The San Francisco Conservatory of Music (SFCM) today announces the launch of a new channel on Apple Music, curated by SFCM

In starting the curated channel, SFCM joins an exclusive roster of prestigious institutions, companies, and artists cultivating a musical voice and identity on Apple Music. The Apple Music channel will allow SFCM to bring attention to not only specific faculty members and artists, but also departments as a whole. SFCM’s unique position as an institution of higher learning allows for its curated playlists to act as educational tools, assembled by world-class artists-including faculty members-to teach listeners about the specifics of genre, instrumentation, and other musical attributes.

The first few weeks after the launch of the channel will include “introduction” playlists to the Conservatory’s Technology and Applied Composition (TAC) program and brand new Roots, Jazz, and American Music (RJAM) program. Other planned playlists include those featuring performances by faculty members such as Deborah Voigt, Jon Nakamatsu, and David Tanenbaum, SFCM artists-in-residence Leon Fleisher and Garrick Ohlsson, and a general minimalist music listening course.

The launch of SFCM’s curated Apple Music channel follows the recent rebranding of the Conservatory. In January 2017, SFCM launched a new website and brand identity, focusing on creating a media-rich environment with in-depth, accessible faculty profiles and engaging video content and imagery. As a result, SFCM has seen heightened interest from applicants and an overall uptick in applications received.

The SFCM profile and the SFCM curated playlists can be found at apple.co/SFCM.

SFCM on Apple Music: Initial Playlists to be Featured at Launch

1. SFCM Faculty Highlights: Voigt, Nakamatsu, Barantschik, Bates

Celebrate the artistry of SFCM’s world-class faculty. This playlist features highlights from the discographies of internationally revered soprano Deborah Voigt; pianist Jon Nakamatsu, a Van Cliburn Competition gold medalist and acclaimed recitalist; violinist Alexander Barantschik, Concertmaster of the San Francisco Symphony and, before that, the London Symphony Orchestra; and Mason Bates, perhaps the leading composer of his generation and, since 2016, the Kennedy Center’s first-ever composer-in-residence.

2. Technology and Applied Composition (TAC): Introduction

Established in 2015 and one of only a handful of programs of its kind in the nation, SFCM’s Technology and Applied Composition (TAC) program offers students a cutting-edge course of study in sound design, film and video game scoring, and creative production techniques. Faculty comprise many of the leading composers and sound designers active in Silicon Valley and beyond. This introductory playlist, designed by TAC Executive Director MaryClare Brzytwa, features works excerpted from the syllabus of Brzytwa’s Digital Production Techniques course for first-year TAC students.

3. Roots, Jazz, and American Music (RJAM): Introduction

SFCM’s Roots, Jazz, and American Music (RJAM) program, set to launch in Fall 2017, is a new Bachelor of Music degree program offering students an unparalleled immersion in jazz and roots music traditions-their history, theory, and practice-while studying and performing alongside members of the legendary SFJAZZ Collective, who will serve as the program’s core faculty. Run in close partnership with the SFJAZZ Center, RJAM will provide its students opportunities to work closely with many of the top jazz artists on the concert circuit today while performing in venues throughout the Bay Area. Curated by RJAM Executive Director Simon Rowe, this introductory playlist features highlights from the discographies of distinguished RJAM faculty members and resident artists.

4. Artist-in-Residence: Leon Fleisher

Since his debut with the New York Philharmonic in 1944 and First Prize in Belgium’s prestigious Queen Elisabeth Competition in 1952, pianist Leon Fleisher (SFCM ’90, honoris causa) has stood as one of the towering performing artists of our time. Compiled in honor of Fleisher’s artistic residency at SFCM during the 2016-17 academic year, this playlist explores Fleisher’s recorded legacy, from his legendary collaboration with George Szell and the Cleveland Orchestra to, more recently, his Grammy-nominated album All the Things That You Are (2014), his first solo recording in over a decade.

5. Artist-in-Residence: Garrick Ohlsson

Gold Medalist at the 1970 Chopin International Piano Competition and winner of Italy’s Busoni Competition (1966) and Lincoln Center’s Avery Fisher Prize (1994), Garrick Ohlsson (SFCM ’16, honoris causa) is widely regarded as one of the finest pianists of his generation. Though particularly well known as an interpreter of Chopin, Ohlsson commands a remarkably broad repertoire, ranging from works by Beethoven and Mozart to numerous twenty-first-century pieces newly composed for him. Celebrate the depth and breadth of Ohlsson’s artistry with this playlist compiled in honor of his 2016-17 artistic residency at SFCM.

6. SFCM Faculty Highlights: Mentzer, Tanenbaum, Swensen, Blumenstock

Celebrate the artistry of SFCM’s world-class faculty. This playlist features highlights from the discographies of internationally acclaimed mezzo-soprano Susanne Mentzer; guitarist David Tanenbaum, widely hailed as one of his instrument’s most accomplished performers and most visible proponents; violinist Ian Swensen, a former member of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and holder of SFCM’s Isaac Stern Chair of Violin; and Elizabeth Blumenstock, a long-time soloist, concertmaster, and leader for ensembles such as Philharmonia Baroque and one of today’s leading teachers of baroque violin.

7. In the Classroom: Minimalism

Explore the history of minimalist music with this playlist drawn from the syllabus of Prof. Ryan Brown’s Minimalism course (Spring 2017). Several of the featured works bear close connections to San Francisco in general, and SFCM in particular. For example, Terry Riley’s In C-perhaps the landmark work of minimalism in music-was premiered at the San Francisco Tape Music Center in 1964 and Steve Reich based It’s Gonna Rain (1965) on a recording he made of the street preacher Brother Walter in San Francisco’s Union Square, while John Adams composed his Phrygian Gates and Shaker Loops while a faculty member at SFCM, where these works premiered in 1977 and 1978, respectively.

Click here to view this release at sfcm.edu.

Founded in 1917, the San Francisco Conservatory of Music is the oldest conservatory in the American West and has earned an international reputation for producing musicians of the highest caliber. Its faculty includes nearly 30 members of the San Francisco Symphony as well as Grammy and Latin Grammy Award-winning artists in the fields of orchestral and chamber performance, classical guitar, and jazz. The Conservatory offers its 400-plus collegiate students fully accredited bachelor’s and master’s degree programs in composition and instrumental and vocal performance. SFCM was the first institution of its kind to offer world-class graduate degree programs in chamber music and classical guitar. Its Pre-College Division provides exceptionally high standards of musical education and personal attention to more than 200 younger students. SFCM faculty and students give nearly 500 public performances each year, most of which are offered to the public at no charge. Its community outreach programs serve over 1,600 school children and over 6,000 members of the wider community. Notable alumni include violinists Yehudi Menuhin and Isaac Stern, conductor and pianist Jeffrey Kahane, soprano Elza van den Heever, Blue Bottle Coffee founder James Freeman and Ronald Losby, President, Steinway & Sons – Americas, among others. The Conservatory’s Civic Center facility is an architectural and acoustical masterwork, and the Caroline H. Hume Concert Hall was lauded by The New York Times as the “most enticing classical-music setting” in the San Francisco Bay Area. For more information, visit sfcm.edu.