The full headline should read: "Least Expensive, Even Free Concerts." That's the venerable/youthful San Francisco Conservatory of Music, 97 years old, and getting ready for a varied, distinguished, and rich 2014-2015 season, including the traditional (free) student recitals, and the large Faculty Artist Series, also now gratis. Over 500 events constitute the season.
The school's Concert Hall will be the venue to 12 orchestra concerts ($15-$20) under the baton of Music Director Scott Sandmeier, with student and guest soloists, some big projects, such as Holst's The Planets, with Ragnar Bohlin's Conservatory Chorus.
Also on tap: three staged operas — Donizetti's The Elixir of Love, Bernstein's Trouble in Tahiti, and Britten's Albert Herring — premieres by nationally-known and home-grown composers (several duplications here, of course), and an expanded faculty artist series of chamber works, early music, and solo recitals.
A quick name-dropping for the Conservatory season: Susan Graham, Jennifer Koh, SFCM alumni Warren Jones ('77) and Elza van den Heever ('02); Geoff Nuttall, David Russell, many local music organizations, and many more.
The school continues to champion new music by commissions, competitions, residence, and performances. Nicole Paiement, artistic director of the BluePrint New Music Series, leads the New Music Ensemble in world and West-Coast premieres of works by Kaija Saariaho, John Glover and alumnus Robin Estrada ('05), winner of the Conservatory's $15,000 Hoefer Prize in composition.
Conservatory President David H. Stull says of the season:
We are tremendously excited by our new season and look forward to presenting the young artists who will occupy the professional stages of tomorrow. Our world-class faculty and superlative guest artists will be with us for both performances and master class opportunities this year, and witnessing this level of artistry in the intimacy of our concert hall is a unique experience.
The school's downloadable season calendar has all the information, although it takes a bit of getting used to the small font and UniFlip turning two pages at a time. Search produces three lines from each entry, not necessarily containing the information you're looking for.