San Francisco Classical Voice

A musician's contribution to society, to culture, can never be truly measured. A musical career is so elusive in the memory, depending often on recordings, on scores if he/she is a composer, on the achievements and testimony of students if a teacher. Sometimes it is perpetuated in legend and anecdotes, very personal memories, all very ephemeral. But a rare few actually leave clearly identifiable legacies. Milton Salkind did. When he became president of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music in 1966, it was a very private operation of 46 students with a very limited reach, though it had produced some remarkable individual artists. By the time Milton, or as friends called him, Mickey, retired in 1990, it had evolved into a major institution with 250 college level students, an extraordinary preparatory division that he initiated, and a far-reaching reputation.

The Conservatory's development was fueled by Milton's ideas and a vision for the school that attracted ever more active and effective board members and inspired support essential to the growth. With Milton as President, the board built an endowment, created funds to support a strong scholarship program, renovate and add on to physical facilities.

His innovations included the Community Service Program through which student ensembles were paid to perform for audiences at rest homes, community and neighborhood centers, schools, eventually serving 250 local organizations. It provides both experience and financial aid for the students and a beautiful service to folks in the community. The tradition of the "Sing It Yourself Messiah" here was also initiated by Milton, 20 years ago. That too was a win-win idea. It is a great fund-raiser as well as a big charge and musical renewal for participants.

His largest single project was the renovation of the building at 19th Avenue and Ortega Street, with the addition of a large wing that includes a proper music library, listening rooms, practise and class rooms, a lounge and the very successful Hellman Recital Hall. Hellman Hall was crucial, that fine professional facility replacing the large classroom that had been used for student and faculty recitals. With this new and enlarged facility, the program was opened up to an appropriate schedule of recitals and enabled the conservatory orchestra and opera program to flourish.

Like many musicians who came from the east to settle here, Milton wanted for this area musical institutions comparable to those he knew. The difference was that Milton made that happen in very apparent ways. While the Conservatory never became a really large school, that was never the aim. The students enjoy the benefits of closeness, the focus and attention to the individual.

The discipline, musical focus and principles Milton drew from his great teachers at the Juilliard School, Irwin Freundlich and Edward Steuerman, were brought to bear in his performance as president and builder. Applying the never-ending process of practising and perfecting, Milton kept pressing on, pressing others, pushing the program. His was a restless determination of a kind that hardly let him enjoy the progress. That was sad but that was the price.

He and Peggy, his wife for some 50 years, concertized impressively as a noted four-hand piano duo until about a dozen years ago. He withdrew from public performance on his instrument, continuing to teach, as he had all through his presidency. He had a strong social conscience and a passionate dedication and sympathy for the students.

When the time came for him to step down as president in 1990, the adjustment was difficult. He had served in distinguished positions on national as well as local boards and was the recipient of the most illustrious honors from governmental, civic and academic institutions. But it was time. Gradually and steadily, his health deteriorated during recent years. His death on December ninth in his home in San Francisco at the age of 82 did not come as a surprise.

Milton has left us a great and living memorial, a legacy that is at once a tribute to a great builder, a symbol of musical achievement that is always possible, and a tradition of affording our most talented and willing youth the best guidance and inspiration possible. He proved that it was attainable.