Instrumental Music
Warming up at Carnegie Hall
Instrumental music at SI comprises the Pep Band, Symphonic Orchestra, Jazz Band, Broadway Pit Orchestra, Jazz Combo, and Piano Recital. We invite you to come to our Winter and Spring Concerts, Spring Musical, Piano Recital and home football and volleyball games to see our talented students perform.
Orchestra Director, Arts Chair - Dr. Gillian Clements
Band Director - Mr. Galen Green
Music just doesn't happen at SI. Students perform at the Fillmore Street Jazz Festival, at high school orchestra and jazz band competitions and festivals, in New York's Carnegie Hall and in Africa.
Recent tours include:
- 2023: NYC!
- 2022: Great America
- 2019: Great America
- 2018: New Orleans
- 2015 & 2017: Southern California
- 2014: Carnegie Hall/NYC
- 2013: Kenya & Southern California
- 2012: New York City
- 2011: Kenya and Southern California
- 2010: Santa Cruz
Rock Orchestra
Winter Concert: Concerto for Two Violins (Vivaldi)
Symphonic Orchestra at the Forum festival in Cerritos CA (reduced size on tour) :
Jazz Band at the Forum Festival in Cerritos CA (reduced size on tour):
About the Orchestra Director Dr. Gillian Clements
B.M.Violin Performance, Boston University 1999; M.M. Violin Performance, Rice University 2002; D.M.A. (Doctor of Musical Arts) Music Education, Boston University 2008. As Instrumental Music Director at St.Ignatius since 2008, Dr. Clements has led the SI Orchestra and Jazz Band at CMEA Festivals (large ensemble, Solo & Ensemble), Santa Cruz Jazz Festival, Music in the Parks, New York International Music Festival (Carnegie Hall, NYC), Forum Music Festival, and Disney Magic Music Days (Anaheim) where SI ensembles have received the high ratings of "Command Performance," and "Superior". In July 2011 Dr. Clements arranged the first-ever "SI-Kenya Music Exchange", taking seven students from the Orchestra and Jazz Band to Kenya to perform with the Kenya Conservatoire of Music Orchestra and the Mount Kenya Academy Orchestra. Dr. Clements moved to San Francisco in 2008 from Nyeri, Kenya where she lived and worked for 18 months to found a string program at the Mount Kenya Academy (www.mountkenyaacademy.com) and complete research for her dissertation. Additionally Dr. Clements has taught music theory, sight-singing, chamber music and orchestra sectionals at the Boston Youth Symphony Orchestras, Boston University, Boston University Tanglewood Institute, the Dana Hall School (Wellesley, MA), and Rice University Preparatory Program (Houston, TX).
Dr. Clements has played with the San Francisco Chamber Orchestra since 2008, and has performed as violinist with the Houston Grand Opera and Ballet Orchestras, the North Carolina Symphony, Key West Symphony, Nairobi Orchestra, Vermont Symphony Orchestra, New England String Ensemble, Rhode Island Philharmonic, Monterey Symphony, San Francisco Chorale Society Orchestra, Santa Rosa Symphony, Modesto Symphony, Sacramento Philharmonic Orchestra, the indie rock band Vampire Weekend and the Transiberian Orchestra.
Courses: Music Appreciation A (Western Classical Music & Broadway Musicals) & Music Appreciation B (Jazz), Orchestra and AP Music Theory.
Past Performaces:
- YouTube - vampire weekend - M79 @ the Independent, SF 03/22/08
- and YouTube - Vampire Weekend - A-Punk @ The Independent, SF 03/22/08
Articles:
- NYTimes: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/14/fashion/14boite.html?_r=1&ref=fashion
- Rice University: http://music.rice.edu/news/kenya.html
- SF Chronicle: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2008/11/27/NSI2148VKT.DTL
- San Francisco Classical Voice: https://www.sfcv.org/article/kids-around-the-bay-18
- Dissertation: Exploring Bi-Musicality: A Case Study of the Mount Kenya Academy
About Jazz Band Director Galen Green
I graduated Cum Laude from Cornish College of the Arts with a Bachelorʼs Degree in Music. I have performed with world-renowned musicians such as the Temptations, The Four Tops, and Tito Puente, Jr, toured nationally and internationally, been featured on many studio recordings and major-market commercial advertisements, and played in pit orchestras, cruise ships, circus shows, and bands of just about every style. I have 18 years of experience teaching saxophone, clarinet, and flute lessons to aspiring musicians of all ages and levels, and six years directing bands in K-12 public and private schools. I strive to share my own passion for music with students, to teach them to listen with open ears and minds, and to instill in them a curiosity for music that will last a lifetime.
My parents give me endless encouragement, support, and inspiration, and I owe them each my deepest love and gratitude. I was also incredibly fortunate to study with the great jazz saxophonist Hadley Caliman, whose influence has shaped my life in music.