San Francisco Conservatory of Music Opens New Performing Arts Heart on Van Ness Avenue – CBS San Francisco
SAN FRANCISCO (KPIX) – City guides, school staff and students celebrated the Bowes Center of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music on Friday with a first look at the venue and facilities, plus a special performance by cellist Yo-Yo Ma.
“This is an incredibly artistic city compared to where I come from, it’s unimaginable,” said Jess Konye, a technology and applied composition student at SFCM. “When I came back everything is different now. The space means that I can go to school anytime and whenever I want, and that makes me a better musician. “
The Ute and William K. Bowes, Jr. Center for Performing Arts is 165,000 square feet and rises several floors above Van Ness Avenue in the Civic Center. More than $ 130 million has been raised for this project.
“One of the biggest challenges we face in San Francisco is making housing affordable,” said San Francisco Mayor, London Breed. “This project offers students the chance to be housed and not worry about whether or not they have a roof over their heads while they try to study and protect their craft.”
It will host around 400 students, including Konye, who says having access to practice rooms at any time of the day will help her grow as a student in a way she never could before living here. Balancing her schedule and school commitments was a challenge, and she eventually left town during the pandemic.
“We didn’t want to be an obstacle for people who wanted to bring their families with them to hear and experience music,” said SFCM President David Stull.
The venue will offer 90 percent of its concerts to the public for free. The acoustics in the event hall on the 11th floor eliminate all noise from the busy streets below.
“The Bowes Center was built with the future of audio and composition in mind, and the facilities here really support that mission,” said Taurin Barrera, executive director of the Technology and Applied Composition (TAC) program.
TAC and the facilities used by SFCM students include new studios to help students become composers of the 21st century, Barrera said. Your skills will help them work on films, video games, and new media. In addition to music composition, you will also learn computer programming and other technical skills.
“The students had tears in their eyes when you hear how it sounds in this room, when you hear your own music recorded, you really feel the power of the sound in the studio,” he said.
Yo-Yo Ma performs at the Bowes Center. (CBS)
Yo-Yo Ma performed for the audience on Friday morning and spent part of his day working with students in a master class in the afternoon. He said he was impressed with the clarity he heard from his performances at the venue, and also how this will help students find their own creativity.
“If there’s one thing I love about what an institution like the San Francisco Conservatory can do with this new space – the Bowes Center – is create a safe space,” he said.
Located near other arts organizations in the Civic Center that work with the school, the Bowes Center helps students connect and collaborate with other artists in the city. The principals say they want the character of San Francisco to be present throughout the venue, including city hall views from the performance hall and rooftop.
“We can be rooted in the community, interact with the community, interact with the musicians there in these rooms,” Konye said. “I think for me as a student this really means the beginning of a new era for music here at the Conservatory.”
An open day for the public with guided tours and performances throughout the day is planned for February 12, 2022.
