You couldn't have asked for a bigger bang to ring in the San Francisco Conservatory of Music's fall season than an Orchestra concert bringing together several of the school's departments and a returning graduate.

The evening opened with two pieces by Richard Strauss, Don Juan, Op. 20 and Vier Lieder for Soprano and Orchestra, Op. 27. For the second piece, soprano Alissa Goretsky (‘24) returned to SFCM to perform as after winning the Voice concerto competition in 2023.

Alissa Goretsky rehearses with the SFCM Orchestra.

"Strauss’s Op. 27 is one very dear to me," Goretsky said. "It deals with the most complex, sweetest human emotion…love. This cycle plays through the darkest and most bright emotional scenarios of love and the mountain of feelings we experience. It was a privilege to be able to sing and act out these emotions, set to music that reflects them so perfectly. I was incredibly thrilled to be collaborating with the amazing orchestra at SFCM as well as [SFCM Music Director] Edwin Outwater, and ecstatic to be coming back to my alma mater!" Goretsky is currently a Butler Studio Artist with The Houston Grand Opera.

The first piece post-intermission was a new arrangement of John Coltrane's "Alabama" that featured Roots, Jazz, and American Music (RJAM) Executive Director Jason Hainsworth (below left) on tenor saxophone. "John Coltrane wrote 'Alabama' at the height of the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s," Hainsworth said. "It was in response to four young girls being murdered while at church by the Ku Klux Klan. The song has a gospel sermon quality and speaks to the impact that music can have on society." "Alabama" is part of a larger arrangement based on the works of John Coltrane by Carlos Simon, currently composer-in-residence at the Kennedy Center. 

The evening closed with Igor Stravinsky's famed Petrushka. Following the success of his Firebird, Stravinsky began working on The Rite of Spring when he was approached by patron Sergei Diaghilev, who inquired about a new ballet. While Stravinsky accepted, the next time Diaghilev checked in, the composer had embarked on an entirely different project. Stravinsky had fixated on the image of a puppet while composing, based on which Diaghilev suggested "Petrushka," the Russian version of Punch and Judy puppetry.

SFCM students at an Orchestra rehearsal.

"Petrushka is its own unique universe of sound, full of humor and energy," said Outwater, who had two of his conducting students performing during the evening. "It contains thrilling challenges for individual players and the whole ensemble, and always absolutely delights the audience. It was a perfect end to our spectacular opening concert."

Learn more about future SFCM Orchestra performances at SFCM, or about studying Voice, Conducting, and Roots, Jazz, and American Music.