The 2011-2012 concert season is nearly upon us. I'll be writing program notes and giving pre-concert lectures for a variety of institutions, including the San Francisco Symphony and the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra.

Program Notes and Lectures

My new class at the Fromm Institute is "The Concerto: Baroque to Modern", beginning on January 12 and ending on March 1. I am posting class materials here.

Fromm Institute

I have taught Music 27 - Introduction to Music for 21 years now for the Fall Freshman Program at the University of California, Berkeley. Again this fall I'm shepherding a group of undergraduates through the glories of the Western musical tradition.

Music 27 (UCB)

Although I no longer write for the San Francisco Examiner, I still maintain a personal blog on LiveJournal, called Free Composition. The blog covers a wide range of topics, even sometimes music, so check it out frequently.

Free Composition

Peripheral Pianism


I may have been raised and trained as a pianist, but my relationship with the instrument has been rocky at best. Only during a very limited period of my life did the piano become really central to my career as a musician, but that unnatural attachment led soon enough to an all-stops meltdown. For the past fifteen years I have had the career I want to have, and not the one people told me I was supposed to have. That career includes the piano only peripherally; I play the occasional recital, and that's about it.

more quotations

About Scott Foglesong

Scott Foglesong is a pianist, musician, teacher, writer, cat-lover, music history devotée, occasional computer geek and sometime programmer. He has been on the faculty of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music since 1978; nowadays he serves as a department chair in addition to enjoying the honor of educating some of today's most promising young musicians. In 2008 he was named recipient of the Sarlo Family Foundation Award for excellence in teaching. He has taught Music 27 (Introduction to Music) for the Fall Freshman program at UC Berkeley since 1991, is associated with the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra, both as a Contributing Writer and as an "Inside Music" lecturer for the Symphony's weekly subscription concerts, and is Program Annotator and Scholar in Residence for the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra. Professor Foglesong was formally educated at the Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore and the San Francisco Conservatory, but his informal education continues everywhere, without cease.

January

My article "Making Music, Making Community", on the SFS's community education and outreach programs, runs for the month as the lead for the January 2012 Playbill at the San Francisco Symphony.

January 12

First day of class at the Fromm Institute, USF. "The Concerto: From Baroque to Modern", running eight weeks from the 12th, every Thursday morning at 10:00 AM.

January 18

My first day of classes at SFCM.

January 19 - 21

Pre-concert lectures for the SF Symphony at Davies Symphony Hall, on Stravinsky, Ravel, De Falla, and Dallapiccola. 1/19 at 1:00 PM; 20th and 21st at 7:00 PM.

January 26 - 29

Program notes for the Philharmonia Baroque's all-English program.

February

My article "The Symphony on Record", on the recorded history of the SF Symphony, runs for the month as the lead for the February 2012 Playbill at the San Francisco Symphony.

February 8 - 9

Pre-concert lectures for the SF Symphony at Davies Symphony Hall, on Bruckner Symphony No. 5. Wed. 8th at 9:00 AM and 7:00 PM; Thu. 9th at 7:00 PM.

February 19

Pre-concert lecture at Zellerbach Hall, UC Berkeley, for the Takacs Quartet concert. Works by Janacek, Britten, and Debussy. 2:00 PM.