Overview

:: Hours and Map
:: History

Blue Bear School of Music's nonprofit mission is to provide superior quality and affordable popular music education to aspiring musicians of all ages and skill levels within a supportive and encouraging community.

Blue Bear School of Music is San Francisco's leading destination for aspiring musicians of all ages and all skill levels who want to enjoy learning and playing rock, blues, jazz, folk or pop. Blue Bear, a nonprofit organization founded in 1971, is a place where learning and playing popular music is fun and affordable, where people come together who love music, and where each student's unique talents and goals are recognized and supported.

Blue Bear's professional staff and student music community have helped more than 20,000 students achieve their musical goals for voice, acoustic guitar, electric guitar, piano, bass, drums, horns, songwriting, bands and ensembles. The School currently has more than 1,700 members annually enrolled in small group classes and private or semi-private lessons Monday through Saturday. Blue Bear provides annual scholarships by audition to talented young musicians, and offers "sliding scale" pricing to those with financial need.

Blue Bear's teachers are talented, successful professional musicians who are also highly experienced and passionate educators. They have played with, taught or written for numerous major acts including: Bonnie Raitt, Metallica, Huey Lewis and the News, Third Eye Blind, Carlos Santana, The Tubes, Billy Idol, Norah Jones, Counting Crows, Belinda Carlyle, The Sons of Champlin, Albert Collins, Charlie Musselwhite, Bobby McFerrin and countless other Bay Area-based recording artists and performers.

Blue Bear is a vibrant community, a place for making, learning and sharing music.

Blue Bear School of Music: It's Time to Play!

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Hours and Map

Blue Bear Office Hours:
Monday to Thursday 1-8pm
Friday 3-6pm
Saturday 10:30am - 4pm
(closed Sundays)

Messages can be left outside of office hours at:
415.673.3600

Mailing Address:
Blue Bear School of Music
Fort Mason Center, Building D
San Francisco, CA 94123

Fort Mason Center is located in the Marina District of San Francisco
Directions to Fort Mason

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History

Non-profit organization Blue Bear School of American Music was founded as "Blue Bear Waltzes School of Genuine Music" in the summer of 1971 by a rock band called "Wolfgang & Strauss"- "Wolfgang" was a dog, and "Strauss," two brothers in the band. Before moving to San Francisco to make their fame and fortune (and to found a music school), they lived in Northern California on the Bear River. When naming the school, the brothers Strauss whimsically recalled Richard Strauss's "Blue Danube Waltz," substituting the Bear River for the Danube, and the rest is history. For a period in the mid-70s, when the founding members moved on, Blue Bear was run by a co-operative of teachers and students. In 1978 operations moved from the original storefront on Ocean Avenue to Fort Mason Center, where Blue Bear has thrived and evolved to its current state of more than 600 music-loving students per quarter. Blue Bear's current Board of Directors includes former "Wolfgang & Strauss" members Steve Strauss and (Board President) Steve Savage, along with Electric Orchestra & Folk Chorus (and Blue Bear Association) members Bonnie Hayes and Carol Snow. Day-to-day operations are under the direction of Snow and Dennis Criteser, a former student who has been associated with the school for 25 years.

Blue Bear teachers and Association members circa 1972,
including the Hayeses, Savage, Snow and the brothers Strauss.