SFCM was the inspired – and inspiring – choice of a group of New York musicians looking for a place to launch a national conference devoted to so-called “new music.” For three days in January, the Conservatory hosted the first annual New Music Gathering, an event featuring equal measures of live performance and even livelier discussion among composers, performers and presenters. Labeling it the “anti-conference,” keynote speaker Claire Chase, flutist and co-founder of the International Contemporary Ensemble, neatly outlined the Gathering’s agenda with a list of questions: “What is the music of our time, how do we make it, what do we call it, why do we make it, where do we make it, for whom do we make it, how do we sustain it?”

Performances featured numerous Bay Area artists including SFCM headliners faculty pianist Sarah Cahill and the alumni duo The Living Earth Show. Daytime activities included composer-performer “speed dating;” discussions about founding and funding new ensembles, developing audiences through social media and uses of technology in new music; and demonstrations of live electronics and newly-designed instruments. As they circulated around the building, participants were encouraged to strike up new creative collaborations, giving the Gathering both an entrepreneurial energy and the vibe of a 1960s San Francisco love-in or happening.

SFCM President David H. Stull tied the spirit of the New Music Gathering directly to the Conservatory’s mission, reminding attendees that composers now enshrined in the pantheon of classical music were once considered iconoclasts driven by the impulse to innovate, to write something new. Stull argued, “The music school of the future has to be one that’s not just about a great education, but one which overtly creates the conditions for highly creative work. I do think that is the future and I think all of you represent that.”

Watch videos from the 2015 New Music Gathering on SFCM's YouTube channel.