2022 violin graduate Patrick Galvin quite literally learned how to make records at SFCM. 

A Pre-College graduate, he returned to the Conservatory for his master's degree, which unfortunately overlapped with the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. "Over my first Winter Term, I just took on this project of recording a solo album, just as a dry run at 'How would I make a recording?'" he says. "'How does the editing process work?' I self-released it, and learned a little bit about the recording process and what happens next, but also felt like, 'Hm, maybe there's a better way.'"

"SFCM is a place with a lot of resources and opportunities," Galvin (who studied with Simon James) reflects. "Just asking people, 'I'm doing this project, I'd like help…' It was so surprising how many people responded, 'Oh, cool! Come have a meeting.' For my first record, I just emailed Skywalker Sound and Leslie Ann Jones, who works there, was this wonderful resource who agreed to help out. Then with this one, I pitched the idea to PDEC and [PDEC Chair] Kristen Klehr, and she has this great, gung-ho attitude. We ended up using grant money to make video recordings, travel up to Seattle to record with Simon , all these aspects that helped us secure more independent funding to keep launching the next round."

Galvin met 2022 piano grad Jennifer Hou (who studied with Corey McVicar and Jon Nakamatsu) in their shared German class in 2021 while he was working on refining the concept for his senior recital and what would eventually become the pair's album Dear Camilla, out now on Navona Records.

"I'd been thinking about how to do a recital program that wasn't just 'silently walk out, play a sonata, play a shorter piece, hold for applause, call it a day,” Galvin says, "and I wanted the program to be honoring my Pre-College teacher, Camilla Wicks, who had passed away in 2020. I play her violin, actually, so I wanted to do something honoring her."

Galvin had started working with Wicks as a pre-teen, and remembers being struck by the particular way she had to hold her hands in her lap because of her painful arthritis. "But her playing was incredible," he says, "and the juxtaposition of someone pushing through that pain to produce something really beautiful stuck with me even as a kid, like what it must mean to be a person on the decline physically, but with still so much to offer as a mentor."

"She was the person who showed me the next level about being serious about your art," Galvin continues. He and his family would help Wicks with her medical care, the pair exchanged letters, and Galvin would visit her for extended stays when she moved out of California.

Hou's time at SFCM was the first occasion she'd gone overseas from her native Australia to study. "The whole purpose of me flying to America and leaving Australia was to form these collaborations with people," she says, "and Patrick had pretty much captured the concept of this sort of dedication to a mentor that I really appreciated and thought was very heartfelt."

Galvin's master's recital, which later became the rubric for the album and current tour, contextualizes the pieces with scenes from his time with Wicks rendered as letters and read aloud before each performance. "Before each piece was performed," Hou says, "he would read these letters out loud and it was very personal, very intimate, and vulnerable. It elevated the pieces and made them a little bit more multidimensional and accessible for even people who don't have any classical music background. I was really drawn into that because as a performer, you're always questioning how to make your concerts accessible and draw in an audience."

Jennifer Hou and Patrick Galvin.

Hou also received PDEC grants during her time at SFCM to help allay costs of applying to and performing overseas: "It can be pretty isolating in Australia, while there are so many different opportunities in America and Europe. I'm very grateful to SFCM for helping me be able to do those things." She adds, "Collaborations like this project is what you want to seize upon when you're doing your master's. Patrick and I have stayed connected since 2021 when we first met, and it's still an ongoing partnership, so it's one of the best things that came out of my degree."

Dear Camilla was released in August, and Galvin and Hou are refining the project as they continue to perform in support of it. "We're going to go to Australia to do a tour in January and then England and Ireland in July 2026," Galvin says, "and Jenn and I have basically been rewriting the script to get closer to our vision of a more continuous program where the speaking is more integrated into the music, with multiple voices and a narrator, so that's been really fun to even just think about."

From his first solo recording at SFCM, Galvin says that "everything has just felt very serendipitous. I mean, I probably just clicked on 'professional development' on the school's website, and a couple of years later here we are."

Learn more about studying violin or piano at SFCM and the Conservatory's Professional Development and Engagement Center.