Which Italian aria pairs best with a robust red wine? Which era of the Grateful Dead had the most synthesizers? And how can San Francisco's famous Land's End lookout point inspire you?

These are the questions that SFCM's annual Winter Term will be answering in 2026. Every year, faculty and students pitch a host of projects—musical and otherwise—that take them out of their  comfort zone and beyond. Winter Term is a special two-week period designed for students to explore new musical areas, develop skills, or pursue self-directed projects outside the regular curriculum. Part of SFCM's mission statement is educating the complete musician, and Winter Term is an important space for students to build a well-rounded set of experiences that nurture their artistry beyond performance and practice.

Winter Term's music and wine-pairing class.

Provost & Vice President for Academic Affairs Jonas Wright.

2026's offerings of nearly 50 classes include recurring favorites like wine and music pairing—this year taught by SFCM faculty and Court-of-Masters-certified sommelier Theo Popov—and Voice faculty Matthew Worth's collaboration with the organization Musicambria to help inmates at San Quentin explore their musical side. On the more hands-on side of things, Brass faculty Paul Welcomer's popular Introduction to Beer Brewing is returning, while SFCM Studio Manager Doug McCausland's Experiments in Microphone Building results in students adding a working, studio-quality microphone to their collection.

This year's Winter Term also offers a breadth of multicultural offerings. Percussion faculty Haruka Fujii is partnering with sitarist Arjun Verma for the Conservatory's first collegiate-level offering exploring Indian classical music; Humanities and Sciences faculty Yvonne Hagemann is teaching two courses that explore German film, song, and poetry; and Alla Gladysheva will be teaching the basics of reading and singing in Russian. Meanwhile, Vocal Studies pianist Hao Wu's course Exploring Chinese Art Songs takes students outside the standard European art song repertoire.

Students also have the opportunity to learn from the Chair of SFCM's Board of Trustees, Timothy W. Foo, who's teaching a two-day course—the catchily titled Music for the Quick and the Dead—that focuses on the choral requiems of Mozart, Verdi, Brahms and Faure, the most-performed choral works in the classical repertoire.

San Francisco's Land's End trailhead (Credit: Christina Neilson).

Winter Term also lets students get to know San Francisco through a variety of different lenses. SFCM Provost & Vice President for Academic Affairs Jonas Wright is teaching a three-day course on perhaps the definitive SF band, the Grateful Dead. "I have long been a Grateful Dead fan: From listening to them on the King Biscuit Flower Hour to trading tapes, the band has always held a special place in my musical journey," Wright says of the course. "I'm excited to share my knowledge with our students and in some cases introduce them to a band that has brought me many countless hours of joy." Professional Development faculty Thomas Kurtz's Queer Music History Tour of San Francisco highlights the musical contributions of the LGBTQ community to the City by the Bay, while Violin faculty Chen Zhao's class, Music in Nature, takes students to one of SF's most famous views, the iconic Land's End lookout in the northwest corner of the city.

Learn more about Winter Term at SFCM.