Known for his arts leadership and commitment to music education, Sir Clive Gillinson will speak as part of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music’s (SFCM) 2025 commencement ceremony on May 23 at the Herbst Theater in San Francisco. He will also be awarded an honorary doctorate as part of this year's graduating class celebrations.

Executive and artistic director of Carnegie Hall since 2005, Gillinson is also known for his long tenure as managing director of the London Symphony Orchestra after joining the LSO as a cellist in 1970.

“It is a great honor for me to be invited to make the commencement speech at SFCM,” Gillinson said. “It is very special to work in music in this remarkable country, where standards of performance are astonishingly high across so many genres of music. This is not only a country of great musical performers, but also a country of remarkable music institutions, none more so than the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.”

Under Gillinson’s leadership, Carnegie Hall has embarked upon many bold new directions over the last 20 years, transforming its concert, education, and social impact programming. This has included creating annual citywide arts festivals collaborating with leading New York City cultural institutions to explore major issues of the day through music, the visual arts, literature, film, theater, and dance; establishing Ensemble Connect, a fellowship program for the finest US-based post-graduate musicians; and launching three celebrated national youth ensembles—the National Youth Orchestra of the USA (NYO-USA), NYO2, and NYO Jazz—free programs that invite the finest teen players from across the country to gather each year for a two-week, intensive summer training residency followed by concerts at Carnegie Hall and major tours where they perform as international youth ambassadors for their country.

“All of you who serve this special institution of SFCM,” Gillinson added, “continue to be true pioneers in developing new and entrepreneurial ways of ensuring that your students have access to the most stimulating and creative opportunities and influences.”

Complementing Carnegie Hall’s performance activities, Carnegie Hall’s Weill Music Institute today creates extensive music education and social impact programs that annually serve hundreds of thousands of students, teachers, and families, of all ages and from all walks of life in New York City, across the country, and around the world, in addition to millions more online. These programs play a central role in fulfilling the Hall’s mission of making great music accessible to the widest audiences possible.

“Clive’s visionary leadership of Carnegie Hall has been an inspiration for our profession and a beacon of excellence for the world,” SFCM President David H. Stull said. “His endless curiosity and genius has expanded the canon of music and drawn our attention to new and exciting artists in radically different genres. He has opened our collective imagination and welcomed the world to the City of New York. It is an honor to have him as our commencement speaker and we look forward to recognizing his many achievements with the Honorary Doctorate in Music.”

Gillinson was born in India in 1946 and began studying the cello at the age of 11, playing for three years with the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain. Following a brief period studying mathematics at London University, he realized that music had to be his life and entered the Royal Academy of Music, where he won the top cello prize. Shortly after graduating with a Recital Diploma, he was appointed as a cellist in the London Symphony Orchestra. In 1984, he became the LSO’s Managing Director, a position he held for twenty-one years, until he was recruited to lead Carnegie Hall.

At this year’s commencement, SFCM expects to award 164 credentials across its undergraduate, graduate, postgraduate and artist diploma programs.

Additional details for SFCM’s commencement activities are available online.