Microphones, a Magic Flute, and Queer History, Oh My! A Look at Winter Term 2025

A chance for students to try something outside the norm, this Winter Term saw 46 different options from mic building to art history, to producing a Mozart opera from the ground up.

January 29, 2025 by Alex Heigl

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SFCM's Winter Term production of 'The Magic Flute.'

It’s a time to play in a way that you haven’t before.

Another Winter Term has passed at SFCM, allowing students a chance to hone their craft, develop another skillset, or simply have fun trying and learning something new!

First starting during the 2015-2016 school year, Winter Term is a chance for students to expand their horizons by exploring areas outside of their usual academic work. Steadily growing every year, this year's edition had 46 different options for students to immerse themselves in subjects beyond the standard curriculum for two weeks.

This year dozens of new and returning classes included Songwriting Across Genre, Tap Dancing, Intro to Arts Administration, Mock Orchestrestral Auditions and even The Music of Poetry with Daniel Handler (aka Lemony Snicket).

Longtime favorites also returned including Wine and Music Pairing, an art history treasure hunt at San Francisco’s de Young Museum in the city’s iconic Golden Gate Park, and the Guitar Department’s Harris Guitar Collection Recording Project.

Here’s a look at some of the highlights from this year’s projects including Experiments in Microphone Building, Queer Music History Tour of San Francisco, and building on the success of the past two years, Undergraduate Opera: Cast, Orchestra and Production put on Mozart’s The Magic Flute.

Think building a microphone sounds interesting? This class, led by Doug McCausland and Kat “009” Night in the Technology and Applied Composition program (TAC), allowed students to explore how microphones work and build one themselves.

“It was an extremely fun time which was very different from traditional music education, and I got an insanely nice pair of microphones in the end!” said Jason Wilcox, a clarinet student studying with Jerome Simas. “I chose to do the Mic Building Winter Term as I was in need of some high-quality small diaphragm condenser mics (SDCs) and had some prior experience with soldering.”

The finished product of SFCM's Winter Term 2025 microphone-building class.

Open to all students in the Conservatory, this class was based out of the TAC program, which gives students a direct path into the worlds of film and video game scoring, live performance, emerging new media like augmented and virtual reality, sound design, popular music production, and artist development.

SFCM's Winter Term tour of the GLBT Historical Society.

Professional Development faculty Thomas Kurtz’s project aimed to show students how queer musicians have shaped both the cultural and political identity of their city. “From the formation of the first social and political LGBTQIA+ groups in California to the many years of AIDS Activism, and beyond, music has literally and figuratively served as a voice for social change among the LGBTQIA+ community,” he said. Above, students visit the Castro’s GLBT Historical Society, which features among its exhibits the first-ever Pride flag.

SFCM's Winter Term production of 'The Magic Flute' in its staging phase.

This Term's production of Mozart’s 'The Magic Flute' was a thriving success, selling out both all-undergraduate-cast performances. Each year, the opera provides valuable performance opportunities for younger students.

SFCM's Winter Term 'Magic Flute' production at its staging phase.

This Winter Term class was led by SFCM faculty Rhoslyn Jones. “To mount this beloved Mozart masterpiece in just eight days required tremendous trust, collaboration, and artistry from everyone involved. Seeing our students rise to this challenge with such professionalism and enthusiasm, culminating in sold-out performances, was deeply rewarding,” Jones said.

Students were also given the experience of producing an opera, including stage management, assistant directing, costume preparation and construction, as well as set and prop assembly, and an administrative role of scheduling and social media. These skills are an important part of the success of an opera and vital extended skills of a singer.

“This production exemplified the exceptional standard of opera training at SFCM and the remarkable things we can achieve when we work together as a community of artists,” Jones added.

Undergraduate students participate in at least three Winter Terms during their time at SFCM, and graduate students participate each academic year.

The undergraduate opera is also a closer look at how performances can come together in a limited amount of time: In this case, two weeks.