On Tuesday, May 3, SFCM's Renaissance Club was the welcome guest at the headquarters of LinkedIn in Mountain View, CA. A communal gathering bringing together SFCM alumni from disparate fields, the event centered on a panel talk with SFCM President David H. Stull and two alums: Calisa Hildebrand '10 (freelance flutist, VP of Digital at Fenton Communications) and Patricia Cheng '04 (concert pianist and teacher, Attorney at Kaminitz Law). Kincaid Smith — a freelance trumpeter and CRM Administrator / Music Director at LinkedIn — also joined the conversation.

The talk, attended by dozens of past SFCM students, focused on the direction careers and lives can take after graduation from the Conservatory. Both Hildebrand and Cheng stressed the importance of their musical education and how it has worked into their non-music endeavors.

"I am really glad I attended the Renaissance Club event at Linkedin," says Pauline Metzgar ‘90, a freelance violist and Alumni and Constituent Relations Specialist at the University of California. "Seeing how high-tech companies are providing opportunities for employees to express and share their creativity in ways outside of their regular jobs is exciting. I really wish I had the opportunity to practice during my lunch break! The event was also a chance for me to discover that I am not alone in balancing a music career and a non-music career. It is a real challenge to work all day and then have enough energy to perform and practice on the evenings and weekends, but so worth it. Finding a cohort with similar background and experiences means a lot to me. I'm so thrilled that SFCM has created this opportunity for their alumni and students to engage in a new way."

The event was also attended by a number of current students. Composition major Roman Baranskiy ‘16 was inspired by the stories he heard from the panelists and other attendees. "It is such a relief to see this," says Baranskiy. "These [panelists] are all talented musicians, who are also passionate about other things (as so many of us are) and whose lives turned out dramatically different than they'd imagined/planned. ... Let's be encouraged by these stories." (Read a personal report on the event at Roman Baranskiy's blog.)

Visit sfcm.edu/alumni for more information about SFCM alumni activities and resources.