Brass Ensembles
Conservatory Baroque Ensemble
Conservatory Chamber Choir
Conservatory Chorus
The Conservatory Orchestra
Guitar Ensemble
Jazz and Improvisation
Musical Theater Workshop
New Music Ensemble
BluePrint
Conservatory Opera Program
Orchestral Training
Percussion Ensemble
Chamber Music Ensembles for Strings and Piano
Woodwind Chamber Music
Outreach Programs


Performance is central to Conservatory programs. The Conservatory presents over 400 performances a year, representing the full range of music from solo recitals by students and faculty to small ensembles, fully staged operas and symphonic programs. A special highlight is the Chamber Music Masters series, where guest artists perform together with students and faculty members. More than 26,000 people each year attend Conservatory performances.

Conservatory ensembles provide students with the opportunity for concentrated study and performance. They are directed by notable faculty members: conductors Andrew Mogrelia, Alasdair Neale and Nicole Paiement; conductor/harpsichordist Corey Jamason; San Francisco Symphony principal percussionist Jack Van Geem; former San Francisco Symphony principal trombonist Mark Lawrence; San Francisco Symphony trombonist Paul Welcomer; opera director Richard Harrell; San Francisco Symphony Chorus Director Ragnar Bohlin; and guitarist David Tanenbaum. Members of the ensembles perform at the Conservatory as well as other Bay Area locations. Ensembles also are led by well-known guest conductors.

Paul Welcomer, Brass Choir
Mario Guarneri, Chamber Music Coordinator

Brass Choir is a weekly class required for all brass majors. Its principal purpose is to develop ensemble skills through regular reading rehearsals, orchestral repertoire readings and rehearsals for public recitals, which are presented twice annually. In addition, the class is used as a forum for master classes by faculty and guest artists. The class also serves as a workshop on chamber music, auditions and solo performances. Brass Chamber Music explores the repertoire for smaller brass ensembles through the formation of quintets, quartets and trios. The ensembles are coached weekly, participate in chamber music performance workshops and perform twice each semester.

Corey Jamason, Co-Director
Elisabeth Reed, Co-Director
The Baroque Ensemble is open by audition to all vocal and instrumental students in the school. The ensemble performs music of the 17th and 18th centuries using period instruments from the Baroque Ensemble’s collection. Auditions are held at the beginning of every school year. Numerous performances of baroque orchestral, chamber, and vocal music are given each year.

Major works performed in recent years have included fully staged productions of Handel’s Rinaldo, Giulio Cesare, Serse and Semele as well as J.S. Bach’s St. John Passion and Magnificat.

The ensemble offers the opportunity to explore baroque performance practice through the use of period instruments, weekly classes, private coachings, and early music masterclasses. No experience in historically informed performance is required to participate.

Ragnar Bohlin, Director
The Conservatory Chamber Choir is dedicated to performing chamber choir music, from medieval repertoire to contemporary. Its primary focus is on a cappella music, with close encounters with the choral classics.

David Conte, Director
The Conservatory Chorus performs three concerts annually. Works featuring student soloists are emphasized. Past repertoire has included Fauré’s Requiem, Vivaldi’s Gloria and Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms. The Chorus also performs works by student and faculty composers, and participates in an annual Student Composition Contest in the spring semester.

Andrew Mogrelia, Music Director
Alasdair Neale, Principal Guest Conductor
The Conservatory Orchestra provides an intensive experience in the rehearsal and performance of orchestral literature from all stylistic periods. Participation is required of all orchestral instrument majors. During the academic year, the orchestra performs six full concerts as well as public workshops with distinguished visiting conductors. Student soloists with the orchestra are chosen by competition. In addition, the orchestra presents four performances of the annual Conservatory Opera Theatre production.

David Tanenbaum, Director
The Guitar Ensemble performs works for large groups of conducted guitars, and also breaks into smaller guitar ensembles and mixed ensembles with other instruments. The smaller ensembles are coached regularly and perform each semester. In fall 2000, the Guitar Ensemble went on a five-concert tour of Northern California with composer Steve Reich, and in fall 2001 it performed the United States premiere of Terry Riley’s Y Bolanzero. The Guitar Ensemble performed in both the final concert at Ortega Street and the inaugural concert at the Oak Street Concert Hall, for which it commissioned Steve Mackey’s Measures of Turbulence. The ensemble’s programs regularly blend new compositions with transcriptions.

Mario Guarneri
The Conservatory offers a Jazz Improvisation course and several opportunities for the class to perform. Talented faculty and guest artists give periodic master classes and concerts.

Heather Mathews, Director
Brian Nies, Music Director
Students study and perform scenes from musicals and present cabaret evenings. Recent performances have been given at Piaf’s, the Franciscan Club, the Concordia Club, Town and Country and at the Conservatory.

Nicole Paiement, Director
Jacques Desjardins, Assistant Conductor
The New Music Ensemble involves students in the classical music of their own time. Members of the ensemble, who are accepted by audition, perform a variety of works written in the 20th and 21st centuries in four major concerts each year. The works range from 20th-century classics to brand new works by contemporary composers. Personal contact with composers is provided whenever possible. In addition, several concerts and readings of works by student composers are presented each year.

Nicole Paiement, Artistic Director
BluePrint is an annual event or festival that celebrates new music. The format and repertoire vary from year to year depending on the focus. Participation in BluePrint is open by audition and consent of the instructor.

Richard Harrell, Program Director, Stage Director
Kathryn Cathcart, Music Director
Heather Mathews, Assistant Program Director, Stage Director
Curtis Pajer, Music Director
An integral part of the Conservatory’s collegiate program, the Conservatory Opera Theatre draws exceptionally talented young singers from around the world and provides them with advanced training in vocal style, acting, stage movement and other essentials of operatic craft. Graduates go on to the professional stage well-served by their Conservatory background. In the fall semester, the Opera Theatre presents an hour-long version of Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel or Mozart’s Magic Flute with sets and costumes in four matinee performances for children, in addition to outreach performances. Presented in the spring semester, recent fully staged operas have included The Rake’s Progress, La bohème, Così fan tutte, faculty composer Conrad Susa’s Transformations, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Marriage of Figaro, Die Fledermaus, The Crucible, L’Incoronazione di Poppea, Count Ory, Tales of Hoffmann and Albert Herring. In addition, eight programs of opera scenes with piano accompaniment from the Opera Workshop program are presented each year, which includes an ensemble devoted to performing one-act operas in their entirety.

Working professionals from the San Francisco Symphony, Opera and Ballet orchestras lead Conservatory instrumentalists in sectionals before each concert.

Luis Baez
Gregory Barber
Jeffrey Biancalana
Leonid Gesin
Katie Kadarauch
Jodi Levitz
Bettina Mussumeli
Douglas Rioth
Adam Smyla
Tanya Tomkins
Stephen Tramontozzi
Chen Zhao

Jack Van Geem, Director
Percussion Ensemble members study performance techniques and works for percussion and present two performances each year, sometimes including performers from other music disciplines. In addition, students prepare for twice-yearly Peer Performance Presentations.

Jodi Levitz and Mack McCray, Co-Chairs
Chamber music ensembles for strings and piano are assigned following the audition period. The emphasis is on studying, hearing and performing the great variety of works in the chamber music literature. Ensembles receive individual coaching and incorporate players from the graduate chamber music program. Performances are given in informal and formal workshops and in numerous public concerts at the Conservatory each semester.

Faculty chamber music concerts held throughout the year include advanced students in mixed ensembles. In the Chamber Music Masters series, three master chamber musicians per year are invited to rehearse and perform with chamber music students and faculty and to conduct a chamber music master class. Recent visitors have included Robert Mann, founder and former first violinist of the Juilliard String Quartet, Joel Krosnick of the Juilliard String Quartet, Leon Fleisher, Menahem Pressler, Sharon Robinson, Timothy Eddy, Jeffrey Kahane, Peter Oundjian of the Tokyo String Quartet and Kim Kashkashian.

Jeff Anderle, Coordinator
Students from the Woodwind Department form trios, quartets and quintets. Some of these ensembles continue throughout the year. One concert of woodwind chamber music is presented each semester.

Community Service Program
Elisabeth Lowry, Manager
The Community Service Program benefits both the performance needs of the students and the people of the Bay Area. For more than two decades, the Community Service Program has taken live music into schools, hospitals, retirement homes, children's facilities and other places where people of limited means and mobility are seldom reached. Approximately 280 performances are presented each year. Students audition for acceptance into the Community Service Program. Students receive academic credit, and attendance at seminars featuring guest speakers is required.

Elisabeth Lowry, Manager
The Conservatory in the Schools Program provides Conservatory students with invaluable classroom training while supporting music education in the San Francisco public schools. Conservatory student mentors teach instrumental lessons, lead sectionals, coach chamber groups and assist classroom teachers. Students are accepted into the program through an interview process for both paid and non-paid positions; attendance at seminars featuring guest educators is required.

Elisabeth Lowry, Manager
Anna Washburn, Coordinator
Student musicians are always in demand to perform at private functions throughout the year. Performances run the gamut from special events such as weddings to corporate celebrations or graduations. Students placed through the Conservatory's Music to Go! office are paid for their services. An audition is required.