San Francisco Conservatory of Music Opens Spectacular $80 Million Facility
SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. Founded in 1917, the San Francisco Conservatory of Music (SFCM) is one of the world's oldest and most respected independent music schools. Each year, it serves more than 1,300 students through its collegiate, preparatory and adult extension divisions and summer programs, and offers over 1,600 public performances to more than 100,000 residents and visitors to the Bay Area. In September 2006, following nearly three years of construction, the Conservatory welcomed students and the community to its new home, 50 Oak Street, in the nexus of downtown's vibrant performing arts community at the Civic Center. In addition to a Yamaha CFIIIS concert grand piano the school purchased in 1989 and its Yamaha C7 conservatory grand piano, 51 new Yamaha pianos were among the dramatic improvements in the new $80 million facility. The large selection of new Yamaha instruments C1 conservatory grand pianos (8), C2 conservatory grand pianos (9), GC1s (11), U1 uprights (11) and P22 studio uprights (12) complements an impressive increase in the number of practice rooms (from 15 to 33), teaching studios (from 33 to 44) and classrooms (from 8 to 14) at the new school.
Larry Newhouse, the Conservatory's Senior Piano Technician, says SFCM was one of the first schools in the nation to participate in Yamaha's piano loan program and placements of over a dozen Yamaha grand pianos since 1987 familiarized school officials with the instruments' reliability. "When it came time to purchase pianos for the new buildings, it was a no-brainer to select Yamaha."
"Yamaha pianos hold up well in a professional institution," he continues. "Mechanically, the quality of manufacture and the design of the parts in the playing mechanism results in extreme consistency from one note to the next and from one piano to the next. They hold adjustment well, and are easy to service, making them real workhorses. And, they have a good balanced sound, which works well for vocal accompaniment, chamber work, composition, and solo piano. They serve us very well."
Following inaugural October concerts in the 145-seat Recital Hall and 100-seat Osher Salon, as well as a November Building Dedication ceremony and a Community Open House in December, the Opening Benefit in the 445-seat Concert Hall was held on January 28 of this year. This star-studded gala featured world premieres of SFCM-commissioned works by acclaimed new music composers Steven Mackey and Pulitzer Prize-winner and SFCM alumnus Aaron Jay Kernis; notable SFCM alumni and faculty performing a work by Mendelssohn; former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown narrating Aaron Copeland's "Lincoln Portrait" accompanied by Andrew Mogrelia and the Conservatory Orchestra; and guest conductor, Yamaha artist and San Francisco Symphony Music Director, Michael Tilson Thomas leading the Conservatory Orchestra.
"We were an established conservatory before the move," says Newhouse, "But now, it feels as though we've been dropped in the center of a different universe. With the architecture, the quality and availability of instruments, the courses available to students, and our new location in the Performing Arts Civic Center of San Francisco, even after all these months in our new location, I still look around me and say, 'this is a very special place, architecturally and in terms of energy.' And Yamaha is a very big part of it."
For a complete schedule of upcoming performances and further information, visit www.sfcm.edu.
For more information, write Yamaha Corporation of America, Piano Division, P.O. Box 6600, Buena Park, CA 90622, telephone (714) 522-9011, or e-mail infostation@yamaha.com.
 Yamaha C1 grand piano in a faculty voice studio at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.
Photo Credit: Larry Newhouse |
"Yamaha pianos hold up well in a professional institution," he continues. "Mechanically, the quality of manufacture and the design of the parts in the playing mechanism results in extreme consistency from one note to the next and from one piano to the next. They hold adjustment well, and are easy to service, making them real workhorses. And, they have a good balanced sound, which works well for vocal accompaniment, chamber work, composition, and solo piano. They serve us very well."
Following inaugural October concerts in the 145-seat Recital Hall and 100-seat Osher Salon, as well as a November Building Dedication ceremony and a Community Open House in December, the Opening Benefit in the 445-seat Concert Hall was held on January 28 of this year. This star-studded gala featured world premieres of SFCM-commissioned works by acclaimed new music composers Steven Mackey and Pulitzer Prize-winner and SFCM alumnus Aaron Jay Kernis; notable SFCM alumni and faculty performing a work by Mendelssohn; former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown narrating Aaron Copeland's "Lincoln Portrait" accompanied by Andrew Mogrelia and the Conservatory Orchestra; and guest conductor, Yamaha artist and San Francisco Symphony Music Director, Michael Tilson Thomas leading the Conservatory Orchestra.
"We were an established conservatory before the move," says Newhouse, "But now, it feels as though we've been dropped in the center of a different universe. With the architecture, the quality and availability of instruments, the courses available to students, and our new location in the Performing Arts Civic Center of San Francisco, even after all these months in our new location, I still look around me and say, 'this is a very special place, architecturally and in terms of energy.' And Yamaha is a very big part of it."
For a complete schedule of upcoming performances and further information, visit www.sfcm.edu.
For more information, write Yamaha Corporation of America, Piano Division, P.O. Box 6600, Buena Park, CA 90622, telephone (714) 522-9011, or e-mail infostation@yamaha.com.