Peabody Magazine Spring 2015 by The Peabody Institute of The Johns Hopkins University

PEABODY MAGAZINE

Spring 2015

JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY

Vol. 9 No. 2

Raising the Barre

Peabody Dance celebrates a century of being at the leading edge of an American art form.

ALSO: Musical Gifts and

Whatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Next?

2015 mCDONOgH summER pROgRams Day Camps

aCaDEmIC pROgRams

Red Feather For children turning four prior to american Immersion at mcDonogh

June 22, 2015 and for five-year-olds not yet attending kindergarten Session 1: June 22 to July 10 Session 2: July 13 to July 31

for boys and girls 10 to 17 Session 1: June 21 to July 4 Session 2: July 5 to July 18 Session 3: July 19 to August 1

Red Eagle For boys and girls 5 to 8 (entering first grade and up in fall 2015) Session 1: June 22 to July 10 Session 2: July 13 to July 31

Children play 2 Learn Robotics for boys and girls ages 8 to 13 Weekly: June 22 to July 31

Children play 2 Learn Technology senior Camp for boys and girls ages 9 to 12 for boys and girls ages 8 to 13

Session 1: June 22 to July 10 Session 2: July 13 to July 31

Outdoor adventure Camp

for boys and girls ages 10 to 15 Session 1: June 22 to July 10 Session 2: July 13 to July 31

all sports Camp

for boys and girls ages 8 to 13 Session 1: June 22 to July 10 Session 2: July 13 to July 31

all sports Camp (Rope and Rock Wall)

Weekly: June 22 to July 31

Children play 2 Learn Video game Design for boys and girls ages 10 to 14 Weekly: June 22 to July 31

Children play 2 Learn young Engineers for boys and girls ages 6 to 9 Sesson 1: June 22 to June 26 Sesson 2: June 29 to July 2 Sesson 3: July 6 to July 10

saT prep Course

Olympic Weightlifting Camp

mcDonogh girls Lacrosse Camp: general skills

International soccer school: Kinderkick Camp

mcDonogh girls Lacrosse Camp: advanced skills for girls ages 6 to 14

mcDonogh Fencing Camp

mcDonogh soccer summer Camp

for boys and girls ages 13 to 17 July 6 to July 10 for boys and girls ages 4 to 6 July 6 to July 10

for boys and girls ages 8 to 13 Session 1: July 13 to July 17 Session 2: July 20 to July 24

for girls ages 6 to 14 June 22 to June 26

June 22 to June 26

for girls ages 7 to 14 June 22 to June 26

Eagle Volleyball Camp for girls ages 10 to 17 June 29 to July 2 (Independence Day week)

BOys spORTs CLINICs mcDonogh Traditional Baseball school

mcDonogh softball Camp: general skills

mcDonogh soccer summer Camp

mcDonogh softball Camp: advanced skills

mcDonogh Elite Baseball “Boot” Camp

mcDonogh Field Hockey Camp

for boys ages 7 to 12 June 22 to July 10 for boys ages 7 to 14 June 22 to June 26

for boys ages 11 to 15 June 22 to June 26

mcDonogh Baseball school: pitching and

for girls ages 8 to 12 July 6 to July 10

for girls ages 10 to 15 July 6 to July 10 for girls ages 8 to 13 July 13 to July 17

mCDONOgH INTERNaTIONaL sOCCER sCHOOL: girls general skills Camp for girls ages 6 to 14

for boys and girls ages 10 to 14 Weekly: June 22 to July 31

for boys and girls ages 15 to 17 June 22 to July 10

Catching Camp for boys ages 11 to 15 June 29 to July 2 (Independence Day week)

July 6 to July 10

Teen Camp

Writing strategies

mcDonogh Baseball school: Hitting Camp

girls Team Training Camp for girls ages 7 to 14

for boys and girls ages 13 to 15 Session 1: June 22 to July 10 Session 2: July 13 to July 31

Counselor-In-Training program for boys and girls ages 14 to 16 Session 1: June 22 to July 10 Session 2: July 13 to July 31

Fun On The Run Camp

for boys and girls ages 11 to 14 Session 1: July 6 to July 10 Session 2: July 20 to July 24

Extreme Camp: Beginners

for boys and girls ages 9 to 12 Weekly: June 22 to July 31

Extreme Camp: advanced

For McDonogh students only! Session 1: June 22 to June 26 (For rising sixth and seventh graders only) Session 2: July 6 to July 10 (For rising eighth and ninth graders only)

mcDonogh Chess Camp

for boys and girls ages 5 to 14 Session 1: June 22 to June 26 Session 2: June 29 to July 2 (Independence Day Week) Session 3: July 27 to July 31

for boys and girls ages 6 to 8 Session 1: June 22 to June 26 Session 2: June 29 to July 2 (Independence Day Week) Session 3: July 6 to July 10

Circus Camp stars!

for boys and girls ages 9 to 15 Session 1: June 22 to June 26 Session 2: June 29 to July 2 (Independence Day Week) Session 3: July 6 to July 10

physics For McDonogh students only!

for boys and girls ages 6 to 12 Weekly: June 22 to July 31

for boys and girls ages 10 to 15 July 6 to July 10

skateboard Building

for boys and girls ages 12 to 15 July 13 to July 17

musical Theater Workshop Camp for boys and girls ages 6 to 9 July 20 to July 24

advanced art Techniques: Drawing for boys and girls ages 9 to 14 July 20 to July 24

advanced art Techniques: painting for boys and girls ages 9 to 14 July 27 to July 31

Session 1: July 6 to July 10 Session 2: July 27 to July 31

Rising star Boys Basketball for boys ages 8 to 15 Session 1: July 13 to July 17 Session 2: July 20 to July 24

girls Club Level Camp for girls ages 8 to 15 July 27 to July 31

girls midfielder Camp for girls ages 10 to 16

July 27 to July 31

girls Defender Camp for girls ages 10 to 16

July 27 to July 31

mCDONOgH INTERNaTIONaL sOCCER sCHOOL: girls goalkeeper Camp for girls ages 10 to 16 Boys general skills Camp for boys ages 6 to 14 July 27 to July 31 July 6 to July 10

Boys Team Training Camp for boys ages 7 to 14

July 6 to July 10

The mcDonogh Tennis program: advanced Boys Half-Day soccer/Half-Day Tennis Camp

OVERNIgHT Camps Between the pipes growing goalies girls Lacrosse Camp

for boys and girls ages 9 to 14 Weekly: June 22 to July 31

for boys ages 6 to 14 July 6 to July 10

Rackets, Ropes, and Rockwall for boys and girls ages 9 to 14 Weekly: June 22 to July 31

Boys Half-Day soccer/Half-Day Rock Wall Camp Between the pipes super savers for boys ages 6 to 14 girls Lacrosse Camp

Tennis, Badminton, and pickle Ball

Boys advanced Level Camp for boys ages 9 to 14

July 6 to July 10

for boys and girls ages 9 to 14 Weekly: June 22 to July 31

July 13 to July 17

Half-Day Tennis/Half-Day golf Camp

July 20 to July 24

Boys Club Level Camp for boys ages 8 to 15

for boys and girls ages 7 to 11 Session 1: June 22 to June 26 Session 2: June 29 to July 2 Session 3: July 13 to July 17

July 27 to July 31

mcDonogh golf academy: general skills

July 27 to July 31

for boys and girls ages 8 to 12 Session 1: June 22 to June 26 Session 2: June 29 to July 2 stand-up Comedy and public speaking Session 3: July 13 to July 17 for boys and girls ages 10 to 14 mcDonogh golf academy: advanced skills June 22 to June 26 for boys and girls ages 10 to 15 Visual arts Camp Session 1: June 22 to June 26 for boys and girls ages 9 to 13 Session 2: June 29 to July 2 June 22 to July 10 Session 3: July 13 to July 17

mcDonogh yoga

girls advanced skills Camp for girls ages 9 to 16

July 13 to July 17

girls striker Camp for girls ages 10 to 16

COED spORTs CLINICs The mcDonogh Tennis program: Beginner

Circus Camp Juniors

mighty mites Novice Wrestling Camp

for girls ages 6 to 14 July 6 to July 10

mcDonogh Football Camp for boys ages 6 to 14

June 22 to July 31

young actors Theatre

for boys and girls ages 9 to 15 Session 1: July 6 to July 17 Session 2: July 20 to July 31

for boys ages 7 to 17 June 29 to July 2 (Independence Day week)

girls Half-Day soccer/Half-Day Rock Wall Camp

Chemistry For McDonogh students only!

spORTs CLINICs

mcDonogh Rock shop

maryland Future Champs Wrestling Camp

for girls ages 6 to 14 July 6 to July 10

July 20 to July 24

aRTs pROgRams

for boys and girls entering Grades 5 to 9 Session 1: June 22 to July 10 Session 2: July 13 to July 31

for boys ages 6 to 14 Session 1: June 22 to June 26 Session 2: July 13 to July 17

for boys ages 5 to 8 June 29 to July 2 (Independence Day week)

June 22 to July 31

young Filmmakers Camp

mcDonogh Lacrosse academy

July 6 to July 10

girls Half-Day soccer/Half-Day Tennis Camp

Biology For McDonogh students only! June 22 to July 31

for boys and girls ages 12 to 16 Weekly: June 22 to July 31

for boys and girls ages 10 to 16 June 22 to July 21

for boys ages 11 to 15 July 6 to July 10

mcDonogh Competitive swim Camp for boys and girls ages 9 to 14 Session I: June 22 to June 26 Session II: July 6 to July 10

Boys striker Camp for boys ages 10 to 16 Boys midfielder Camp for boys ages 10 to 16 Boys Defender Camp for boys ages 10 to 16

July 27 to July 31

Boys goalkeeper Camp for boys ages 10 to 16

July 27 to July 31

matt stover Kicking Camp for boys ages 8 to 17 Date: TBA

gIRLs spORTs CLINICs mcDonogh girls Basketball Camp

Junior High or Middle School girls; Grades 4-9 June 21 to June 23

for girls entering grades 9 to 12 June 23 to June 25

mCDONOgH INTERNaTIONaL sOCCER sCHOOL:

preseason prep Overnight Camp for boys and girls ages 10 to 18 August 2 to August 5

Overnight striker Camp

for boys and girls ages 10 to 18 August 2 to August 5

Overnight midfielder Camp

for boys and girls ages 10 to 18 August 2 to August 5

Overnight Defender Camp

for boys and girls ages 10 to 18 August 2 to August 5

Overnight goalkeeper Camp for boys and girls ages 10 to 18 August 2 to August 5

for girls entering grades 4 to 9 Sesson 1: June 22 to June 26 Sesson 2: July 27 to July 31

DON’T LET yOuR CHILD mIss OuT ON a summER OF FuN! i Free Lunch i Free Transportation

i Before and aftercare i Early Bird and multiple sibling Discounts

To find out about the 110 camps, sports clinics, and academic programs that McDonogh offers in the summer, call 443-544-7100, visit www.mcdonogh.org, or email summer@mcdonogh.org.

Call now for early bird specials!

C ONT EN TS

15 MUSICAL GIFTS by Margaret Bell Find out how valuable instruments—generously donated—are making a difference in the musical lives of students and faculty.

3 NEWS A Cosmic Collection Headliners Fret Fest Continues to Grow in Its Sixth Year The Halls Are Alive with the Sound of Music Conservatory Musicians as ‘Elite Athletes’ World-Class Jazz at the Hopkins Club Academies Attract Passionate Young Musicians 12

APPLAUSE

RAISING THE BARRE by Rachel Wallach Peabody Dance celebrates a century of being at the leading edge of an American art form.

24 WHAT’S NEXT? by Linell Smith Artistic excellence is no longer enough to sustain a professional career in classical music. How must musicians adapt?

2 6 ALUMNI Letter from Society of Peabody Alumni President Class Notes Mark Markham: Twenty Years… and Counting Corinne Winters: No Hands-Off Diva J. Ernest Green: A Maestro of Many Hats

3 3 FANFARE Dean’s Breakthrough Plan Aims to Prepare ‘Ambassadors for the Arts’ PNC Gift Supports Boys’ Dance The ‘New Building’ Is Now Austrian Hall Studio Funds Give Peabody a Competitive Edge

ABOUT THE PEABODY INSTITUTE OF THE JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY Located in the heart of Baltimore’s Mount Vernon Cultural District, the Peabody Institute was founded in 1857 as America’s first academy of music by philanthropist George Peabody. Today, Peabody boasts a preeminent faculty, a nurturing, collaborative learning environment, and the academic resources of one of the nation’s leading universities, Johns Hopkins. Through its degree-granting Conservatory and its community-based Preparatory music and dance school, Peabody trains musicians and dancers of every age and at every level, from small children to seasoned professionals, from dedicated amateurs to winners of international competitions. Each year, Peabody stages nearly 100 major concerts and performances, ranging from classical to contemporary to jazz, many of them free—a testament to the vision of George Peabody.

FROM THE DEAN As the spring semester gets underway, we are entering an energizing process of repositioning the Peabody Institute within the world of music conservatories, in our home community of Baltimore, and within the dynamic framework of the Johns Hopkins University. We have begun the important work of building a future focused on excellence, innovation, and leading the way in adapting to the changes in the American and international classical music landscape.

Dean Fred Bronstein

Our success will require clarity about our long-term goals. Beginning with Excellence, we want to make the Peabody Conservatory as competitive as the top programs at Johns Hopkins University and Medicine. We are striving to “own” the area of Interdisciplinary Experiences as a unique competitive edge for Peabody and JHU. Through Innovation, we intend to build an online presence far beyond Peabody’s current base and establish Peabody as a leader in the national dialogue about the arts and music education. (For one example of this work, see the story on page 24 about a nationally noted symposium, What’s Next for Classical Music?, presented in October by Peabody and watched online in 31 countries.) And through Community Connectivity, we are committed to building and maintaining strong relationships through meaningful collaboration, instilling in all our students an understanding of, enthusiasm for, and skill set suited to the role they will play in communities as artists in the 21st century.

Over the next two years, we will be focused on important structural refinements and capacitybuilding work that will allow us to reach these longer-term objectives. Our 24-month “Breakthrough Plan” includes foundational initiatives to professionalize the Institute and align its structure to our strategic objectives; strengthen the Conservatory’s enrollment function; execute market research to inform our work; and engage and develop faculty through better governance, a new contract and evaluation system, investments in curriculum, and encouragement of faculty ideas that speak to Peabody’s longterm strategic goals. This transitional plan requires resources to make investments in infrastructure, expertise, and innovation. In order to accomplish our goals, we have established a special Dean’s Fund to raise $2.5 million to support the Breakthrough Plan. Johns Hopkins President Ron Daniels has made a generous 2:1 challenge toward this effort; the President’s Office will contribute $1.7 million to match $800,000 from the Peabody National Advisory Council. This matching challenge is a wonderful demonstration of university leadership’s investment in strengthening Peabody. This work is all predicated on the certain knowledge that the opportunity and need exist to build on a great history by reinvigorating the Peabody Institute for the 21st century. As we move ahead toward a new model and broadening vision for the Institute, I am grateful for your continued interest in Peabody and look forward to sharing our progress and successes.

PEABODY MAGAZINE Editorial Staff

Advertising

Peabody National Advisory Council 2014–15

Sue DePasquale, Consulting Editor

Leap Day Media Kristen Cooper, Owner kristen@leapdaymedia.com 410-458-9291

Robert J. Abernethy Janie E. Bailey Rheda Becker Paula E. Boggs Barbara M. Bozzuto Richard Davison Larry D. Droppa Leon Fleisher Sandra L. Gerstung Nancy S. Grasmick Taylor A. Hanex Sandra R. Hittman Allan D. Jensen, Vice-Chair Laifun Chung Kotcheff Christopher Kovalchick Jill E. McGovern Mark J. Paris, Chair

Tiffany Lundquist, Director of Marketing and Communications Margaret Bell, Communications Specialist, News Editor Tim Holt, Digital Communications Specialist Ben Johnson, Design and Publications Specialist Debbie Kennison, Director of Constituent Engagement, Alumni Section Editor Will Kirk, Contributing Photographer Carin Morell, Preparatory Communications Coordinator

PEABODY

SPRING 2015

Peabody Magazine is published twice during the academic year. Send us your questions and comments: Peabody Magazine Communications Office 1 East Mount Vernon Place Baltimore, MD 21202 410-234-4525 magazine@peabody.jhu.edu peabody.jhu.edu/magazine

Matthew S. Polk Jr. Christine Rutt Schmitz Solomon H. Snyder David Tan Sally A. White Shirley S.L. Yang

Emeritus Members Pilar Bradshaw Tony Deering Hilda Perl Goodwin Benjamin H. Griswold IV Turner B. Smith

News A Cosmic Collection

Concert Season FREE TO ALL

of the prize, which she applied for in collaboration with Lunar Ensemble, a Baltimore-based new-music vocal and instrumental group. Chiao and the ensemble began work on To See the Stars this past May, with Dara Weinberg, a 2011 Johns Hopkins University Writing Seminars MFA graduate, providing the libretto. According to Chiao, the piece examines “the grand curiosity and the grand aspirations of the human search for knowledge. You’ll hear songs about aspiration, discovery, and the conflict of ideas” as seen through the lens of the development, deployment, and extraordinary success of the Hubble. In her research for the project, Chiao interviewed astronomers and astrophysicists at the Homewood campus– based Space Telescope Science Institute, notably Ken Sembach, mission head for the Hubble. “I don’t want it to be something where I could have just used a planetarium video, recorded the music, and pressed play,” Chiao emphasizes. “So there will be a dynamic live component—sometimes performance will be at the forefront, sometimes video. Hopefully, if I do my job correctly, all of these things will be effectively integrated.” —— Michael Yockel

For more information, visit toseethestarsmusic.com.

SUNDAYS AT 7:30PM

CHAMBER MUSIC BY CANDLELIGHT

JAN 18, 2015

Rec

Featuring members of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra eption

Free Post-Concert Reception

FEB 8, 2015 ★ U.S. PREMIERE APR 19, 2015 ★ WORLD PREMIERE MAY 03, 2015

Rec

PHOTO: ROBERTO WESTBROOK

As a high school student in Northern Virginia, Faye Chiao (MM ’07, Composition) developed an abiding fascination with astrophysics, which eventually translated into a bachelor’s degree in physics from Georgetown University and, more recently, into her 45-minute multimedia dramatic song cycle To See the Stars. Scheduled to premiere at the Maryland Science Center’s Davis Planetarium in March, To See the Stars commemorates the 25th anniversary of the launch of the Hubble Space Telescope, which during its lifetime has exponentially expanded humankind’s understanding of the cosmos. “Essentially, it’s a collection of songs linked through narration, musical interludes, and video,” explains Chiao, a member of Peabody’s music theory faculty now working on her DMA in composition. “I’m really interested in the intersection of opera and chamber music.” Chiao traces the genesis of To See the Stars to a conversation she had with Gerald Klickstein, director of Peabody’s Music Entrepreneurship and Career Center, who suggested a project to celebrate Hubble’s quarter-century anniversary. It came more into focus when she submitted a proposal to the Houston Grand Opera during its open call for works pertaining to Houston; Chiao immediately thought of the city’s Johnson Space Center. Although she failed to win that particular competition, she nonetheless dived into what ultimately became To See the Stars: “I just fell in love with this Hubble project and wanted to find a way to make it come to fruition.” That “way,” it turned out, came via the 2013–2014 Presser Music Award. Chiao received $10,000 as co-winner

eption

Free Post-Concert Reception ★ WORLD PREMIERES

SUNDAYS AT 3:30PM JAN 25, 2015

Dariusz Skoraczewski, Cello

MAR 8, 2015

Towson University Chorale & McDonogh School Concert Choir

MAR 22, 2015

Akiko Kobayashi & Eric Siepkes

APR 26, 2015 Wonderlic Voice Finals

MAY 17, 2015 Amy Lin, Piano

For more information call 443.759.3309 CommunityConcertsAtSecond.org All concerts take place at the Second Presbyterian Church, 4200 St. Paul St., Baltimore, MD

PEABODY SPRING 2015

HEADLINERS

PHOTO: SCOTT SUCHMAN / WASHINGTON NATIONAL OPERA

The Washington National Opera premiered Jake Runestad’s Daughters of the Bloody Duke at the Kennedy Center on November 21.

Leon Fleisher, who holds the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Chair in Piano, was nominated for a Best Classical Instrumental Solo Grammy Award for his CD All The Things You Are. David Starobin (BM ’73, Guitar) produced Fleisher’s CD and was nominated for Producer of the Year, Classical. Other Peabody nominees include Preparatory alumna Hilary Hahn, Paul Avgerinos (BM ’81, Double Bass), Patrick Mason (BM ’72, Voice), and Jory Vinikour (’83, Piano). Winners had not been announced at press time.

Faculty artist Denyce Graves, mezzo-soprano, received an honorary doctorate from New England Conservatory on September 24. She was presented with the degree by Tony Woodcock, president of NEC, before conducting a master class with students here. Graves was also featured in the Star-Spangled Spectacular concert celebrating the bicentennial of the national anthem on Saturday, September 13, at the Pier Six Pavilion, broadcast live on PBS. The two-hour performance culminated a weeklong festival marking the end of Maryland’s three-year commemoration of the War of 1812.

Thomas Kotcheff (BM ’10, Composition, Piano) was presented with the 2014 Hermitage Prize by the Hermitage Artist Retreat and its partner the Aspen Music Festival and School. The award is given annually to a composition student participating in the summer program at the Susan and Ford Schumann Center for Composition Studies. Kotcheff is currently pursuing a DMA in music composition at the University of Southern California. The prize consists of a six-week residency at the Hermitage, located in Englewood, Fla., where painters, sculptors, writers, playwrights, poets, composers, and other artists from all over the world come for residencies on its beachfront historic campus.

DMA conducting student Michael Repper has been selected as this year’s recipient of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra–Peabody Conducting Fellowship. Established in 2007 by the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and Peabody Institute, the program provides intensive mentoring and experience for promising conductors and is designed to give them the musical foundations and the leadership skills they will need to take the helm of a major orchestra. Repper has also been appointed the new managing director at Baltimore’s Music in the Great Hall.

Jake Runestad (MM ’11, Composition) received a commission by the Washington National Opera as part of its American Opera Initiative, a comprehensive commissioning program that brings contemporary American stories to the stage while fostering the talents of rising American composers and librettists. He partnered with award-winning librettist David Johnston to create the new opera Daughters of the Bloody Duke, which explores a daughter’s struggle against authority as she chooses love over her family’s revenge. The world premiere performance was November 21, 2014, at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.

PEABODY

SPRING 2015

NEWS

Fret Fest Continues to Grow in Its Sixth Year Next month, the Peabody Institute will open its doors to the community for the sixth annual Fret Festival, a one-day event featuring workshops, lectures, master classes, ensembles, and a concert by world-class guitarists. The annual Guitar Department event was first created in an effort to connect with the community and build interest in the guitar program at Peabody. It has steadily grown over the years, and Preparatory Guitar Department Chair Zane Forshee plans to continue the momentum with this year’s event. “Fret Fest has something for very young guitarists, intermediate students, and adults,” says Forshee. “There’s something for everyone.” In past years, young students have learned the inner workings of their instrument by constructing cardboard guitars. Last year, one high school

brought promising guitar students for ensemble coaching and a workshop. This year, Forshee says five high schools from Maryland and Virginia will bring dozens of students. Fret Fest is unique in that it encourages collaboration between the Peabody Conservatory and Preparatory, notes Forshee. With master classes taught by Conservatory guitar faculty artist Julian Gray, Fret Fest fosters community within Peabody and throughout the region. This year’s Fret Fest offers a wide variety of events, including a workshop highlighting styles of guitar music across the United States, jazz and classical guitar workshops, and a concert by renowned guest artist Solo Duo. The sixth annual Fret Festival is Sunday, March 1, from 9:00 am to 6:00 pm. The cost is $30. —— Carin Morrell

For more information and to register, visit peabody.jhu.edu/fretfest.

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Quest for Peace Sunday, April 26, 2015 at 3 pm Kraushaar Auditorium at Goucher College

Tom Hall leads the full Chorus and string orchestra in poignant and powerful settings of Dona nobis pacem by Ralph Vaughn Williams and Pateris Vasks, as well as Arvo Pärt’s beautiful meditation, Da pacem Domine. The provocative program, which features vocal soloists Hyunah Yu and Robert Cantrell, also includes the Mid-Atlantic premiere of Jake Runestad’s Fear Not, Dear Friend, based on the poetry of Robert Louis Stevenson. Tickets: $25 – $40 A Choral Conversation follows the performance featuring Tom Hall and special guests including author and former President of the Alliance for Peacebuilding Chic Dambach, discussing the role that music and the arts play in peace-making.

Call 410-523-7070 or visit BCAsings.org Baltimore Choral Arts is also grateful for the support of The William G. Baker, Jr. Memorial Fund, creator of the Baker Artist Awards, www.bakerartistawards.org.

Tom Hall, Music Director

PEABODY SPRING 2015

NEWS

The Halls Are Alive with the Sound of Music When Henderson-Hopkins School opened its doors in East Baltimore in January 2014, the state-of-the-art facility became the first new public school built in Baltimore City in more than 30 years. Now, with some help from the Peabody Institute, those halls are echoing with music. Each Tuesday night at HendersonHopkins, 16 adults of all ages and backgrounds join Ernest Liotti, director of the newly created Peabody Community Chorus, to rehearse music of varying languages, historical periods, and styles. In December, the chorus presented its first concert—featuring Handel’s

Gloria in D Major—in the Henderson-Hopkins 300-seat auditorium. The creation of the Community Chorus at Henderson-Hopkins came about from Peabody’s collaboration with the Johns Hopkins School of Education, which is operating the school in partnership with Morgan State University’s School of Education and Urban Studies. “In addition to creating a robust array of music programs for students at Henderson-Hopkins, we wanted at least one program that would attract adults,” says Gavin Farrell, interim executive director of the Peabody Preparatory. “The

effort here is to bring Peabody, the East Baltimore community, and the wider Johns Hopkins community together in one place where they can rehearse and make music together.” The Peabody Community Chorus at Henderson-Hopkins, with subsidized tuition for participants and financial assistance to those who qualify, welcomes all those who wish to participate to audition. Auditions for the 2015–2016 Chorus will be held on Saturday, August 27, or at the chorus’s first rehearsal at the Henderson-Hopkins School. For more information, call the Preparatory office at 410-234-4630. —— Carin Morrell

PEABODY

SPRING 2015

These days, smart

seniors are going back to class. At Roland Park Place. How to keep your gray cells firing. It’s a smart choice to eliminate the burdens of maintaining your house and move into a carefree, continuing care community, with all its benefits and none of the headaches. It’s an even smarter decision to choose Roland Park Place as your new home. Yes, Roland Park Place offers all the features you’re looking for in a premier senior lifestyle. The amenities are superb. The apartment homes and cottages are well appointed, with over a dozen different floor plans from which to choose. There are four dining venues that cater to your palate and your mood. But Roland Park Place also offers something you won’t likely find in other continuing care communities. Life here is like going back to class. Many residents are former university professors, educators, business leaders, entrepreneurs and artists. So there are always stimulating activities, and the enriching company of like-minded individuals.

Why not learn more right now? Call (410) 243-5700 or visit RolandParkPlace.org

830 W. 40th Street | Baltimore, MD 21211 | (410) 243-5700 rolandparkplace.org

The educated choice.

2 014 – 2015

CONCERT SERIES

Horowitz Visual and Per forming Arts Center

GUEST ARTIST CONCERTS The Fleisher-Jacobson Piano Duo Sat., February 14, 2015 at 7:30 pm A pre-concert talk will begin at 6:15 pm

Gran Wilson in Concert Sat., April 25, 2015 at 7:30 pm

FACULTY CONCERTS Opera Plots - Thicker Than Blood Sat., February 21, 2015 at 7:30 pm

Carmina Sanguinis et Sacrificium Sat., February 28, 2015 at 7:30 pm

Patagonia Winds - 20 th Century Favorites Sun., March 8, 2015 at 4:00 pm

Octtava Piano Duo Concert Love, Jealousy, and Rivalry Sun., March 22, 2015 at 4:00 pm

Kyle Coughlin and Kuei-I Wu Sat., April 11, 2015 at 7:30 pm

Accordare Piano Duo Concert Sun., April 19, 2015 at 4:00 pm

Quintet - A Few Good Friends Sat., May 2, 2015 at 7:30 pm

Conservatory Musicians as ‘Elite Athletes’ A year after she began guitar studies at Peabody in the 1990s, Serap Bastepe-Gray (BM ’96, MM ’99, Guitar) developed tennis elbow. “It was devastating,” she recalls. A medical doctor, Bastepe-Gray sought advice from three physician friends: a neurologist, an internist, and an orthopedic surgeon. “They would examine me and say, ‘Are you sure you hurt your arm playing the guitar?’” Using her background in medicine, she set about researching her injury, and ultimately devised ways to treat it, including changing how she positioned and moved her hand when playing. In effect, she fixed herself, she says. “I was able to get myself to a level where I could play my senior recital and graduate.” She then moved on to earn her master’s in guitar performance. While diagnosis and treatment of musicians’ injuries have improved in the past 20 years, they remain a serious problem. According to BastepeGray, now the director of the guitar ensemble program at Peabody—and the wife of Julian Gray, chair of Peabody’s Guitar Department—up to 86 percent of classical players sustain performance-related injuries at some point in their careers. Responding to the problem, this past fall, Peabody presented a threepart seminar series focused on performance health and wellness. Put together by Bastepe-Gray, Peabody director of student affairs Kyley Sommer, and Alexander Pantelyat, an assistant professor of neurology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, the seminars took place in the Centre Street Performance Studio. “We want to make sure students have information about their physical health as it pertains to their playing,” explains Sommer. “For a

TICKETS AND INFORMATION Horowitz Center Box Office 443-518-1500 www.howardcc.edu/concerts

PEABODY

SPRING 2015

lot of our students, there is a stigma about being injured. So we’re really trying to turn that around and give them either the tools for preventive care so that they don’t injure themselves, or, once they are injured, to recognize that it’s okay that they’re hurting and how to get help.” In the inaugural lecture, Pantelyat spoke to Peabody students and faculty about dystonia—the loss of fine motor control (affecting both fingers and embouchure) while playing, a disorder that plagues pianists and stringed-instrument/brass/woodwind performers. “There is evidence that dystonia in musicians may be associated with overtraining,” Pantelyat notes. “Thus, warming up before practice or performance, practicing for controlled periods of time—25 minutes, then taking a break for three to five minutes—and being mindful of your physical limitations, such as avoiding repertoire beyond your range or abilities, are important.” The second seminar was led by Ralph Manchester, vice-provost and professor of medicine at the University of Rochester, and Bastepe-Gray conducted the final lecture, addressing what she calls “the nuts and bolts of preventive advice, what to do when you are injured, how to get back to playing, and how to practice when you’re nursing an injury.” She hopes to see this initial effort grow into a robust program incorporating educational, wellness, preventative, and rehabilitative components. “This is important work,” Pantelyat stresses, “because musicians often don’t realize that they are athletes of the small muscles, and should treat themselves as elite athletes do in order to avoid injury and enjoy long and successful careers in music.” —— Michael Yockel

Watch video from the seminars at peabody.jhu.edu/healthseminars.

NEWS

COLUMBIA PRO CANTARE SPRING 2015

Saturday, March 21, 2015 - 8 PM COLUMBIA PRO CANTARE FRANCES MOTYCA DAWSON, Director And

HOWARD COUNTY CONCERT ORCHESTRA RONALD MUTCHNIK, Director Present

MUSIC BY WOMEN COMPOSERS Jim Rouse Theatre featuring Amy Beach: Mass in E-ﬂat

During the Conservatory students’ fall break on October 17, more than 800 Baltimore schoolchildren in kindergarten through eighth grade visited Peabody’s downtown campus as part of a daylong immersion in the arts provided by the San Francisco–based Francis in the Schools organization. They enjoyed music performed by Peabody students, dancing, crafts, and fun outdoor games in the plaza. Hilary Hogan (BM ’05, MM ’06, Voice) helped coordinate the visit and reflected on its impact: “My years at Peabody helped me glimpse the transformative potential of music. Many of the children [at the Peabody event] had never seen such virtuosic playing. This exposure widened the horizon of life’s possibilities.”

Saturday, May 2, 2015 - 8 PM COLUMBIA PRO CANTARE THE LEXINGTON BRASS QUINTET Present music from

THE GREAT AMERICAN SONGBOOK Jim Rouse Theatre Tickets & information: www.procantare.org

PEABODY SPRING 2015

World-Class Jazz at the Hopkins Club Up on stage at the august Johns Hopkins Club, veteran drummer Ralph Peterson leads the members of his Fo’tet through an intensely kinetic tune from the group’s most recent album. Looking on, a crowd of approximately 100 people—arrayed directly in front of the band, as well as to its left and right in the club’s second floor lounge—nod their heads, tap their feet, and sway in their seats. Peterson’s band, which performed in October, is part of the Jazz at the Johns Hopkins Club series, which brings to the university—and, by extension, to the Greater Baltimore community—top-flight national and international jazz musicians, many of whom conduct master classes at Peabody while in town. In fact, as Peterson tells the crowd between songs, “earlier today, we did a workshop at Peabody Prep, and it was really cool, sharing information and telling stories.” The genesis for Jazz at the Johns Hopkins Club occurred in a decidedly unmusical setting: the university’s gym. Back in 2011, Gary Thomas, Peabody’s director and chair of Jazz Studies and a celebrated saxophonist, was in the midst of one of his regular early morning exercise routines when he ran into Johns Hopkins President Ron Daniels at the cable machine. Daniels, a longtime jazz fan, suggested that Johns Hopkins start a jazz series. “That sounds great,” Thomas recalls telling Daniels, but he came away thinking “it was just one of those conversations that you’re a part of and then you don’t think about it anymore.” A few months later, however, Daniels surprised Thomas by following up and tasking him with formulating a workable jazz series. “A year after that,” Thomas notes, “[alto saxophonist] Jim Snidero’s quartet was onstage at the Club for the series’ inaugural concert.”

John Scofield (guitar), Bill Steward (drums), and Ben Street (bass) performing at the Hopkins Club

Since then, the series has presented six concerts each academic year, featuring renowned musicians such as pianist Chick Corea, drummer Jack DeJohnette, and guitarist John Scofield. “I believe it had been at least two or more decades since some of these guys had played Baltimore,” says Thomas, who serves as the series’ artistic director. Daniels couldn’t be more pleased. “I love the idea of bringing worldclass jazz onto the Hopkins campus,” he says, particularly given “Baltimore’s deep ties to the rich history of jazz and jazz greats, from Eubie Blake to Billie Holiday.” Peabody’s jazz students have benefited from the series via master classes—working closely with Scofield, guitarist Pat Martino, and drummer Terri Lyne Carrington, among others. “These are the people who have the skill set that we’re trying to impart to our students,” explains Thomas. “For students to see and hear the things in action that we’ve been teaching, it reinforces the notion of what they should be doing.”

For tickets, visit peabodyjazz.org/HopkinsClub. 10

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—— Michael Yockel

NEWS

Academies Attract Passionate Young Musicians Peabody Preparatory bass trombone student Jahi Alexander describes himself as disciplined, responsible, respectful, and trustworthy—largely, he says, thanks to his involvement in Peabody’s Woodwind, Brass, and Percussion Academy. “This program made me into a musician and the person I am today, who wants to continue to be an artist when I grow up,” says Alexander. He’s not alone. The five Peabody Performance Academies, which aim to prepare exceptional young musicians for professional studies in music, are filled with students (grades 7–12) who consider the program the highlight of their week.

Highly motivated students like Alexander must audition for the academies, which provide individual instruction, ensembles, performance opportunities, master classes, enrichment activities, career guidance, and more. In addition to weekly classes and lessons, academy students perform with either the Peabody Youth Orchestra or the Young Artists Orchestra, and they have opportunities to interact with visiting artists like the Fidelio Quartet, Borromeo Quartet, drummer Ralph Peterson, pianist Ann Schein, and the Archipelago Project. “The Performance Academy gives opportunities to students who are serious about their studies in music,” says Christian Tremblay, director of

the Performance Academy for Strings. “It gives them an environment where they’re joined by their peers who share the same dedication, who practice hard, and who are passionate about music.” The academies welcome intermediate and advanced students ages 12 to 17 with three to five years of prior study. In addition to strings and woodwinds, brass, and percussion, there are programs in jazz, piano, and voice. Scholarships are available through the generous support of the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation. Auditions for most of the Performance Academies will be held in late August. Piano Academy auditions will be held in late May. —— Carin Morrell

For more information, visit peabody.jhu.edu/academies.

Through an innovative program sustained by philanthropy, Eliot Cohen’s students go to historic battlefields around the world. They assume the roles of generals, politicians, foot soldiers, citizens — and experience the strategic process firsthand. “It makes you get inside the decision-making before you see the consequences,” says Cohen, the Osgood Professor of Strategic Studies. Students have gone on to leadership positions in government, business, and the military.

Photos: Renee FischeR

“It got them thinking in a way that they never had before.”

Are you up for changing the world? Learn how and watch Professor Cohen’s video at rising.jhu.edu/Gettysburg

PEABODY SPRING 2015

APPLAUSE FACULT Y Judah Adashi (MM ’02, DMA ’11, Composition), Conservatory and Preparatory faculty artist, wrote two guest posts for the Sybaritic Singer in October. The posts consider practical and philosophical issues of putting together the Evolution Contemporary Music Series, which celebrates 10 years of bringing new music to Baltimore. In August, Adashi was in residence at the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts working on a large-scale choral commission featuring Cantate Chamber Singers and Howard University’s Afro Blue. Faculty artist Serap Bastepe-Gray (BM ’96, MM ’99, Guitar) joined the International Board for the Musicians’ Health and Wellness Special Interest Group of the International Society for Music Education. The group aims to disseminate health and wellness information worldwide to help students develop their musical skills in a safe and healthy way. Chair of the Preparatory’s Piano Department Chad R. Bowles (MM ’05, GPD ’07, Piano) made his Newport Music Festival debut last July playing a solo recital. Opera faculty member Garnett Bruce directed a production of Turandot at the Michigan Opera Theatre, which won a 2014 Wilde Award for Best Opera, awarded by EncoreMichigan.com.

The Aspen String Trio, with faculty artist Victoria Chiang, viola, and Michael Mermagen (BM ‘84, Cello), performed in November as part of the Music Guild’s 70th anniversary season. The trio, in residence at the University of Baltimore, was also featured in September on Music in Maryland on WBJC, 91.5 FM, Maryland’s Classical Music Station. Michael Hersch (BM ’95, MM ’97, Composition), chair of the Con-

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ACCOM PLIS H M EN TS O F FACU LT Y A N D STU D EN TS

servatory’s Composition Department, was selected as the critic’s pick by The New York Times for The Vanishing Pavilions, performed by pianist Jacob Rhodebeck. This marked the first complete performance of the work since Hersch debuted it in 2006. On the Threshold of Winter, Hersch’s first opera, was named Gramophone’s Event of the Month for June. A documentary about Hersch by Richard Anderson is now available for download on Reelhouse. Works by faculty members Michael Hersch (BM ’95, MM ’97, Composition) and Oscar Bettison and alumna Paola Prestini (’95, Composition) were premiered in June at the NY Phil Biennial: Solo Works by Young American Composers and received reviews in The New York Times and New York Classical Review. Musicology faculty member David Hildebrand was featured in a BBC Radio 4 profile of “The Star-Spangled Banner.” On June 21, the Poulenc Trio— Bryan Young (BM ’96, Bassoon); Preparatory faculty Irina Kaplan, piano; and Vladimir Lande, oboe—was featured on the WBJC radio program Music in Maryland. The program was recorded live during a February 2013 performance by the Poulenc Trio at the National Gallery of Art to celebrate Black History Month. Faculty member Ildar Khannanov organized the Russian Music Theory Welcome Session at EUROMAC8 in Leuven. Musicologists Richard Taruskin, Hermann Danuser, Thomas Christensen, and Giorgio Sanguinetti were in attendance. Khannanov lectured on American methods of analysis at the Kazan Federal University in the city of Kazan in a monthlong series, as an invited professor. He also made a presentation, which was nationally televised, at the Science Day of the Russian Academy of Sciences in Ufa, on the topic of math and music. Peabody faculty artists Phillip Kolker, bassoon; Jane Marvine, oboe; and Lura Johnson, piano, were joined by Scott Pender (MM ’85, Composition) and several Peabody students in a performance at the 2014 Conference of the International Double Reed Society in New York City in August.

Faculty artist John C. Walker, organ, has been elected president of the American Guild of Organists (AGO), the world’s largest professional association of organists and choral conductors, as well as the largest organization dedicated to a single musical instrument.

A magazine article by faculty artist Amit Peled, recently published in Opus Magazine, discusses his experience playing on Pablo Casals’ cello for the first time in New York City, in July. Peled’s journey with the Casals cello was also profiled in a November Wall Street Journal story. Faculty artist Marina Piccinini, flute, actively performs along the East Coast. Venues include Le Poisson Rouge and Carnegie Hall (Weill Recital Hall), New York City; Cole Concert Series, Greenwich, Conn.; Kimmel Center with the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society; Freer Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.; and Gardner Museum Concerts, Boston. Music Theory faculty member Joel Puckett has been commissioned to write a symphony for Mallory Thompson, conductor of Northwestern University’s Symphonic Wind Ensemble, as part of the dedication of the school’s new Bienen School of Music building. The work will be premiered in the 2015–16 season.

Faculty member Susan Weiss, on sabbatical in Italy, was invited to give a talk, “How Things Got Out of Hand: Images of Memory and Learning as a Mirror of Musical Learning in Early Modern Europe,” at Furman University’s Arezzo campus. Music theory faculty member Kip Wile was named program committee chair for the 2015 conference of the Music Theory Society of the Mid-Atlantic. The conference will be held March 13–14 at Princeton University.

STUDENTS Sophomore Nicholas Bentz, a violinist in Herbert Greenberg’s studio, won the grand prize for the Pacific Region International Summer Music Academy concerto competition. As winner, he traveled to Russia to perform in a concert of the Master Series in the Moscow Symphony Orchestra in the Historic Grand Hall of the Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow. Eric Birckelbaw, a Preparatory student of Chad R. Bowles, is the BSO Young Soloist winner for Anne Arundel County Public Schools. He performed with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra in December 2014 at the Meyerhoff Symphony Hall.

Pulitzer Prize–winning composer Kevin Puts, a Peabody faculty artist, has been appointed director of the Minnesota Orchestra Composer Institute, a professional training program that the orchestra has offered annually in conjunction with the American Composers Forum. Recording Arts and Sciences faculty member Neil Thompson Shade was elected a fellow of the Acoustical Society of America for contributions in acoustics education and to the integration of electro-acoustic systems in architectural acoustics. Shade established the Master of Arts program in Acoustic Studies at Peabody in 2000 and has provided audio/visual systems consulting design on over 450 projects.

Junior Mary Burke, a voice student of Phyllis Bryn-Julson, won first prize in the Conservatory Concerto Competition: Voice Finals at the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music of the National University of Singapore. Burke is in the Peabody joint

NEWS

degree program, which combines elements of each conservatory’s curriculum for specific majors. Chen Zhangyi, a current composition DMA candidate studying with Michael Hersch, was one of five artists awarded the Singapore National Arts Council’s Young Artist Award 2014, which encourages the development of young artistic talents in Singapore. It is Singapore’s highest award for practitioners, age 35 and below in the year of award, whose artistic achievements and commitment have distinguished them among their peers. The electronic work Crnogorska by Elliott Grabill, an adult Preparatory composition student of Judah Adashi, was selected by improvE2.0 to be featured in the Svamala Soundwalk in Belgrade. On August 15, 2014, participants downloaded the piece, and listened to it on headphones while walking around the Svamala district. Artist Diploma student Jasmine Hogan (BM ’11 Harp, MM ’14, Harp/Pedagogy) won the harp division of the Stockholm International Music Competition. She was also awarded a special prize for “extreme insight and creativity” in her programming and performance. Senior Olivia Kim, a harp student studying with Ruth Inglefield, has been invited to appear with the League of Astonishing Strings on its tour of China. She will be the featured soloist for performances this summer in Beijing, Jinan, Xuzhou, Hangzhou, Keqiao, and Shanghai. J.C. Lazzaro, an alumnus of the Preparatory, was invited to the White House with his quartet to play for a Cinco de Mayo celebration. Lazzaro, a student at Georgetown University, studied viola with Lisa Sadowski and violin with Janet Melnicoff-Brown. Two students of piano faculty artist Yong Hi Moon won the MTNA state competition. Xiao Xiao Ouyang, a sophomore, won the Young Artist Division, and Jiawen Guan, a student in the Preparatory, won the Senior Division. The Peabody Concert Orchestra was selected as one of seven finalists for The American Prize in orchestral perfor-

mance, 2014, for its performance of Sergei Prokofiev’s Orchestral Suite from Romeo and Juliet on November 22, 2013. The American Prize celebrates American excellence in the performing arts. PCO is led by Hajime Teri Murai, Ruth Blaustein Rosenberg Director of Orchestral Activities.

Marianna Prjevalskaya, a doctoral piano student of Boris Slutsky, won the gold medal in the 2014 New Orleans International Piano Competition in July. The prize includes a $15,000 cash award, a solo recital at London’s Wigmore Hall, and performances with the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra, the Acadiana Symphony Orchestra, and the Baton Rouge Symphony Orchestra. DMA conducting student Blair Skinner has been selected as the new assistant and chamber orchestra conductor for the Hopkins Symphony Orchestra. Skinner will lead the Hopkins Symphony Chamber Orchestra in three free programs at the Bunting-Meyerhoff Interfaith Center. Skinner is also the founder and music director of Charm City Collegium, conductor of Operation: Opera, assistant conductor of the Prince George’s Philharmonic, and conductor of Synesthesia. Jordan Thomas (BM ’13, Harp), a master’s harp student of Ruth Inglefield, was selected for the Aspen Music Festival and School last summer. Over 600 students attend the festival, which offers a combination of intensive one-onone instruction and professional performance experience. Kwan Yi, a DMA student of Leon Fleisher, performed with Itamar Zorman, a 2013 recipient of the Avery Fisher Career Grant and winner of the 2011 International Tchaikovsky Competition, in November in Carnegie Hall.

Students in the Pre-Conservatory Violin Program played with the Piano Guys at the Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall in December. The Piano Guys blend classical music with pop, and the PCVP performed “Beethoven’s 5 Secrets.” The works of four Peabody computer music students of McGregor Boyle and Geoffrey Wright were accepted for performance at the 2014 International Computer Music Conference in September in Athens, Greece. They were Edwin Huet, for his fixed media piece Meridian; Robert Neubauer for his fixed media piece Scribble; Justin Porter for his piece Watermill Portrait, for soprano saxophone and fixed media; and Sunhuimei Xia for her fixed media piece Ring Roll Ring.

RECENT RECORDINGS Judah Adashi (MM ‘02, DMA ‘11, Composition), Conservatory and Preparatory faculty artist, released a new recording, my heart comes undone, for cello and loop pedal. The work was written for and recorded by Lavena Johanson (MM ’13, Cello). All proceeds from the sale of the work go toward equipment and supplies for cello students in the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra’s OrchKids program.

Faculty artist Manuel Barrueco (BM ’75, Guitar) and the Beijing Guitar Duo—Meng Su (PC ’09, GPD ’11, Guitar) and Yameng Wang (MM ’08, GPD ’11, Guitar)— perform music ranging from the baroque to the 21st century on a CD titled China West, demonstrating the guitar’s unique ability to capture the many voices and moods of China and the Western world. The CD was featured in the July issue of Baltimore magazine.

Faculty artist Amit Peled, cello, released an entirely digital new CD on Centaur Records with Noreen Polera, piano, performing Tsidtsadze’s 5 Pieces on Folk Themes and Popper’s Tarantella, Op. 33. Faculty artist Marina Piccinini, flute, released a CD with Tre Voci, a collaboration with violist Kim Kashkashian (BM ‘73, Viola) and harpist Sivan Magen, featuring works by Claude Debussy, Töru Takemitsu, and Sofia Gubaidulina. The trio has performed across the U.S. and in Mexico. Future projects include several tours of Europe and the U.S., performing unique programs that include the traditional flute, viola, and harp repertoire; their own arrangements of music by Rameau; newly commissioned pieces by prominent contemporary composers; and arrangements of some of the greatest symphonic masterworks of the 20th century. Michael Rickelton (MM ’10, Composition), a DMA composition student of Michael Hersch, was recently featured as a composer on Pacific Chorale’s John Alexander Singers’ newly released CD American Voices on Delos Records. It is the world premiere recording of his setting of Dana Gioia’s Pentecost, alongside works by Morten Lauridsen, Eric Whitacre, Norman Dello Joio, Dale Warland, John Muehleisen, Joseph Gregorio, and John Orfe. Peabody faculty member Larry Williams (BM ’88, GPD ’90, French Horn) performed the world premiere of Concerto for Horn and Wind Band at the Northern Illinois University School of Music on the new CD Concertos for Brass: The Music of Thomas Bough, released by Summit Records. The piece was composed specifically for Williams by NIU faculty member Thomas Bough.

Subscribe to Peabody’s monthly email newsletter at peabody.jhu.edu/news. To submit news about Peabody students, alumni, or faculty, email news@lists.peabody.jhu.edu.

PEABODY SPRING 2015

A fitting tribute “the students today are so incredibly talented, and it’s my hope the John J. Hanex Memorial Scholarship will help them to fulfill their goals and dreams.” Taylor Hanex, Peab ’75, ’78 (MM) Johns Hopkins Legacy Ambassador

Taylor Hanex was just 19 and a promising Peabody student when her father passed away. The scholarship she named in his honor assists students who have also felt the loss of a parent, and an additional gift through her estate plan ensures future generations will receive support, too. What will your legacy be? The Johns Hopkins Legacy Society celebrates supporters like Taylor, pictured here with pup Destiny Cauliflower, who have made a lasting commitment to Johns Hopkins by including any area of the university in their estate plan or by making another planned gift. To learn more, contact the Office of Gift Planning today.

Johns Hopkins Office of Gift Planning 410-516-7954 or 800-548-1268 giftplanning@jhu.edu rising.jhu.edu/giftplanning

USICAL M GIFTS

This violin, made by Giovanni Paolo Maggini in 1620, was donated to the Peabody collection in 2010 by Karl Kostoff, a former professional musician and longtime employee of the universityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Applied Physics Laboratory. One of only 60 made by Maggini in his lifetime, the instrument was owned by the three most important collectors in violin history: Luigi Tarisio, Jean-Baptiste Vuillaume, and Royal de Forest Hawley. Valued at more than $350,000, the Kostoff Maggini had its Peabody premiere shortly after its donation by faculty artist Keng Yuen Tseng, pictured below, and is offered each year to be played in concert by the winner of Peabodyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s William Marbury Prize Competition for Violin.

Photography by

Richard Anderson Marshall Clarke Will Kirk Written by Margaret Bell

PHOTOS: RICHARD ANDERSON

The Peabody Ensembles Office has a collection of hundreds of instruments available for use by Peabody Conservatory students and faculty, many of which have been donated to the school. Some are quite valuable. Here are stories of a few of those instruments. PEABODY SPRING 2015

In 2014, faculty artist Marin Alsop, music director of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, donated a 16-inch Iizuki model viola, #44, built in 1991 by her late father Clif Alsop. He played violin in several orchestras, including the Utah Symphony; founded Cook-Alsop Lumber Co.; and became a master violin-maker. The instrument is modeled after a Hiroshi lizuka viola and is housed with the baroque instruments in Peabody’s Early Music Department. It is on loan this year to GPD student Aik Shin Tan. Tan studies baroque flute with Gwyn Roberts and plays the Alsop viola in Peabody’s student baroque orchestra, the Baltimore Baroque Band. Mark Cudek, early music program director, says, “It is not uncommon for early music performers to be multi-instrumentalists, but Aik Shin is exceptional for not only the number of instruments he plays but also for how well he plays them.”

PHOTOS: RICHARD ANDERSON

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PHOTOS: WILL KIRK

This C. Bechstein Model B, 6-foot, 9-inch grand piano, originally manufactured in 1927 and fully restored by Alexander G. Keylard & Sons in 1998, was donated to Peabody by Gabrielle Hill. The rosewood/ebony instrument is a recent addition to Peabody's Leith Symington Griswold Hall. Founded in 1853 by Carl Bechstein, C. Bechstein manufactures pianos in Seifhennersdorf, Saxony, Germany. Rieko Tsuchida, a junior studying with Boris Slutsky, said she’d never seen a piano like this at Peabody before. “I love the naturally singing tone of this Bechstein, which makes it really unique,” she says.

PHOTOS: RICHARD ANDERSON

Former president of Johns Hopkins University William Brody and his wife, Wendy Brody, donated a Yamaha CF 9-foot concert grand piano in 2009. The satin ebony instrument, built in 1980, is the centerpiece of Joe Byrd Hall and is used for most jazz concerts. Brody is a music lover who continues to travel from his home in California to take piano lessons at the Preparatory. Double degree sophomore Noah Dion, who studies political science at the Krieger School of Arts and Sciences and jazz piano with Tim Murphy, was photographed playing the instrument.

For in-kind gifts, an item valued less than $5,000 requires no appraisal and is a straightforward gift. An item valued above that amount requires an appraisal, paid by the donor. For information on donating an instrument, visit peabody.jhu.edu/giving/fundingopportunities.

In 2013, this Fleta guitar was gifted by David Paulsen and his wife, Claude Duvernoy Paulsen. A television screenwriter, director, and producer, David Paulsen studied violin in the 1950s at the Peabody Preparatory, where his mother, Mildred Pelovitz, taught piano. Once he began studying guitar, his teacher Rodrigo Riera recommended he visit Ignacio Fleta in Barcelona. Paulsen paid $150 for the 1958 guitar, which is now appraised at $38,000. Faculty artist Manuel Barrueco, photographed here, says, â&#x20AC;&#x153;Ignacio Fleta is one of the most admired guitar makers of all time, and this particular 1958 Fleta possesses a very rich and beautiful sound. We are all grateful that our students now have the opportunity to play on such a magnificent instrument.â&#x20AC;?

PHOTOS: MARSHALL CLARKE

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PHOTO: WILL KIRK

Raising theâ&#x20AC;&#x2030;Barre

PHOTO: PEABODY ARCHIVES

Peabody Dance celebrates a century of being at the leading edge of an American art form.

By Rachel Wallach

Above: Melissa Stafford instructs Bilal Smith Left: T he Chemical Ballet, choreographed by Carol Lynn, 1939

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Her

last year at Peabody Dance—2008—Tyler Brown fell in love with a piece called Meander. Drawing on Grecian themes, it was slow and enchanting and had been choreographed by longtime artistic director Carol Bartlett, who died in December 2012.

PEABODY DANCE TODAY

This spring, Peabody Dance is celebrating its centennial with performances and a conference in conjunction with the Society for Dance History Scholars to share its stories and accomplishments through dance, talks, and archival exhibits. PHOTO: PEABODY ARCHIVES

Captivated, Brown didn’t want to stop dancing the piece, and her mother suggested she consider dance as a career. Today, a dancer in Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company in New Jersey, Brown says Meander’s adagio style has become one of her fortes and that her entire Peabody Dance experience gave her a head start in her profession.

By the Numbers 315 total students 268 females, 47 males 280 children, 35 adults

5 programs • Young Children’s ages 3 to 6 114 students

• Primary Ballet ages 7 to 12 75 students

“If it wasn’t for Peabody, I don’t think I’d be dancing professionally,” Brown says. Thanks to Peabody, “I understood professionalism at a very young age. It helped my artistry. Technique alone can make you get caught up in insecurity. Movement comes from a deeper place.”

Eurhythmics teaches music through movement

Setting the Stage Peabody Dance was born in December 1914 when the Peabody Institute decided to offer classes in Dalcroze Eurhythmics to teach musicians about music through movement of the body, says Melissa Stafford, the program’s director and department chair.

It is that sort of insight—the sense that dance does rely on steps and technique and discipline but is also so very much more—that the program has tried to instill in its students throughout its first 100 years.

The first ongoing eurhythmics classes to be offered in the United States, they were taught by Portia Wager and then Ruth Lemmert, both of whom had studied under Emile Jaques-Dalcroze himself. Within a few years, Peabody Dance became a distinct entity offering a range of classes. But that early connection with music and musicians foreshadowed the kind of collaboration that would become one of the program’s hallmarks and which continues today. PHOTO: MAL DRUSKIN

For Peabody Dance, it’s been a century at the leading edge of an American art form. Some of the most important figures in dance have frequented the program’s studios, whether as students, teachers, guests, or mentors. Its faculty have always offered students—even in their early years—top-notch training, exposure to dance forms both established and avant-garde, and an environment of motivation and innovation.

When Peabody Dance was founded, American concert dance was in its infancy. Most Americans associated dance with vaudeville and Broadway, and just one serious ballet company was operating on American soil. But a wave of female solo dancers emerged in the 1890s who steadily fostered respect and interest in dance. The most influential of these, Isadora Duncan

• Pre-Professional

ages 10 to young adult 46 students

• Open

ages 8 to adult 45 students

• Estelle Dennis/Peabody Dance Training Program for Boys ages 9 to 15 35 students

What About the Boys? In 2009, Peabody Dance established the Estelle Dennis/ Peabody Dance Training Program for Boys with funds that Dennis, who founded the first Dance Theatre in Baltimore, had left in the Estelle Dennis Trust to train male dancers for professional careers. Boys audition twice a year. Up to 25 are selected for the yearlong, tuitionfree program, which focuses on ballet training and adds contemporary dance and other dance forms as the boys advance. Boys receive training from male teachers and, as they progress, integrate into the pre-professional program and train intensively.

Tyler Brown (right) in Carol Bartlett’s Meander PEABODY SPRING 2015

and Ruth St. Denis, forged a new conception of dance as art. From the beginning, Peabody’s program stood at the forefront as the burgeoning identity of dance in the United States took shape. In 1916, Gertrude Colburn arrived to teach “barefoot” or aesthetic dance—for which Duncan is best known—along with eurhythmics. Two years later, she began teaching ballet, making Peabody one of the first places outside New York City to offer rigorous ballet training based on methods used at the Russian Imperial Ballet School—in contrast to the vaudevillian style more common at that time, says Lisa Green-Cudek, a Peabody faculty member who specializes in teaching creative dance to young children. (Together with a dedicated corps of parents, Green-Cudek has been mining the program’s archives and will present her research into the program’s early years at the spring conference.) Several of Colburn’s students went on to become significant dancers and teachers, Green-Cudek says, and one—Lillian Moore—danced in George Balanchine’s first company, American Ballet, in 1934, and became the nation’s first dance historian.

American Indian Dance Steps, detailing their research into Native American dance. This syllabus of steps and dances was published in 1932, a time when many dancers were exploring new and non-Western ways of moving, ranging from Egyptian to immigrant folk. The book was the first to examine Native American styles. In 1932, Colburn fell down Peabody’s stairs and was paralyzed. Depressed, she followed the advice of a student who suggested that she’d spent her life molding bodies and simply needed to switch art forms, Green-Cudek says. Colburn began creating art nouveau sculptures of dancing figures, at least six of which will be on display during the centennial celebration.

Peabody Dance’s signal collaboration leaped into the public eye with a 1922 production of Orpheus and Eurydice featuring 200 Peabody dancers, musicians, and singers. The production was reprised in 1928, and countless interdisciplinary efforts have followed. “Being embedded in the Conservatory has given us wonderful resources; it has been a strong thread for us throughout our history,” Green-Cudek says. In another example of the trailblazing tradition, modern dance director Bessie Evans and her sister, Peabody Preparatory founder May Evans, published

Peabody Dance: A Timeline

1914:

1916:

1922:

1932:

Peabody Institute offered classes in Dalcroze Eurhythmics, launching Peabody Dance.

Gertrude Colburn begins teaching ballet and “barefoot,” or aesthetic, dancing.

Peabody dancers, musicians, and singers collaborate on a production of Orpheus and Eurydice.

Bessie Evans and May Evans publish American Indian Dance Steps.

Portia Mansfield brings “expressionist” modern dance from the European tradition.

PHOTO: PEABODY ARCHIVES

PEABODY

Carol Lynn

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PHOTO: PEABODY ARCHIVES

The same year, Portia Mansfield arrived with a strong background in both ballet and modern dance—a blend that describes the program’s dual focus today. Following a performance career with the Pavley-Oukrainsky Ballet, America’s first major touring company, Mansfield went to central Europe to study with Harold Kreutzberg, a former student of European modern dance pioneer Rudolf Laban and a leading exponent of expressionist dance. Kreutzberg and other expressionist dancers focused on improvisation as a way of tapping into feelings, inner experiences, and imagery from the dancer’s subconscious.

Growing by Leaps and Bounds When dance visionary Carol Lynn formally launched Peabody Dance’s ballet program in 1942, she had already made important contributions as the administrative director at Jacob’s Pillow, founded by noted modern dancer Ted Shawn in the Berkshires of Massachusetts. Before joining the Pillow, Lynn had studied ballet in New York with Mikhail Fokine and Elisabetta Menzeli, and modern dance with Shawn and St. Denis at their influential Denishawn School of Dancing and Related Arts, and remained in touch with prominent dancers from her time there. During her many summers at the Pillow, Lynn also crossed paths with renowned artists including José Limón, Merce Cunningham, Pearl Primus, La Meri, and choreographers and principal dancers from the company now known as American Ballet Theatre. Lynn pioneered the filming of dance performances, some of which will be on display during the centennial.

PHOTO: WILL KIRK

Carol Bartlett teaching contemporary dance, 2003

Drawing on those lively connections, Lynn introduced an element that quickly became another of Peabody Dance’s hallmarks: frequent visits by guest artists who further raised the bar on the program’s level of training and provided inspiration and professional networking for young dancers. Notable guests included Shawn and St. Denis, along with England’s renowned choreographer of new “psychological” ballets, Antony Tudor. Later, Peabody alumna and Lynn student Jane Ward Murray returned as a guest after dancing with Balanchine’s New York Ballet Society, later known as the New York City Ballet. “Bringing people from New York to work with students in Baltimore helped launch some people’s careers and provided them with the kind of connections to the dance world that enabled them to go out and forge their own way,” Stafford says. One of those people was Helene Breazeale, who went on to found Towson University’s Dance Department and still speaks reverently of those heady days as a Lynn protégée. She studied pointe and partnering

1938:

1947:

1955:

1988:

2001:

2009:

Alumna Lillian Moore’s early dance history book, Artists of the Dance, is published.

Carol Lynn assumes directorship and attracts numerous renowned guest artists.

Modern dancer Dale Sehnert arrives from the Martha Graham tradition, offering a modern counterpart to Lynn’s ballet.

Carol Bartlett joins the faculty and continues the program’s high level of training and collaboration with a renewed focus on creative process from the Laban tradition. She assumes directorship in 1991.

Barbara Weisberger joins Peabody Dance as artistic advisor, working with Carol Bartlett to strengthen the dance program.

The Estelle Dennis/Peabody Dance Training Program for Boys is launched.

PHOTO: PEABODY ARCHIVES

PHOTO: MAL DRUSKIN

PEABODY SPRING 2015

Forward Motion Carol Bartlett arrived in 1988 from the University of Southern California’s Community School of Performing Arts. Having studied with Sigurd Leeder, part of the expressionist European modern tradition to which Kreutzberg belonged and also a student of Laban, Bartlett brought the program full circle by cultivating her students’ creative process and expression and using Laban work to systematically guide her students through exploration and analysis of movement, Green-Cudek says. Laban is a sophisticated approach that takes dancers far beyond the simple learning of steps. “You really work with your weight, breath, space, energy, and focus in a very conscious way to develop patterns of movement and expression,” Green-Cudek says. “Carol Bartlett fostered that awareness in young dancers.”

Maria Morales

with Tudor, who appreciated Lynn’s mother’s home cooking during his weekend visits from New York, she says. And she remembers that Lynn brought guests from American Ballet Theatre who would dazzle the program’s students by setting for them acts from ballets like Giselle, Swan Lake, and Les Sylphides. “You were in the presence of greatness and you knew it,” Breazeale says of the guests. “[Lynn] was way ahead of her time. Nobody was doing master classes then.” In 1955, Lynn brought Martha Graham dancer Dale Sehnert to the program to complement her ballet focus. Among other accomplishments, Sehnert launched Peabody Dance’s most famous alumna, MacArthur “genius grant” winner Martha Clarke, a theater director and choreographer known for her multidisciplinary approach to dance, theater, and opera. Sehnert also developed Peabody Dance’s first program for boys. Just before her retirement in 1970, Lynn lured Spanish dancer Maria Morales to the program to teach Spanish classical and flamenco dance. Anna Menendez, who would later become a key figure in the flamenco renaissance, was one of Morales’ students.

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She did so by doing something now rare prior to the undergraduate level: She taught improvisation during technique classes and offered classes in improv and composition to advanced students. Bartlett would develop choreography during class and invite students into her creative process, Green-Cudek says, giving them opportunities to improvise and often incorporating the material that emerged. The program today continues to offer students an unusually sophisticated relationship to the world of dance, Stafford says. For example, while everyone starts with ballet, contemporary is taught beginning at age 8, and many advanced pre-professional students have the opportunity to study improv. Dale Sehnert (left) in performance

The Centennial Celebration March PHOTO: PEABODY ARCHIVES

Centennial Exhibition in the Peabody Mews displaying photos, newspaper articles, programs and catalogs, choreographic notes, costumes, and historic film clips from the Peabody Archives and sculptures by Gertrude Colburn.

March to September

“Moving History: Stepping Through 100 Years of Peabody Dance,” an exhibition and living history program touring locations throughout the state with funding from the Maryland Humanities Council.

March 26–28 Gertrude Colburn (center) in Polka caractéristique with her students, 1920

“So when students go to college dance programs or summer programs, they tend to be ahead of their peers in terms of their skills in contemporary dance, and in particular in their ability to react to material and shape it,” Stafford says. And because the program is part of the Peabody Institute, musicians add another dimension with frequent appearances in dance studios and performances; Conservatory students and faculty often adjust a piece’s music as dancers develop the choreography, and most performances include live accompaniment. “Many people don’t have the experience of dancing with live music until they’re in a professional company,” Stafford says. In 2001, Balanchine pupil and Pennsylvania Ballet founder Barbara Weisberger came to the program as artistic advisor, a position she holds to this day. Believing that excellent ballet training is a powerful technical base for all forms of dance, Weisberger’s main purpose was to bring the level of ballet training up to the 21st century with the influence of Balanchine’s “American classicism.” Weisberger says Bartlett’s talents and the richness of her teaching lent the dance program an aesthetic quality that students carry into their lives regardless of whether they pursue dance professionally. That quality has a lot to do with the depth that Tyler Brown discovered back in 2008; under Bartlett, says Weisberger, the traditional wall between ballet and modern dance fell away to reveal a common link whose purpose is to divulge meaning through human movement—in other words, she says, choreography. “The teacher of dance has a special responsibility to train beyond technique,” she says. “When you’re an artist using an inanimate instrument, the artistry comes through you. With a human instrument, you have almost a double creative team, and it’s all about the interpretation through the human body and the human soul. That is probably the secret and also the wonder of dance.”

Peabody Dance/Society for Dance History Scholars Conference, “Dance as Experience: Progressive Era Origins and Legacies.” Highlights will include free public events:

Thursday, March 26

Evening film screening of Miss Hill: Making Dance Matter Saturday, March 28 Plenary roundtable of local dance faculty from Towson University, Goucher College, Coppin State University, University of Maryland Baltimore County, Morgan State University, and University of Maryland College Park. Keynote address by Paul Scolieri, Barnard College, Columbia University. For more information, visit peabody.jhu.edu/dance or sdhs.org/conferences/upcoming-conferences.

March 28

Celebration Performance, 7:30 pm. Guest artists, returning alumni, and advanced students will perform works showcasing Peabody Dance’s past partnerships with prominent figures like Antony Tudor and Ted Shawn. Two highlights include the performance of an excerpt of Tudor’s masterpiece, Dark Elegies, and a new contemporary dance piece, Dear Mother. Originally commissioned for Bartlett in collaboration with composer, Conservatory alumna, and member of Peabody’s Distinguished Artist Council Angel Lam and Maryland Institute College of Art visual artist Pat Alexander, the piece has been choreographed by Constance Dinapoli, artistic coordinator for contemporary dance. It explores the mother-daughter relationship from various angles by working with dancers using improv to explore relationships and the emotions that come out of them. See in-progress photos and videos of Dear Mother at facebook.com/composerAngelLam.

March 29

Performance by alumni and current advanced students showcasing highlights from Saturday’s program, as well as selections from the Peabody Dance classical and contemporary repertory, 3:00 pm.

May 17

Year-end school performances, Cinderella, 1:00 and 4:30 pm. PEABODY SPRING 2015

WHAT’S NEXT?

Artistic excellence is no longer enough to sustain a professional career in classical music. How must musicians adapt—and what role should conservatories play?

by Linell Smith

rances Pollock intends to graduate from Peabody with a master’s degree in voice and the experience of composing and producing a crowd-funded opera—her original work about the trial of George Stinney, the 14-year-old African American who became the youngest U.S. citizen to be executed in the 20th century. The topic of racial injustice is close to the heart of the 24-year-old composer from South Carolina, and Pollock believes that conservatory-trained musicians should be able to create and share art music that calls attention to such vital topics. “How do we make classical music a public service, something that people value and is relevant to their lives?” she wonders. It’s a question that leaders at Peabody are considering as they plot the future of the nation’s oldest conservatory. Recently, it also formed the basis for a lively discussion at “What’s Next for Classical Music?” a symposium for faculty and students held in Friedberg Hall in October. The event was the brainchild of Peabody Dean Fred Bronstein, who also served as its moderator. The panel included Marin Alsop, music director of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra; Ben Cameron, director for arts funding at the Doris Duke Charitable Trust; Thomas Dolby, professor of the arts at Johns Hopkins University; Jesse Rosen, president and CEO of the League of American Orchestras; and Peabody faculty artist and flutist Marina Piccinini. In a wide-ranging conversation that was also livestreamed to several hundred viewers, the group discussed how the environment for classical music is changing, how professional musicians can adapt to it, and what role conservatories should play—both in terms of developing artists and in building audiences for them. One point on which all agreed: Artistic excellence is not enough to sustain a professional career. “Being a great player is no longer the end point; it’s the starting point,” Bronstein said. “We all know how hard it is

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to get to that point, and that hasn’t changed. But the reality is that it’s not enough.” Panelists spoke of the need for young artists to know how to create and engage with a fan base through social media and to form collaborative partnerships that can illuminate the emotional core of their music. They urged students to be open-minded and entrepreneurial. “There’s no real formula for being successful,” Marin Alsop told the audience. “You can put together almost any kind of life for yourself. It’s all up to you. It’s whatever you want to make it. The more creative and proactive, the more a good citizen of the world you are, the better your life will be.” She urged them not to delay. As the conservatory-trained child of symphony orchestra musicians, Alsop said that she learned about marketing, how to make a program compelling, and how to raise money only after she graduated. When she could not find conducting work, she decided to create her own ensemble. Now, as the first woman conductor of a major American orchestra, she continues to develop audiences through such innovative programs as OrchKids, an after-school music education program that serves 750 Baltimore city students pre-K through eighth grade. Many teachers in the program are Peabody faculty and students. Rusty Musicians, another community-building program, brings amateur adult musicians on stage with the BSO to rehearse and play through works like Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker ballet. “When I first said, ‘I think we should invite some non-professionals to play with us,’ one musician said, ‘Yeah, and tomorrow I’m going to perform brain surgery!’” Alsop recalled. “They said, ‘How will we select the people?’ I said, ‘It’s not about perfection; it’s about having a human experience.’ “Now we have these very successful evenings that are incredibly rewarding. It’s about connecting with people over music.”

PHOTOS: WILL KIRK

Left to right: Marin Alsop, Thomas Dolby, Ben Cameron, Marina Piccinini, and Jesse Rosen

Other panelists also called for expanding the scope of classical music performance. “It’s almost a self-fulfilling prophecy that if you view classical music as removed from popular culture, you’re going to exclude exactly the kind of young audiences you need to keep it thriving,” Thomas Dolby said. Marina Piccinini emphasized the importance of playing in untraditional places, whether apartment lobbies or eclectic musical showcases such as Le Poisson Rouge in New York. “Experience is everything,” she said. “Supporting performances in many platforms is a huge way we can help support our students.” Many of these young musicians—both those in the hall and those following online—asked questions throughout the afternoon: Should the curriculum change to reflect greater collaboration with groups beyond the conservatory? ... Is the symphony hall still relevant to audiences? Although panelists believe that art music is already thriving in new venues and partnerships, they are less sanguine about the future of the traditional concert hall. “My greatest worry is that my generation’s passion for how deeply meaningful it has been to go into an auditorium, see the lights go down, and feel a wash of Mahler go over us, will keep us from undertaking the bold experimentation we need because we’ll confuse the fate of the symphony with the fate of classical music,” Ben Cameron said. The growth of arts organizations in the 1960s and 1970s created hundreds of new orchestras, based on the traditional performance model, that are now struggling to survive. “There’s a generation of institutions that are fundamentally insulated from the world in which they exist,” Cameron noted. “Many of these professionals still perform at their communities rather than with their communities or for their communities.”

He mentioned innovative exceptions similar to Rusty Musicians: a program at the University of Michigan where musicians help medical students improve their ability to listen to their patients, a project in Memphis where chamber orchestra members teach UPS executives how to make decisions collaboratively. Jesse Rosen said classical music organizations must reconsider their mission. “It’s not enough to say we’re in the business to put on concerts,” he noted. “There has to be a larger purpose to impact the world and make it a better place through music. Our purpose is to support, to engage, and to contribute to the fabric of our community.” Conservatories must also rethink their role, Bronstein said. “A major cultural institution like Peabody has an obligation to be part of the community, but I don’t know that we’ve always seen ourselves that way. We have assets and a breadth of talent that should be shared. It’s enlightened self-interest: Anything that strengthens the community is also good for us. “The community becomes the nexus of both musician training and audience development. The reality now is that everyone who cares about an art form had better see themselves as being in the audience development business.” Brad Testerman, an undergraduate who is double majoring in saxophone and voice, is particularly passionate about new music, both performing it and creating it. He was delighted to hear Piccinini endorse interdisciplinary collaborations within Johns Hopkins University and was inspired by Alsop’s charge “to get out there and make it happen.” “We spend years training to perform this music, and to do it justice, so that we can move other people. By helping them share part of our lives, and the composer’s, we help them experience something new,” he said. “In my view, that’s the whole reason we do music.”

Watch the video and read more about the symposium at peabody.jhu.edu/symposium. PEABODY SPRING 2015

Alumni Dear Alumni and Friends of the Peabody Institute: The Society of Peabody Alumni has had a tremendous fall, welcoming and engaging current students and celebrating three outstanding alumni. Now we look forward to an exciting spring with Homecoming and Reunion activities. I hope to see you in April, if not before!

PHOTOS: WILL KIRK

Zuill Bailey (BM ’94, Cello) returned to Peabody in October to receive the Johns Hopkins University Distinguished Alumni Award. While in Baltimore he gave a master class at Peabody, spoke to students and parents at the Family Weekend Alumni Panel, performed the Dvořák Cello Concerto in B minor (above), and was presented the JHU Distinguished Alumni Award by (left top, pictured left to right) Dean Fred Bronstein, Society of Peabody Alumni President Matthew Rupcich, and Johns Hopkins University Alumni Association Vice President David Yaffe. This celebration was particularly special for Peabody because it brought back (at left, pictured left to right) Zuill’s sister, alumna Allison Bailey (BM ’92, GPD ’94, Violin); his father, James Zuill Bailey Sr.; and his mother, alumna Lana McCoy Bailey (MM ’66, Piano). The concert can be seen at youtube.com/peabodyinstitute.

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Meanwhile, Peabody is entering a new era with a new leader. Kicking it off in a big way, Dean Bronstein has initiated an ongoing conversation about the future of classical music with particular focus on the future of the Conservatory (see p. 24). Our experience and ideas as former students and now professionals are very valuable in this discussion, and I will be seeking your input in the coming months to provide some alumni perspectives on the issues. Your ideas and suggestions are always welcome, and I encourage you to reach out to me or to the Alumni Office at any time. I look forward to hearing from you and seeing you at Reunion/ Homecoming!

Fondly,

Matthew Rupcich

(BM ’90, Music Education) President, Society of Peabody Alumni

CL A SS N OTES 1950 Recent performances of works by Vivian Adelberg Rudow (TC ’57, BM ’60, Piano; MM ’79, Composition) include Rock Smooth, a dance work choreographed by Algernon Campbell, of Rudow’s piece The Bare Smooth Stone of Your Love at Theatre Project,; and several pieces played on WPRB 103.3 FM, Princeton, N.J., with host Marvin Rosen.

1960 Mary Barto (BM ’67, Flute), faculty member at Mannes College The New School for Music, was a quarterfinalist for the Music Educator Award presented by the Recording Academy and the Grammy Foundation. Barto is also active in Hopkins/Peabody’s NYC chapter committee.

Bonnie Kellert (BM ’69,

MM ’71, Piano), a former student of Leon Fleisher, chaired the

2014 Washington International Competition for Pianists sponsored by the Friday Morning Music Club Foundation. The finals were held at the Terrace Theater of the John F. Kennedy Center on June 8. The following day Kellert was interviewed on WPFW to recap the event and give information about the FMMC and the FMMC Foundation. Kellert is a former first prize winner and the youngest winner of the WIC.

197 0 André Watts (AD ’72,

Piano) was the featured artist for the month of June, by WFIU, the public media station of Bloomington, Ind.

Jane Coop (MM ’74, Piano)

was appointed to the Order of Canada for her years of service to Canada’s music life. This award is Canada’s highest civilian honor, and the medal ceremony took place in Ottawa in November 2013. Coop, a

student of Leon Fleisher, was a professor of piano at the University of British Columbia for 33 years, and she now devotes all her time to performing.

Neale Perl (BM ’77, Cello)

has been appointed the Scottsdale (Ariz.) Cultural Council’s new president and CEO. Perl is the president emeritus of D.C.-based Washington Performing Arts, where he served as president and CEO from 2002 to 2013.

19 8 0

MARK YOUR CALENDAR Peabody Homecoming and Reunion Friday, April 24 Saturday, April 25 Look for your invitation in the mail or go to the website, peabody.jhu.edu/alumni, for more details and to sign up for events.

Patricia Whaley (MM

’83, Viola) performed Hector Berlioz’s Harold in Italy on September 27–28 with the Symphony Silicon Valley, of which she is principal viola, in San Jose, Calif.

Jennifer Rundlett (MM

’88, Flute) recently published a book that features the sacred art and music of Christmas, My Dancing Day: Reflections of the Incarnation in Art and Music.

International Alumni Concerts Saturday, June 13 Seoul, South Korea The Korean Chapter of the Society of Peabody Alumni will host an Alumni Orchestra Concert.

Sunday, June 21 Taipei, Taiwan

Taylor Photo

Cudek Photo

On October 17, 2014, Taylor Hanex (BM ’75, MM ’78, Piano) was presented with the Johns Hopkins Heritage Award by Dean Fred Bronstein and Society of Peabody Alumni President Matthew Rupcich. The award honors those who have contributed outstanding service to the university. The official citation can be read online at peabody.jhu.edu/alumni. Left to right: Dean Fred Bronstein, Taylor Hanex, Society of Peabody Alumni President Matthew Rupcich

Mark Cudek (MM ’82, Lute) was presented the Johns Hopkins University Alumni Association’s Global Achievement Award at his Peabody Renaissance Ensemble concert on December 5, 2014. The award is given to individuals who have brought credit to the university and their profession in an international arena. Cudek founded the Peabody Consort and the Baltimore Consort and has toured with both groups in the U.S., Canada, Europe, and Taiwan. Left to right: Dean Fred Bronstein, Mark Cudek, Society of Peabody Alumni Vice President Paul Matlin (BM ’70, MM ’72, Viola), and Johns Hopkins University Alumni Council President Jay Lenrow.

The Taiwanese Chapter of the Society of Peabody Alumni will host an Alumni Piano and Piano Ensemble Concert.

ATTENTION Composition alumni and anyone interested in composition: There is a new email list for news and broadcasts (competitions, commissions, etc.) pertaining to everyone, including alumni and members of the community.

To sign up, send an email to compositioncommunity-request@lists .johnshopkins.edu. PEABODY SPRING 2015

CL A SS N OTES 1990 Robert Cantrell (MM

’90, GPD ’92, Voice), bass-baritone, appeared as the bass soloist in Verdi’s Requiem with the Johns Hopkins Symphony. He also performed in For the People, an oratorio by John Williams for brass band and soloists. In March, he was the soloist for the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra’s Family Concert Series. During the summer of 2014, he served

on the voice faculty of the Washington National Opera’s Summer Institute for Young Singers at American University. Cantrell continues to teach voice at the Baltimore School for the Arts.

Brynn Albanese (PC ’91,

Violin) was a clinician for the American String Teachers Association’s Violin Boot Camp.

Randa Rouweyha (MM

’92, Voice), who studied with Phyllis Bryn-Julson, performed the role of Violetta in Verdi’s La Traviata, presented by the

In Series, from June 14 to 28. The performances were held at the GALA Hispanic Theatre in Washington, D.C. Soprano Annie Gill (GPD ’08, Voice) was also in the production.

Sarah Chan (MM ’96,

Piano) was a winner of the 2014 PianoTexas Concerto Competition in the teacher’s division; she performed with the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra.

Dontae Winslow (BM ’97, MM ’99, Trumpet) appeared with Justin Timberlake on his 20/20 Experience World Tour.

20 0 0 The fifth season of the Baltimore Lieder Weekend occurred at An die Musik Live, October 17–19, and featured Peabody alumni Daniel Schlosberg (BM ’00, MM ’01, Piano), Andrea Edith Moore (BM ’01, Voice), Ryan De Ryke (MM ’02, AD ’04, Voice), Kimberly Christie (MM ’12, Voice), and Andrew Stewart (MM ’02, Piano).

Mark Markham: Twenty Years… and Counting

The duo’s partnership began serendipitously enough. In 1995, Peabody pianist Ann Schein (who had been Markham’s teacher) realized she wouldn’t be able to accompany Norman during an upcoming European tour, so Schein suggested Markham—then a Peabody faculty member—for the role. He stepped in seamlessly, earning rave reviews wherever the duo performed. “His playing could not have been more intense, more inspired, or more joyful,” noted Paris’ Le Figaro. “A true servant to the music, he is a brilliant pianist as well.” Over the ensuing decades, Markham’s varied teaching career has taken him to points around the U.S. and the world—as a faculty member at Peabody (1990-2000), Morgan State University, the Britten-Pears School in England, and the Norfolk Chamber Festival of Yale University. But one constant in Markham’s musical life has been his ongoing performances with Norman, the opera legend who is equally at home singing American spirituals, jazz, French chansons, or German lieder. “When this extraordinary opportunity arrived in my life, I was ready and Jessye recognized that and thanked me after our first tour for my thorough preparation,” says Markham. “It has been an incredible journey filled with amazing music-making and the possibility to see this world of ours. A real trip, like no other!” Over the past 20 years, Markham and Norman have shared the stage in nearly 300 performances in more than 25 countries—including at the Concertgebouw in 28

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PHOTO: JEAN-LUC FIEVET

When pianist Mark Markham (BM ’84, MM ’86, DMA ’91, Piano) takes the stage at Carnegie Hall with soprano Jessye Norman on February 14, he’ll be celebrating his 20th year of artistic collaboration with the Grammy Award–winning singer.

Amsterdam, La Palau de la Musica in Barcelona, London’s Royal Festival Hall, the Salzburg Festival, Bunka Kaikan in Tokyo, Mann Auditorium in Tel Aviv, and at the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize presentation to President Jimmy Carter in Oslo. In addition to the Carnegie recital, they will perform in Paris and Amsterdam, and in Cameroon at the reopening of the National Museum—their first performance together on the African continent. In the February 14 concert, “American Masters: Hooray for Love!,” Norman and Markham will be performing a special program of classics from musical theater and the Great American Songbook, including works by Bernstein, Gershwin, Rodgers and Hart, and others. “This program is special as it is music that we both have in our bones and also in our souls—it is our music, not something we learned at school,” says Markham. “It’s an evening of improvisation of great American songs—our cultural history. This is probably the most exciting part of the experience.” —— Sue De Pasquale

ALUMNI

Several Peabody alumni performed in Anne Arundel Community College’s production of Georges Bizet’s Carmen in June: Catrin Davies (BM ’03, Voice) as Carmen; Bonnie McNaughton (GPD ’05, Voice) as Mercedes; Melissa Wimbish (GPD ’11, Voice; GPD ’14, Chamber Music) as Micaela; and Belinda Lau (MM ’13, Voice) as Frasquita.

Sarah Davis (MM ’06,

Voice) was the 2014 winner of The American Prize in Vocal Performance—Friedrich and Virginia Schorr Memorial Award, in the professional art song/oratorio division.

Erin R. Freeman (DMA

’06, Conducting) was appointed artistic director of Wintergreen Performing Arts and the newly created joint position of director of choral activities at Virginia Commonwealth University and director of Richmond Symphony Chorus. In addition, she will guest conduct the Buffalo Philharmonic, the Richmond Ballet, and the Berkshire Choral Festival. Freeman spent the past seven years as the associate conductor and chorus director of the Richmond Symphony.

Claire Plumb (BM ’06, Voice) and Matt Rupert (BM ’07, Clarinet), with Christian F. Howes, have

opened a new music school in the Mission District of San Francisco. Little Mission Studio opened in October and aims to serve the Bay Area with engaging classes, lessons, and performances while providing a safe space to cultivate musicianship and creativity in all ages.

David Grandis (GPD ’07,

Conducting) recently published a book on the style of French opera singing. The Voice of France, The Golden Age of the RTLN is published in both French and English and is based on his doctoral thesis from the University of Wisconsin–Madison.

Dan Kempson (BM ’07,

Voice) performed the role of Dancairo in Carmen at the Santa Fe Opera last summer. Floyds Row, a fusion group of Northumbrian traditional, early, and contemporary classical music featuring Alistair Anderson, Hannah James, and alumnus Andrew Arceci (BM ’08, Viola da Gamba, Double Bass), began recording an album in October at the Jacqueline du Pré Music Building at St. Hilda’s College, Oxford.

CD Releases from Peabody Alumni Christopher Atzinger

(DMA ’05, Piano) released a CD of works for solo piano, American Lyricism: Piano Music by American Composers, on July 14. It was produced by

Kathryn Ananda-Owens (MM ’93; DMA ’98, Piano) and released by MSR Classics as part of the label’s World Premiere Recordings series.

Joel Fan (MM ’94, Piano)

released a CD, Dances for Piano and Orchestra, through Reference Recordings. The recording features more obscure works by composers Chopin, Saint-Saëns, and Weber as well as works by Pierné, Castro, Gottschalk, and Cadman. A full interview with Fan was in the October issue of Fanfare magazine. Roll Over Beethoven is a compilation of original music and transcriptions by Julian Gargiulo (MM ’97, Piano), including his Lost Sonata for Piano and Trumpet, with faculty artist Joe Burgstaller. Also last fall, Gargiulo was named a Steinway Artist.

Chelsey Green (MM ’09,

Viola) and The Green Project’s new album, The Green Room, made the Billboard Contemporary Jazz Albums Chart, debuting at No. 22 on the first week of its release. A new CD of 12 songs by Chesley Kahmann (’58, Composition), Time Goes Dancing, was published by Orbiting Clef Productions Inc. in October. The CD is volume 10 of The Kahmann Touch series, sung by her longtime singing group, The Interludes.

Dan Kempson (BM ’07,

Voice) sings on Milhaud: Oresteia of Aeschylus, a Naxos recording by University of Michigan Symphony Orchestra, Percussion Ensemble, University Choirs, and UMS Choral Union.

Jenny Lin (AD ’98, Piano)

released two albums this year, Stravinsky Solo Piano Works (Steinway and Sons Record Label) and Night Stories: Nocturnes (Hänssler Classic). Both albums received rave reviews from The New York Times,

Gramophone, Classicstoday, Listen Magazine, and Cleveland Classical. In December, she joined Preparatory alumnus Philip Glass and eight other pianists in the world premiere of Glass’ Complete Piano Etudes at the Brooklyn Academy of Music.

Jake Runestad (MM ’11,

Composition) is a featured composer on the two-time Grammy-nominated vocal ensemble Seraphic Fire’s new release Reincarnations: A Century of American Choral Music. The record features the world premiere recording of Fear Not, Dear Friend.

Robert Satterlee (MM

’87, Piano) has released a CD of recent piano works of American composer Frederic Rzewski on the Naxos label. The CD, Rzewski: Piano Music, has received positive reviews from The New York Times, BBC Music Magazine, and Fanfare.

Daniel Schlosberg

(BM ’00, MM ’01, Piano) is the pianist on the world premiere recording of Augusta Read

Thomas’ Starlight Ribbons, for solo piano, on the Nimbus Alliance label. He is beginning his 10th year on the faculty at the University of Notre Dame. American Grace—the debut album by soprano Charity Tillemann-Dick (’06, Voice) with Joela Jones and Richard Weiss, the principal pianist and cellist of the Cleveland Orchestra—debuted at No. 1 on Billboard’s traditional classical charts. Canción Amorosa, the debut album by Corinne Winters (MM ’07, Voice), explores the often neglected repertoire of Spanish music, including Catalan, Basque, Sephardi, and Castilian music. Baritone Nathan Wyatt (BM ’10, MM ’12, Voice) performs Nico Muhly’s Pleasure Ground on the Cincinnati Symphony’s new CD, Hallowed Ground, which also includes Aaron Copland’s Lincoln’s Portrait, with narration by Maya Angelou.

PEABODY SPRING 2015

CL A SS N OTES Peabody alumni were featured in the second annual Colour of Music: Black Classical Musicians Festival, presented by the Charleston Symphony Orchestra Spiritual Ensemble, in October. The festival showcases classical music composed and performed by black musicians. Amyr Joyner (BM ’08, MM ’09, Violin) performed with his brothers Jarin and Khari as part of the Kaj Trio.

Mellasenah Edwards

(DMA ’99, Violin) served as concertmaster, Kenneth Law (GPD ’94, Cello) was the festival’s director of chamber music, and Cleveland Chandler (BM ’93, Violin) was principal violin.

Ken Lam (MM ’08, Conducting), who was recently appointed music director-designate of

the Charleston Symphony Orchestra, has been appointed the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra’s associate conductor for education. He will lead the BSO in two Family Series concerts and continue to direct the Baltimore Symphony Youth Orchestras.

Matthew Lynch (BM

’08, Trombone), who studied with James Olin, has been appointed trombonista soloista in the Orquestra Amazonas Filarmônica in Manaus, Brazil. Baritone Andrew Sauvageau (MM ’08, GPD ’10, Voice) appeared as Achilles in Silver Finch Arts Collective’s premiere production of A Fire in Water at Capital Fringe at the Atlas Theater in July.

James Robert Lowe (MM ’09, GPD ’12, Guitar) is the founder, director, and guitar

teacher at the Baltimore School of Music, now in its second year and expanding its programming to two more days a week. Sonar New Music Ensemble, founded by Colin Sorgi (BM ’09, Violin), was named Best Classical Group by Baltimore’s City Paper. Sonar’s 2013–14 season included works by John Cage, Ken Ueno, and Henri Dutilleux, and two nights devoted to Steve Reich’s hair-raising electric works.

Joseph Young (AD ’09,

Conducting) made his Spoleto Festival debut when he stepped in for Joana Carniero to conduct the first concert of the Spoleto Festival USA Orchestra on May 28. Young was assistant conductor on Kat’a Kabanova and was asked to take over for Carniero just before rehearsals began.

201 0 Colombine’s Paradise Theatre, a critically acclaimed evening-length musical and visual spectacle by Amy Beth Kirsten (DMA ’10, Composition), had its Chicago and New York premieres in September. Eighth blackbird performed the work, directed by Mark DeChiazza.

Chelsea Buyalos (BM

’11, MM ’12, Voice), a former student of Marianna Busching, sang the national anthem and God Bless America at the Baltimore Orioles playoff game on October 3 at Camden Yards. It was the fourth time Buyalos had sung before an Orioles game.

Corinne Winters: No Hands-Off Diva Corinne Winters (MM ’07, Voice) has drawn unfettered praise from critics worldwide, had her image recently grace the cover of the Kennedy Center’s magazine, and is booked for international performances for the next couple of years. But for now, she’s conducting an interview on her cellphone while riding a city bus.

Singing has always been a part of Winters’ life—her parents report that she sang before she talked. But she didn’t even have a vocal lesson until someone recommended one when she was a high school senior in Frederick, Md. “You definitely have an operatic instrument,” the vocal teacher said, much to the teen’s surprise. Winters went on to earn her bachelor’s in music and psychology from Towson University before attending Peabody. After that, she landed a spot in Philadelphia’s prestigious Academy of Vocal Arts— one of only 28 students in a four-year-long, tuition-free advanced educational program—where she learned the craft of singing and acting. From there, she immediately began landing leading roles in regional productions. As her career has flourished, Winters has worked to cultivate her audience, interacting extensively with her fan 30

PHOTO: REBECCA FAY PHOTOGRAPHY

It’s indicative of both her down-to-earth personality and the reality of life for a modern-day opera star. With the day’s rehearsals for La bohème (she’s Mimì) just ending, she was on her way home to her temporary apartment in Washington, D.C.

base through social media. “The era of the hands-off diva is over,” she says. “People want to hear from you and know you.” At the same time, she needs to draw some boundaries if for no other reason than to maintain the intense focus that’s part of the profession. With past appearances in some of the leading productions in the U.S., England, and Hong Kong, as well as upcoming ones in Belgium, Switzerland, and Italy, Winters rarely stays in one place long. That can be wearying. “It’s difficult at times, the transitory life style,” she says. “But it’s more than worth it because I get to do what I would do for free … and that is sing.” —— Michael Blumfield

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ALUMNI

Andrea Casarrubios

(BM ’11, Cello) was a Verbier Festival Academy participant at the Verbier Music Festival in Switzerland last summer. She also performed a solo recital at the Ateneo de Madrid in Spain in August. Casarrubios is also an Ensemble ACJW fellow, a program of Carnegie Hall, the Juilliard School, and the Weill Music Institute in partnership with the New York City Department of Education. A solo guitar work by Viet Cuong (BM ’11, MM ’12, Composition), Obsession, was the winner of this year’s Boston Guitarfest Composition Competition. It was performed by Peabody alumna Krystin O’Mara (BM, MM ’12, Guitar). For this year’s competition, 45 composers submitted 53 works from 15 U.S. states, Puerto Rico, and 13 countries.

Bijan Olia (BM ’11, MM ’12,

Computer Music) was an associate producer for the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences’ Score! concert on May 21, the first-ever live performance of television themes by a

67-piece orchestra and the 40-voice L.A. Chorus, at UCLA’s Royce Hall. Darren Otero (MM ’92, Computer Music) served as supervising copyist; Lynn Kowal (MM ’91, Computer Music) was the music consultant; and Julienne Gede (BM ‘12, Voice) served as assistant to the production team for the concert.

Nola Richardson (MM

’11, Voice) debuted as a soloist with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra in July, performing two cantatas for solo soprano and trumpet composed by Bach and Scarlatti in an allbaroque program.

Jake Runestad (MM ’11,

Composition) was awarded the grand prize, the Nathan Davis Prize, in the Young New Yorkers’ Chorus 2014 Composer Competition for his work The Peace of Wild Things, which is based on a poem by Wendell Barry. (For more on Runestad, see Headliners, p. 4.) Soprano Melissa Wimbish (GPD ’11, Voice; GPD ’14, Chamber Music), who studied with

Phyllis Bryn- Julson, won the National Association of Teachers of Singing Artists Award Mid-Atlantic Regionals, after first winning the Maryland/D.C. division. She was a semifinalist in the national competition at the NATS National Conference in Boston in July. Rabbi Joanne Heiligman, a composition student of Diana Cantrelle (MM ’12, Voice Performance/Pedagogy), premiered Mi Chamocha Amukot Golech, meaning “who is like You, glorious in Holiness” for the High Holy Days. The a cappella song was sung by Rabbi Heiligman’s son David, a voice student of Cantrelle through Artemis Voice Studios.

Kisma Jordan (GPD ’12,

Opera) has been named one of 18 Kresge Artist Fellows. The fellowship includes an unrestricted prize of $25,000 to reward the artist’s creative vision and commitment to excellence.

Michael Maliakel (’12,

Voice), who studied with Stanley Cornett, won first place in the National Association of

Teachers of Singing (NATS) 2014 National Music Theater Competition.

Maggie Dixon (BM ’13; MM

’14, Violin) performed with multiple Grammy award–winning bluegrass violinist/fiddler Mark O’Connor as his special guest in concerts in Singapore, Napa Valley, Atlanta, and Elkins, W. Va., as well as in Appalachia for his Christmas tour.

Brieann Pasko (MM ’13,

GPD ’14, Voice) was a co–first place winner of the 2013 Kennett Symphony Vocal Competition held in April. Third-place winner was

Peter Scott Drackley

(’12, Voice). Both studied with Phyllis Bryn-Julson.

Young-Ah Tak (DMA ’13,

Piano) performed a two-piano concert with piano faculty artist Yong Hi Moon in Busan, Korea. It was presented by Eulsukdo Cultural Center. She also performed Brahms’ Piano Concerto No. 1 with Seongnam Philharmonic Orchestra in Seongnam, Korea, in October.

Professional Appointments

In Memoriam

Terry Eberhardt (BM ’99, Voice, Music Education), music facilitator, Howard County Public School System, Maryland.

Ken Caputo (MM ’00, Clarinet)

Patty Fagan-Miller (MM ’07, Bassoon), lecturer, University of Texas at San Antonio. She is an active freelance musician in Houston and San Antonio and lives in San Antonio with her husband, Danny Miller (MM ’08, Trumpet).

Andrew Smith (BM ’13, Horn)

Mi Yeon Han (MM ’08, Vocal Accompanying), graduate collaborative piano faculty, Sejong University in Seoul, Korea. She gave a collaborative recital at the Younsan Art Hall in Seoul in December. Emily Elizabeth Joseph (MM ’12, GPD ’14, Trombone), director of the pep bands, Johns Hopkins University.

Ernesto Tamayo (GPD ’97, Guitar) Esther M. Robbins Wideman (’67, Organ)

Eric McCullough (MM ’12, Guitar), adjunct professor of music, Carroll Community College, Maryland. PEABODY SPRING 2015

CL A SS N OTES Mary Trotter (MM ’13,

Vocal Accompanying) is teaching theory, class piano, and applied piano, and is the accompanist coordinator for the Voice Department at Whitworth University. She plays and coaches all voice recitals at Whitworth, oversees piano proficiency exams, and accompanies the voice faculty in recitals. This past summer, Trotter was a full scholarship participant at SongFest and the accompanist for Opera Coeur d’Alene’s On the Lake production of The Pirates of Penzance.

Jennifer Nicole Campbell (BM ’14, Piano), a student of Brian Ganz (AD ’93, Piano), was awarded the Peabody Alumni Award for

earning the highest cumulative GPA in the Peabody Bachelor of Music Class of 2014. This summer, Campbell was chosen as resident collaborative artist at the New York International Piano Competition sponsored by the Stecher and Horowitz Foundation.

Benjamin Buchanan (MM

’14, Composition) won first prize in Peabody’s Virginia Carty DeLillo Composition Competition for his work Wozzeck: A Review—Berlin, 1925. DMA candidate Natalie Draper and Jeong Hyun Chun (MM ’14, Composition) tied for second place for their pieces Decadent Music Box and Hae-Wol, respectively. DMA candidate John Belkot (MM ’14, Composition) won the

Macht Orchestral Composition Competition with And night by the streams of the city.

Celeste Johnson (MM

’14, Vocal Accompanying) joined Opera Coeur d’Alene as coach and accompanist for Puccini’s La Fanciulla del West. She is employed as a pianist and an accompanist for the choral and vocal departments of Gonzaga University and Whitworth University. Pianist César Orozco (GPD ’14, Jazz) performed with colleagues from Venezuela and Cuba at the Kennedy Center Millennium Stage in August.

Natanya Washer (BM ’14, Voice), a master’s student of Ah Young Hong (BM ’98, MM ’01, Voice), performed the role of Katerina Cavalieri,

the soprano, in Center Stage’s production of Peter Shaffer’s Amadeus this fall. Voice faculty artist François Loup served as a dialect coach for the production. Soprano Laura

Whittenberger (GPD ’14,

Voice), who studied with Stanley Cornett, performed the role of Mabel in the operetta The Pirates of Penzance at Toby’s Dinner Theatre in Columbia, Md., for a 60+ performance run in August.

Please send us your news Alumni Office 1 East Mount Vernon Place Baltimore, MD 21202 PeabodyAlumni@jhu.edu facebook.com/ peabodyalumni

J. Ernest Green: A Maestro of Many Hats It’s not been a career that’s followed the traditional track of moving from one prominent orchestra to another, a fact that at one point disturbed Green. “When you’re younger, you lament the parts of your career that you don’t have,” he says. Yet his path allowed him to conduct a wider range of music and work with a more diverse group of performers than he would have otherwise. At one point he was leading three orchestras, three choirs and several independent projects. Among other accomplishments was being a colleague and collaborator with the late Marvin Hamlisch and a cover conductor for many years with the National Symphony Orchestra.

J. Ernest Green was happily working as an assistant in orchestral conducting when faculty artist Edward Polochick asked if he’d take on the same role in choral conducting. Lacking vocal experience and worried that it meant losing the stipend he received for orchestral conducting, he initially balked. But Polochick assured him he could do both. And that describes Green’s path since graduating from Peabody (MM ’83, Conducting): He’s been a conductor for orchestras all over the world while leading the Annapolis Chorale (now called Live Arts Maryland) for the past 30 years. “Whether it was fate or happenstance, the net result is that it gave me a career where I could always have a touch stone, a home base,” says Green, who has led the Chorale to expand from 54 members when he took it over to 160 members today. 32

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Along the way, Green learned how to conduct another field: marketing. He became not just the public face of the Chorale but its advocate and spokesman—leading pre-concert talks, appearing in videos, and generally getting people enthused about attending performances. Green says his inspiration came from seeing how Broadway promoters were selling their shows. They sold the experience of witnessing a production. Green figured that what was important was to share with audiences the emotion they could be expected to feel from seeing the live performances he was conducting. Green says it’s essential that musical leaders learn not just how to put together a great program of music but all about the business side of the organization as well. There’s plenty of evidence that Green has indeed added to his vocal and orchestral skills the title of Marketing Maestro. Single-ticket sales in each of the past two years have seen double-digit increases. —— Michael Blumfield

Fanfare Top: Guests including actors Lance Reddick, a Preparatory alumnus, and Chris Meloni (pictured, from left) enjoyed an October 5 event hosted by PNAC member Laifun Chung and her husband, Ted Kotcheff, introducing Dean Bronstein to the Peabody community in Los Angeles. Left: The new Centre Street Performance Studio opened with a ribbon-cutting ceremony on September 4, 2014. The Studio was created as a venue where Conservatory students can get handson experience producing and promoting their own programming ideas. Pictured, left to right: Jay Rubin; Frank Mondimore; Laura Holter, executive director the Middendorf Foundation; and Dean Fred Bronstein.

Dean’s Breakthrough Plan Aims to Prepare ‘Ambassadors for the Arts’ Since taking the helm at Peabody in June, Dean Fred Bronstein has outlined a bold vision for the Institute that seeks to make it even more competitive among its peers and give greater focus to interdisciplinary initiatives and innovative approaches to the teaching and practice of music. Among his objectives is the importance of preparing students for their later roles as not just outstanding musicians and performers but as ambassadors for the arts, able to interact with a larger and increasingly diverse community. To fund these important initiatives, the dean is seeking to raise $2.5 million by fiscal year 2016. Beginning last fall, he has asked donors to support efforts such as establishing new positions that support key strategic objectives, redesigning the Peabody website, and conducting market research. In addition, the gifts will provide seed funds for implementing new faculty and staff ideas in interdisciplinary initiatives and innovative

curriculum, and to develop new community programs and partnerships.

or we risk training artists without the hope of having audiences in the future.”

In what Bronstein calls his Breakthrough Plan, he outlines a program to capitalize on the Institute’s many strengths—such as an exceptional faculty and illustrious alumni, as well as its connection to the Johns Hopkins University—and address some of its challenges, which include enrollment declines and insufficient financial resources.

“This is the kind of investment that has the greatest early traction with those closest to the institution,” says Andrea Trisciuzzi, associate dean for external relations. To help Peabody leverage new resources, President Ron Daniels has created a challenge grant: He will give $1.7 million toward these efforts if the Peabody National Advisory Council (PNAC) commits $800,000 in new contributions, over and above the members’ current campaign and annual giving. The full $800,000 must be received by the end of FY2016. As soon as Peabody receives $800,000 in pledges and outright gifts, President Daniels will transfer $1.7 million into Peabody’s accounts.

He suggests that increasingly heightened selectivity in student and faculty recruitment would cement the institution’s reputation as a center of excellence. And he argues that in order to prepare students for successful and sustainable musical careers in the 21st century, Peabody must instill an array of skills so graduates can think flexibly, advocate for art, contribute to their communities in meaningful ways, and find their own audiences. As he states in his plan, “If we are in the music training business, we must also be in the audience development business,

Already, a number of PNAC members have stepped up to the plate. In the words of Mark Paris, chair of the PNAC, “Fred Bronstein is the right person at exactly the right time. His plan has energized everyone on the Council, and we are behind him and his efforts 100 percent.” —— Christine Stutz PEABODY SPRING 2015

PNC Gift Supports Boys’ Dance Throughout its proud 100-year history, Peabody Dance has been a pioneer, frequently offering groundbreaking programs and performances that have shaped American dance. Its Estelle Dennis/Peabody Dance Training Program for Boys, established in 2009, is an example of just such a program. The program offers rigorous training in classical ballet for boys ages 9 to 15 and is tuition-free for all participants. A new gift from PNC will support the program and help boys with potential and a love for dance pursue their passion. “At PNC, we believe that students of all socioeconomic backgrounds, especially those from underserved communities, should have access to arts and cultural education,” said Will Backstrom, PNC client and community relations director in Greater Maryland. “We are proud to support the Peabody Dance Training Program

in its efforts to encourage boys in the Baltimore area to pursue dance training studies at a prestigious arts education institution.” Up to 25 boys, some with little or no previous training, are accepted into the program by audition each year. Each dancer receives high-level dance instruction valued at more than $1,800 per year, plus unique opportunities to attend professional performances and meet professional male dancers. The next round of auditions will be announced in March. “Gifts like this one from PNC make it possible for us to discover and nurture these boys’ exceptional talents,” said Peabody Dance Department Chair Melissa Stafford. “As we celebrate our centennial season, we are so grateful to PNC and all of our donors and supporters who are investing in the future of dance at Peabody.”

The Estelle Dennis/Peabody Dance Training Program for Boys is currently in its sixth year, under the leadership of department chair Melissa Stafford.

—— Tiffany Lundquist

The ‘New Building’ Is Now Austrian Hall PHOTO: THE ALAN MASON CHESNEY MEDICAL ARCHIVES OF THE JOHNS HOPKINS MEDICAL INSTITUTIONS

Since its opening in 1990, a portion of Peabody’s annual budget has been dedicated to paying down this debt.

Charles Austrian

Seamlessly connected to historic Leakin Hall, the “New Building” was built on faith and out of necessity. Several large gifts made it possible to begin construction on the much-needed space designed to house the Arthur Friedheim Music Library, the Peabody Archives, dance studios, practice rooms, classrooms, and offices, but the remaining costs were financed. 34

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This story, however, starts way back in 1936 when Charles R. Austrian was elected a trustee of the Peabody Institute. He served in this capacity until his death in June 1956. His wife, Florence H. Austrian, was elected a trustee of the Peabody Institute in 1957 and served until she died on December 13, 1979. Their combined tenure as trustees represents 43 years of continuous service to the Peabody Institute. Minutes of the trustee meetings show them to be very involved in committee work and fully engaged in all aspects of Peabody— he argued for increasing the salaries of the teaching staff and for honoring donor intent and not allowing funds to be diverted if they were gifts to a special area or dedicated to a particular department; she was involved in the

decision to keep Peabody in Mt. Vernon, the acquisition of the entire block, including the creation of the dormitory facility, and the creation of the American Conductors Project. In addition to their extensive service, they supported Peabody financially throughout their lifetime, and their son Robert made annual donations as well. Charles and Florence included Peabody in their will, the payout of which would come to the Institute when their son Robert passed away. More than 25 years after Florence’s death, Peabody received their unrestricted gift of just under $4 million. Ultimately, it was decided that this money would be used to pay off the remaining debt on the New Building and to rename it in honor of this family, who loved the arts and supported this institution with time, talent, and treasure. —— Debbie Kennison

FANFARE

Studio Funds Give Peabody a Competitive Edge Thanks to an innovative program called Faculty Studio Funds, donors now have a way to directly support the work of Peabody faculty and their students. These discretionary funds allow faculty members to attract promising students by helping them with the many expenses that are part of their education. In some cases faculty are successful in wooing talented students who are being sought after by comparable music schools. The availability of these additional funds sweetens any tuition assistance that Peabody might make, giving Peabody a competitive edge. In Peabody’s studio system, the relationship that develops between teacher and student is very strong, and the mentor influence is quite profound, says Patrick O’Neall, Peabody’s director of major gifts. It is not unusual for faculty members to meet the families of their students, for example. “This fund-raising strategy helps support the number one goal of our faculty, which is getting the top students to their studio,” says O’Neall. “Sometimes students are just not able to cope with paying for all the extras that go into a well-prepared career training,” says Phyllis BrynJulson, chair of the Voice Department at Peabody. Sheet music, recording devices, audition fees and travel costs,

and performance attire are just a few of the incidentals students might not anticipate having to cover. Some students find it nearly impossible to travel to auditions, says Bryn-Julson. “The look of relief on their faces when I tell them I can pay for it because of the generosity of a donor is all the evidence I need to know that these donors have made a huge difference in one moment for a gifted talent,” she says. In order to secure Studio Fund donations, faculty members are collaborating with Peabody’s development staff to involve and inform donors more than they had in the past, according to O’Neall. “Traditionally, faculty at the Conservatory have not been asked to spend time with our donors,” says O’Neall. But these top artists—who include guitarist Manuel Barrueco, pianist Leon Fleisher, mezzo-soprano Denyce Graves, and percussionist Robert Van Sice—have been successful in attracting donations as they invite prospective donors to become more involved with their work, and especially, with their teaching. Donors are thrilled to have that kind of interaction with faculty, he says. Ruby P. Hearn, who supports the Studio Fund of opera singer Graves, has also made gifts to Peabody’s out-

reach programs. She decided to contribute to this specific fund after attending a master class that Graves taught. “She is an amazing teacher,” says Hearn. “She was able to get these young people to make incredible sounds, and it was clear from the expressions on their faces that they had no idea these sounds were possible.” Hearn said she was very excited when Graves, an internationally acclaimed soloist, recently joined the Peabody faculty. “Having a diverse faculty is so important in attracting a diverse student body,” she says. “Without this generous grant from an alumnus and his family, four of our present students would not be able to attend Peabody,” says Van Sice, of the percussion faculty. “All of them are gifted young people with a hunger to learn, but who happen to come from families who would not be able to afford the full cost of a Peabody education. “I often think about what the Peabody Percussion Department would be without the fabulous contributions of these young students,” he says, “and it makes me realize that these funds not only help the four direct recipients of the grant but the wider family of my class, as we all learn so much from each other every day of the musical journey." —— Christine Stutz

The annual Peabody Symphony Orchestra concert in memory of Steven Muller, president of the Johns Hopkins University from 1972 to 1990, took place on November 22, 2014. Leon Fleisher, who holds the Andrew W. Mellon Chair in Piano and was the PSO guest conductor, joined Anne Mitchell, Muller’s granddaughter, and PNAC member Jill McGovern, Muller’s wife, for a post-concert reception in the Rymland Room. Left to right: Leon Fleisher, Anne Mitchell, Jill McGovern

PEABODY SPRING 2015

A Special Thank You

Sponsor a Student

Loyal donors are the foundation for Peabody’s success, providing the means by which the Institute can carry out its mission of providing the highest quality music and dance education for our talented students. In recognition of this important commitment, Peabody would like to thank the following donors who have made gifts for 20 or more consecutive years.

Peabody’s new annual scholarship program provides a greater opportunity to share in a student’s success. With an annual gift of $2,500 or more, donors can now sponsor a Conservatory student for the current year and make a direct impact on the education of a talented young musician.

Consecutive years of giving are counted by fiscal year (July 1 to June 30) and gifts of any amount to all areas of the Institute are eligible.

Barry L. Abel Adalman-Goodwin Foundation Frances and George Alderson George D. Arnold Deborah and Louis Baer Ernest V. Baugh III Peter Bay Elizabeth A. Beall-Pray Catherine H. Beauchamp Leonid Berkovich Nancy B. Bisco Howard Blaney Esther B. Bonnet Susan and Clifford Boucher Nancy B. and Ivan E.* Bowser C. Griffith Bratt Phyllis Bryn-Julson and Donald S. Sutherland Elana R. and Gene H.* Byrd John F. Cahill David J. Callard Campbell Foundation Inc. Vadhana C. and Inocencio T. Claud Joanne Cohen James D. Crookshanks Douglas A. Day Sandra H. Dean John A. Deaver The Charles Delmar Foundation Sylvia Betts Dodd Ruth L. and Arno P. Drucker

Phillip T. Dunk Jr. Mr. and Mrs. Richard A. Eliasberg Linda M. and John R. Fields Seymour Fink Ruth L. and Dale J. Fisher Hilda P. and Douglas S.* Goodwin Peggy and Yale Gordon Charitable Trust Daniel M. Graham Frank Granofsky Janet Rayburn Greive and Tyrone Greive Taylor A. Hanex Romayne A. Hardy Estelle Hartranft Lynn T. Hebden* Sandra Levi Gerstung and the Hecht-Levi Foundation Inc Jane S. Hennegar Jeanie A. Hillman-Brotman David W. Holmes Frank G. Hubbard Jr. Galan Kral Mildred and Ramon Kyser Numa K. and Richard C. Lavy Leslie Luco Leigh M. Martinet Carol and Paul Matlin Susan A. and Howard L. Miskimon Anita L. Monson Randall S. Mullin Ted A. Niederman

Monica D. Otal Rita D. Pezzulla Presser Foundation Warren D. Rosen Ruth Rosenberg Vivian Adelberg Rudow and David Rudow Ann W. and David M. Saunders Suzanne and Jacques* Schlenger Christine Rutt Schmitz and Robert W. Schmitz David F. Sears Richard S. Shue Robert W. Smith Jr. John R. Snell Jr. Helen Stone and Gregory Tice Robert G. Towers and Sieghild B. Sloan T. Rowe Price Foundation, Inc. Juanita C. Tsu Elizabeth M. Van Eerde Margaret C. and Patrick C. Walsh Paul H. Warner Beverly Dietrich Weber Dexter N. Weikel Carol Schultz Weinhofer Ruth W. Williams Mary J. Wilson Lois A. and James L. Wynn Walter Michael Yatta Carol Jean and John R. Young

In addition, donors will receive:

• A report about the scholarship recipient (Requests for a specific instrument or department will be honored whenever possible)

• An invitation to an annual “Meet the Students” event

• An invitation to Peabody’s annual Leadership Lunch

For more information on how you can sponsor a student, contact Debbie Kennison, director of constituent engagement, at kennison@jhu.edu or 410-234-4673.

Annual Scholarship donor Thomas Powell at the annual Leadership Lunch with voice master’s degree student and scholarship recipient Natanya Washer (BM ’14, Voice).

* Deceased

Rising to the Challenge Campaign Update for Peabody Goals TOTAL RAISED BY PEABODY THROUGH DECEMBER 31, 2014: $34.3 MILLION (46%)

PROGRAM SUPPORT $10.4 MILLION (30%)

SCHOLARSHIP SUPPORT $22.6 MILLION (66%)

ALLOCATION OF $34.3 MILLION RAISED TO DATE PEABODY

SPRING 2015

FACULTY SUPPORT $1.3 MILLION (4%)

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