SFCM Announces 2025-2026 Live Performances: Showcasing the Future of Music

The San Francisco Conservatory of Music (SFCM) is back in session and so is its concert series, spotlighting the exceptional artistry of students and renowned guest artists. SFCM is pleased to announce its 2025-26 full list of performances, its biggest in history, featuring several exciting collaborations and performances designed to dazzle audiences. SFCM puts on more than 500 free performances a year, reserve a seat today! 

The SFCM’s Orchestra season includes five exciting concerts led by music director and conductor Edwin Outwater, opening the season with the ethereal and intimate Prélude à l’après-midi d’une faune by Claude Debussy. Other exciting classical works by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, George Gershwin, Johannes Brahms, Maurice Ravel, Igor Stravinsky, and Ludwig van Beethoven fill out the season. As well as thrilling contemporary works by John Adams, Vivian Fung, and SFCM’s own David Conte. 

SFCM's popular "Chamber Music Tuesday" concert series returns this year with a roster of exciting guest artists including one of Gramophone's Young Artists of the Year, and SFCM Pre-College alum violinist Stella Chen, as well as one of today's most compelling flutists Demarre McGill, internationally known violinist Jonathan William Brown, principal cellist of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra Clive Greensmith, and Opus 3 and Askonas Holt Artist Inon Barnatan. Each event is presented in collaboration with SFCM alumni, faculty, and students.

This fall, SFCM’s Opera and Musical Theatre program presents a chilling presentation of The Turn of the Screw, by Benjamin Britten - an eerie adaptation that follows a young governess who becomes convinced the children in her care are being haunted. This haunting score is noted for its psychological depth that captures the opera's atmosphere of suspense.

In October, GRAMMY-Award winning pianist, arranger, and Askonas Holt Artist, Craig Terry, visits SFCM for a Voice Department residency culminating in a one-night-only performance titled Beyond the Aria. If you're an opera lover, don't miss this program featuring SFCM voice students performing alongside world-renowned soprano and Opus 3 Artist, Christine Goerke. 

In a first-time collaboration, this spring the SFCM Orchestra will perform in Stewart Copeland' s Police Deranged for Orchestra at SFJAZZ Center under the direction of Edwin Outwater for two performances. This high energy orchestral performance will feature more than two dozen SFCM students who join the legendary drummer to perform his unique "derangements" of classic songs from his iconic band The Police. 

Other spring presentations include Jules Massenet’s Cendrillon, a romantic and magical  re-telling of the fairytale Cinderella. In April, Historical Performance Opera presents George Frideric Handel’s Alcina about a dangerous enchantress who bewitches every man that lands on her island. 

This school year also showcases a set of Faculty Artist Series concerts that feature SFCM’s lauded faculty with a full program of their choosing. The star-studded musicians include Corey Jamason, Yubeen Kim, Nancy Zhou, Lester Lynch, Sarah Cahill, David Conte, Jason Hainsworth, Amos Yang, Marc Teicholz, David Garner, and Jennifer Ellis. 

Several of this season's concerts showcase prominent artists represented on the rosters of Askonas Holt and Opus 3 Artists, management companies acquired in recent years by SFCM. These organizations, along with the award-winning Pentatone Records, form SFCM’s unique and growing Alliance which enhances the student experience at SFCM.

Music fans are invited to attend these concerts and others at the Ann Getty Center for Education and the Ute and William K. Bowes, Jr. Center for Performing Arts or the Bowes Center—inaugurated in fall 2021—where 95% of concerts are free and open to the public. While concerts are at no cost, many concerts will reach capacity quickly, concert goers are encouraged to reserve seats early. 

New this year, select SFCM concerts will offer concessions to the public, this is in addition to Uccello Lounge, the full restaurant and bar found on the first floor of SFCM’s Bowes Center, which often features free live music! 

Click here to see the full list. Patrons can reserve tickets online using SFCM’s website. Please see SFCM’s performance calendar for a complete concert schedule and to register for attendance.