21st centuries in concert each year.

Opera and Musical Theatre

Opera and Musical Theatre program draws exceptionally gifted young singers from around the world and provides them with advanced multi-faceted training in vocal performance, acting, stage movement, stage combat, and other essentials of stagecraft.

SFCM Orchestra

As a member of the SFCM Orchestra, you’ll experience firsthand the advantages of playing in a large ensemble. You’ll also get a complete overview of orchestral repertoire, and that begins with examining both masterworks and lesser-known pieces of every era.

Percussion Ensemble

Performing works of composers from Edgard Varèse to Steve Reich, percussion ensembles have long been a staple of the chamber music world. This unique ensemble experience offers you performance opportunities that enhance your understanding of musical cohesion as a percussionist. Percussion Ensemble

Woodwind Chamber Music

Chamber music ensembles are committed to deep exploration of the wide-ranging chamber music literature. As a member of one of the ensemble, you’ll be individually coached by, and work with, players from the graduate chamber music program.