By Alex Heigl

SFCM is teaming up with the international musician-led charity Music for Food (MFF) for a chamber music concert on March 26 to benefit long-standing local food bank St. Anthony’s. Admission to the concert is free; attendees are asked to donate to the charity.

The Barbro Osher Recital Hall at the Bowes Center will see students and faculty put on a program with works by Anton Webern, Jörg Widmann, and Arnold Schoenberg, featuring a variety of guest artists. Notably, this is the first charity concert to be held at the Bowes Center, and the first MFF concert put on with SFCM since October 2019.

“It is really a student-led event,” violist and SFCM String and Piano Chamber Chair Dimitri Murrath said, “I think that is important because it makes our students feel more connected with our local community and see how much of an impact they can have, I used to put programs together, but this time, the program and concert have come together from the SFCM chamber music students and alums."

Musicians will include an array of SFCM alumni, including violinist Sam Weiser (Del Sol Quartet), cellist Evan Kahn—who holds four 4 principal cello positions in and around the Bay Area—and violinist Eunice Kim. They’ll be joined by SFCM faculty Jonathan Vinocour (principal violist for the SF Symphony) and Jennifer Culp (cello) alongside current students.

Just minutes from SFCM, St. Anthony’s began in 1950 when Father Alfred Boedekker, pastor at St. Boniface Church, began feeding the hungry from the back door of the Church’s rectory on Golden Gate Avenue. His goal was to serve 150 meals, but he wound up handing out 400 that first day. Over the next 72 years, that figure climbed to over 46 million, and St. Anthony’s would grow to include addiction recovery services, a medical clinic, a free clothing program and shelter facilities. St. Anthony’s and SFCM have teamed up for charity efforts before, so this event is a proud continuation of that collaboration.

Music for Food was founded in Boston by violist Kim Kashkashian and has expanded to multiple cities in the US, Canada and China. Most recently, the organization’s Cleveland chapter raised over $17,000 for the Cleveland Kosher Food Pantry. According to the organization, the Boston chapter’s four concerts each year end up sending about $20,000 to city pantries.

You can catch Music For Food San Francisco in the Barbro Osher Recital Hall on Saturday, March 26 at 2 PM. Guests are asked to reserve tickets for this free event.

For donations made at the concert, most forms of payment—cash, check, and card—are accepted in-person. (Checks are to be made payable to Music for Food.) 

Donations can also be made online. Donations are for specific concerts: When prompted on the payment portal, select this concert specifically when you make your donation.

 Learn more about SFCM’s string and piano chamber music programs.