2025 Commencement Ceremony

Friday, May 23, 2025, 6:00 PM PST 
Herbst Theatre
Located in: San Francisco War Memorial & Performing Arts Center
Address: 401 Van Ness Ave, San Francisco, CA 94102

In-person Tickets will be made available to Graduates for their friends and families. This year's commencement will also be livestreamed.

Additional Commencement Week Events are planned to recognize the Graduating Class of 2024 and to celebrate with their families. All relevant commencement activity information and details will be shared directly with the students graduating, and friend and family members should reach out to their graduate for all pertinent information.

2025 Commencement Speaker

Sir Clive Gillinson.

Known for his arts leadership and commitment to music education, Sir Clive Gillinson will speak as part of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music’s (SFCM) 2025 commencement ceremony on May 23 at the Herbst Theater in San Francisco. He will also be awarded an honorary doctorate as part of this year's graduating class celebrations.

Executive and artistic director of Carnegie Hall since 2005, Gillinson is also known for his long tenure as managing director of the London Symphony Orchestra after joining the LSO as a cellist in 1970.

Under Gillinson’s leadership, Carnegie Hall has embarked upon many bold new directions over the last 20 years, transforming its concert, education, and social impact programming. This has included creating annual citywide arts festivals collaborating with leading New York City cultural institutions to explore major issues of the day through music, the visual arts, literature, film, theater, and dance; establishing Ensemble Connect, a fellowship program for the finest US-based post-graduate musicians; and launching three celebrated national youth ensembles—the National Youth Orchestra of the USA (NYO-USA), NYO2, and NYO Jazz—free programs that invite the finest teen players from across the country to gather each year for a two-week, intensive summer training residency followed by concerts at Carnegie Hall and major tours where they perform as international youth ambassadors for their country. 

“It is a great honor for me to be invited to make the commencement speech at SFCM,” Gillinson said. “It is very special to work in music in this remarkable country, where standards of performance are astonishingly high across so many genres of music. This is not only a country of great musical performers, but also a country of remarkable music institutions, none more so than the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.”