The San Francisco Conservatory of Music educates exceptionally talented musicians from around the world to become artists of the highest caliber, as well as musical citizens prepared for the challenges of the twenty-first century. Founded in 1917, the San Francisco Conservatory of Music is the oldest conservatory in the American West and has earned an international reputation for producing musicians of the highest caliber. The Conservatory offers its approximately 400 collegiate students fully accredited bachelor’s and master’s degree programs in composition and instrumental and vocal performance. The Conservatory’s faculty and students give nearly 500 public performances each year, most of which are offered to the public at no charge. The Conservatory’s Civic Center facility is an architectural and acoustical masterwork, and the Caroline H. Hume Concert Hall was lauded by the New York Times as the “most enticing classical-music setting” in the San Francisco Bay Area.