By Alex Heigl

2022 was, by any measure, a banner year for the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. From the expansion of the Conservatory "family" in the form of new partnerships, to new opportunities for students and musicians in the forms of fellowships and commission projects, there were enough landmark developments to merit a year-end look back.

January: SFCM and SF Ballet Partner for a New Fellowship to Advance Opportunities for Black Musicians

At the top of the year, SFCM and San Francisco Ballet announced the Denis de Coteau Fellowship to provide Black musicians with tuition, housing, and a stipend for SFCM’s one-year Professional Studies Certificate in Instrumental Performance, as well as the opportunity to play rehearsals and shows with the SF Ballet Orchestra. Named for SF Ballet’s former Music Director Denis de Coteau, who also served on faculty at SFCM, the Fellowship "is a phenomenal opportunity for highly-talented musicians and a welcome pathway to help diversify our field,” SFCM Associate Dean of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion and Special Advisor to the President Jason Hainsworth said.

De Coteau was one of the first Black music directors of a major U.S. orchestra and joined SF Ballet in 1968. He served as its music director and conductor from 1974 to 1998, and was subsequently appointed music director emeritus. Also known for his work with youth orchestras, including the Oakland Youth Symphony, De Coteau died in July 1999.

March: San Francisco Meets the Bowes Center

SFCM's groundbreaking "vertical campus," the Ute and William K. Bowes, Jr. Center for Performing Arts, welcomed over 650 members of the San Francisco community to 200 Van Ness Avenue for its first-ever open house. Designed by Mark Cavagnero Associates, the architecture-prize-winning building incorporates student housing, dining, classrooms, rehearsal rooms, performances spaces, faculty and partner offices, and a radio station. In addition to multiple live concerts including a performance by quartet-in-residence the Telegraph Quartet, the open house included demonstrations of the cutting-edge sound technology at Studio G, presentations from SFCM’s Opera and Musical Theatre program and a live masterclass with guitarist and faculty member Meng Su.

April: SFCM Alumni and Faculty Represented at 64th GRAMMY Awards

Music's so-called biggest night saw 2010 grad Rogét Chahayed win his first GRAMMY as producer for the hit single "Kiss Me More" by Doja Cat and SZA. (Chahayed was also nominated for Producer of the Year, Non-Classical and in five other categories.) Visiting SFCM faculty member Leslie Ann Jones won a GRAMMY, her seventh, for Best Engineered Album, Classical, for Chanticleer Sings Christmas. 

Opus 3, the leading artist management company acquired by SFCM in 2020, also had a big evening, with artists they represent like Béla Fleck, Anthony Roth Costanzo, Tamara Mumford, Morris Robinson, Yo-Yo Ma, Emanuel Ax, Jennifer Koh, and Chanticleer scooping up awards.

May: SFCM and Joyce DiDonato Send Off Grads With In-Person Fanfare, SFCM Acquires Pentatone, and Opus 3 Names Amaryn Olmeda Its First Artist Apprentice

For the first time since 2019, SFCM held an in-person commencement ceremony to celebrate its expected 155 graduates for the class of 2022. GRAMMY Award-winning soprano Joyce DiDonato delivered the commencement address, offering heartfelt and inspiring remarks to grads.

"I believe great music and artistry connect us to the deepest part of ourselves that the modern world tries so hard to make us forget about," DiDonato said. "With all due respect, I don't quite believe you understand yet just how powerful you are ... You have been called to live this moment, to rise up, and to respond to the very real needs of the world around you."

SFCM continued to blaze trails with its partnerships, announcing in May that it would be the new home of Pentatone, a distinguished, Netherlands-based record label. "I see SFCM pursuing an ambitious strategy that encompasses the entire music ecosystem," journalist and author Ted Gioia wrote of the news when it broke. "No other conservatory in the world has anything close to their presence in technology, recording, music distribution, career development, concert bookings, and even music journalism."

Also in May, violin phenom and SFCM pre-college student Amaryn Olmeda was named the inaugural Opus 3 Artist Apprentice, a mentorship initiative that pairs seasoned managers with outstanding early-career musicians and a network of support—namely, SFCM Isaac Stern Chair of Violin Ian Swensen and Opus 3 Artists’ Managing Director Robert Berretta, Senior Vice President and Artist Development Manager Patricia Winter and Associate Manager Constance Chiu. 

June: Jens Ibsen Named Second Emerging Black Composers Project Winner and Rubin Institute for Music Criticism Winners Announced 

SFCM, in partnership with the San Francisco Symphony (SFS) and the SFCM President’s Advisory Council on Equity and Inclusion announced composer and vocalist Jens Ibsen as the winner of the second annual Emerging Black Composers Project (EBCP) in June. SFS, led by Music Director Esa-Pekka Salonen, will give the world premiere of Ibsen's work during the 2023-2024 season, and as winner, he will receive a $15,000 commissioning fee, mentorship from committee members, and resources to workshop his piece with SFCM. Ibsen joins Trevor Weston, Sumi Tonooka, Jonathan Bingham, and Shawn Okpebholo as winners of the ten-year project.

The 2022 Stephen and Cynthia Rubin Institute for Music Criticism convened at SFCM in June as well, naming Emery Kerekes as the winner of $10,000 Rubin Prize in Music Criticism. Founded in 2011 by Stephen Rubin, renowned book-publishing executive, the biennial Rubin Institute features keynote addresses by the nation’s top critics and public concerts at San Francisco's acclaimed performing arts institutions. 

September: SFCM Orchestra Kicks off Season with Mahler's Longest Symphony

After a canceled performance in spring, Mahler’s towering Symphony No. 3 opened the new school year with a bang. For featured soloist Michail Thompson, the piece's posthorn solo was an opportunity to correct an embarrassing moment from 11 years prior: “I like to think that it beat me then, but I’m going to beat it now," he said. (He did.)

October: Distinguished Pianist Awadagin Pratt Joins Piano Faculty 

In October, SFCM announced Awadagin Pratt would be joining the Conservatory as piano professor in July 2023.

Pratt was the first triple major at the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University, where he earned degrees in violin, piano, and conducting. In 1992, he won the Naumburg International Piano Competition and was awarded an Avery Fisher Career Grant in 1994, and is the former Artistic Director for the Cincinnati World Piano Competition and the presenter of “Art of the Piano,” a festival inspired by the masterclasses of Franz Liszt.

“I am extremely pleased to be joining the distinguished piano faculty at SFCM," Pratt said. "The school is at the front of the line in preparing students to succeed as 21st-century musicians, the facilities are beyond compare, and I very much look forward to continuing my teaching career there."

November: A Yuja Wang-Starring Fundraiser Raises Over $1.2 Million for Scholarships

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Over 450 SFCM supporters, faculty, students, and friends from the performing arts and beyond gathered in November at the Hibernia in San Francisco’s Mid-Market neighborhood for an event dubbed The Fourth Hall with Yuja Wang. Featuring special performances by the GRAMMY-nominated pianist in ensembles with students, the evening raised more than $1.2 million to support scholarships at SFCM, all part of efforts that enable students to access the Conservatory’s peerless education.  (This semester, 100% of full-time students received scholarship aid covering an average amount of 57% of tuition.)

December: SFCM Adds 120 Scholarships Via Historic Gift and Brings Arts Management Company Askonas Holt Into the Fold

SFCM wrapped up its historic year with a historic holiday gift when a foundation set up to direct the proceeds of Ann and Gordon Getty's record-breaking art auction created 120 new scholarships for students over the next four years. The Institution's largest and one of the most significant contributions to any music school, the awards were specified by SFCM alumnus Getty as honoring the Conservatory's pioneering female founders Ada Clement and Lillian Hodghead and will be collectively known as the “Founders Scholarships.”

Lastly, the Conservatory also announced in December that leading artist management company Askonas Holt would be joining SFCM's existing partnership with Opus 3 Artists and Pentatone.

"Under the umbrella of SFCM, with their impressive resources and expertise, we have clear ambitions which will benefit artists and staff as we develop more touring, presenting, and producing initiatives," Askonas Holt Chief Executive Donagh Collins said. "It gives us increased excitement about our future. I am thrilled to embark on this new journey and look forward to working with David and his team at SFCM, the team at Pentatone, and alongside my new colleagues at Opus 3 Artists in New York and in Berlin."

"The sheer talent and power of this new quartet of friends and partners promises to advance the cause of music at the highest level across the globe," SFCM President David Stull said of the news. "It will create limitless opportunities for students, provide a creative playground for the world’s finest artists to advance their ideas, expand our capacity to capture and record important work, and allow us all to imagine and create our future together."