Peabody Magazine Fall 2017 Peabody Magazine Vol. 12, No. 1

PEABODY MAGAZINE

JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY

Fall 2017

Vol. 12 No. 1

Out of the Practice Room …

And Into the World A bold culture shift is underway with the launch of the new Breakthrough Curriculum.

Also: A is for Affiliation …

Celebrating 40 years of the Johns Hopkins/Peabody affiliation

IMAGES: WILL KIRK/HOMEWOODPHOTO.JHU.EDU

The “unknown unknowns”

Rigoberto Hernandez brims with excitement when he and his students confront big problems.

“What are those grand challenges?” he asks.

“They’re in energy. They’re in sustainability. They’re in human health. They’re in water.”

The Gompf Family Professorship gives this computational and theoretical chemist the freedom to explore the “unknown unknowns” — all the things we don’t know we don’t know.

His work at the edges of science holds tremendous promise across a broad range — from Alzheimer’s treatment to longer-lasting batteries.

“If we can advance our knowledge in a way that helps us solve problems, it’s a way to advance humankind as a whole.”

#HopkinsRising

Together, there’s more we can do to recruit and sustain professors like Rigoberto Hernandez.

Watch his video at rising.jhu.edu/unknowns and join us in Rising to the Challenge.

CONTENTS 10

Out of the Practice Room … And Into the World

By Richard Byrne The rollout of Peabody’s new Breakthrough Curriculum marks a bold culture shift for students and faculty alike.

3 Headliners

BFA in Dance to Launch in Fall 2018

New Media Program for a New Marketplace

Changing the Culture Around Injury

In Step with Advances in Dance Pedagogy

Joseph Young Tapped as Artistic Director of Ensembles

Hilary Hahn Headlines Commencement

23

Department News

The latest news and accomplishments involving

students, faculty, and alumni from the

Preparatory and the Conservatory.

33 Fanfare

Introducing the Piano Excellence Fund

Supporting Technological Innovations

15

A is for Affiliation …

Reporting by Margaret Bell, Sue De Pasquale, and Tiffany Lundquist To celebrate the 40th anniversary of Peabody’s affiliation with Johns Hopkins University, we bring you an A to Z guide that highlights the myriad ways the two institutions — and the world — have benefited from the unique union.

Cover illustration by Eva Vázquez 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 the first major intellectual and arts center in an American city by philanthropist George Peabody. Now a division of Johns Hopkins University, the Peabody Institute trains musicians and dancers of every age, stages nearly 1,000 concerts and events each year, and extends music and musical training throughout the community. Building on its rich history of professional music training at the highest level and focused on the four pillars of excellence, interdisciplinary experiences, innovation, and community connectivity, Peabody is introducing the Breakthrough Curriculum in Music Leadership to prepare artists for a world that is constantly changing yet still deeply in need of what music brings to the human experience.

36

Student Spotlight

Catching Up with Najette Abouelhadi

FR OM TH E DE A N Breakthrough Curriculum is the product of more than two years of thoughtful consideration, research, conversation, and planning. I am deeply grateful to the faculty, staff, and students who led the effort as members of the Peabody Curriculum for the Future Task Force, and for the critical input of alumni who provided invaluable feedback based on their professional experiences. I am equally indebted to the faculty and staff who have embraced this philosophy and are bringing it to life in their work with students this fall. I hope you will read the story, which begins on page 10, and let us know your reactions.

Along with new faculty members and a new curriculum, we’re marking a host of other firsts at Peabody, including a reimagined ensembles program that emphasizes a broad range of eclectic ensemble experiences for students, similar to what they will experience in the professional world. Other firsts include a revamped faculty governance system providing opportunities for greater leadership, involvement, and accountability for our outstanding faculty; the opening of the Peabody Clinic for Performing Artists, part of the Center for Music and Medicine in collaboration with Johns Hopkins Medicine; and recruitment for the first cohorts of students to enroll in our new Music for New Media and Dance BFA programs beginning in fall 2018.

As we celebrate the new, it’s important to note that this level of growth and innovation is only possible because it rests on Peabody’s solid foundation and traditions. This fall — the Peabody Institute’s

160th year — we commemorate 40 years as one of the professional schools of Johns Hopkins University. A fun compilation of many of the achievements made possible through our affiliation begins on page 15.

Finally, if you haven’t seen it yet, I invite you to visit Peabody’s new website at peabody.jhu.edu and share it with young musicians in your life. The new site gives us the platform to project the performing arts excellence, leading innovations, and dynamic community connections that define who we are and where we are going. It’s an upgrade long in the making, and as we continue to refine it, I invite your feedback at peabodywebmaster@jh.edu.

Thank you for your continued support of the Peabody Institute. As you can tell, we are excited about what the future holds and look forward to sharing it with you.

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Dean Fred Bronstein

Peabody Friends, With the fall semester underway I am reminded that the start of every year is always special, and this year, a bit more so, as this is a year of real firsts at Peabody in many important ways.

This year we welcome an unprecedented number of new members to the Peabody faculty, perhaps more than at any other time since our beginning, and we are thrilled to introduce them to you in the pages of this issue of Peabody Magazine. These new faculty members join a group of active performers, composers, and scholars of national and international acclaim. While here on campus, they serve as teachers, mentors, leaders, coaches, and role models.

Another first this year, and explored in-depth in this issue, is the new Breakthrough Curriculum in Music Leadership. This new approach to the training of young artists in the 21st Century puts Peabody at the forefront of music education in the United States. The

Sincerely,

Fred Bronstein

PEABODY MAGAZINE

Lauren Crewell, Digitial Communications Specialist Sue De Pasquale, Consulting Editor Ben Johnson, Senior Graphic Designer Debbie Kennison, Director of Constituent Engagement Will Kirk, Contributing Photographer Justin Kovalsky, Copy Editor Tiffany Lundquist, Director of Marketing and Communications Katy Pretz, Communications Coordinator Leslie Procter, Assistant Director of Constituent Engagement, Fanfare Section Editor Amelia Stinette, Communications Coordinator

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 667-208-6561 magazine@peabody.jhu.edu peabody.jhu.edu/magazine

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

ROBERTO WESTBROOK

H E A DLI N ERS

Faye Chiao, Ellen Fishman-Johnson, Frances Pollock

KYM THOMSON

Director of Peabody’s Graduate Conducting Program MARIN ALSOP has won a Johns Hopkins University Discovery Award with Krieger School of Arts and Sciences professor Bernadette Wegenstein, director of the Center for Advanced Media Studies. The interdisciplinary faculty team will film the first documentary about women conductors, titled We Conduct. The documentary will focus on the power of music to transcend cultural constraints and norms, and the challenges of bringing about social change and breaking down barriers of race and gender through music.

Composition faculty member OSCAR BETTISON has been awarded The John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship. Guggenheim Fellowships are intended for individuals who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the arts.

Bettison is one of 173 diverse scholars, artists, and scientists to be awarded the fellowship in 2017.

He also won a Johns Hopkins Catalyst Award to write a violin concerto for faculty artist COURTNEY ORLANDO and her group Alarm Will Sound! The award will cover Bettison’s commission and the group’s residency at Peabody.

This year, Peabody alumnae make up three of the eight composers awarded a total of $100,000 in funding through Opera America’s Opera Grants for Female Composers program. The funded works include Island of the Moon by FAYE CHIAO (MM ’07, DMA ’16, Composition), about the queen of a sinking island hoping to save her people; Marie Begins

by ELLEN FISHMANJOHNSON (DMA ’95, Composition), an interactive work that has the audience guiding Marie’s trajectory to help her pull her life together; and Stinney: An American Execution

by FRANCES POLLOCK (MM ’15, Voice), the true story of George Stinney Jr., the youngest person to be legally executed in 20th-century America.

Peabody faculty member WENDEL PATRICK won a $25,000 NEA award to support the WYPR radio program Out of the Blocks. Dedicated to documenting the stories of Baltimore residents through audio interviews and photography of one neighborhood block at a time, the project will expand this documentary model to as many as six cities across the United States.

As many as six hourlong episodes will be produced and distributed nationwide through the Public Radio Exchange.

An updated version of Scalia/Ginsburg, an opera by Professional Studies faculty member and composer DERRICK WANG, was presented at the 2017 Glimmerglass Festival in Cooperstown, N.Y., on August 4 and August 13. The opera featured faculty artist WILLIAM BURDEN, a Glimmerglass artist in residence, in the role of Justice Antonin Scalia. Scalia/ Ginsburg is about the relationship between Supreme Court Justices Scalia and Ruth Bader Ginsburg, played by Glimmerglass Young Artist Mary Beth Nelson. A special sold out Q&A session with Justice Ginsburg followed the August 13 performance.

Listen to Wendel Patrick on the WYPR’s podcast Out of the Blocks: goo.gl/4DTcWG PEABODY FALL 2017

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BFA in Dance to Launch in Fall 2018 Building on its long history of high-level training for dancers, the Peabody Institute will launch a Bachelor of Fine Arts in dance beginning in the 2018-19 academic year.

Leading the new department will be danah bella, former chair of the dance faculty at Radford University and the founder and artistic director of d a n a h b e l l a DanceWorks, a modern dance company focused on reclaiming evocative movement as social practice.

“The Peabody Conservatory Dance BFA is designed to prepare exceptional 21st-century artists to push the boundaries between dance and science and expand the role and relevance of dance,” says Abra Bush, Peabody’s senior associate dean of institute studies. “With her bold artistry and diverse experiences as a performer, choreographer, and teacher,

we’re thrilled that danah bella has agreed to lead this innovative new program at Peabody.”

The Dance BFA, a facet of the Peabody Institute’s Breakthrough Plan, leverages the strengths of the Conservatory’s status as both a premier conservatory and a division of Johns Hopkins University. In addition to developing as performing artists, students will explore the interconnections between dance, music, science, and medicine, and will have opportunities to develop expertise in other areas including composition, citizenartistry, performing arts medicine, movement therapy, and non-traditional approaches to pedagogy.

The Dance BFA also builds on the strong foundation of one of the oldest continuously operating dance training centers in the United

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Handel’s Dixit Dominus

Christmas for Kids

Saturday, Oct 28, 2017 at 8 pm

Saturday, Dec 16, 2017 at 11 am

Blake Clark conducts the Chorus and Orchestra in Handel’s virtuosic work as well as music of Bach, Haydn, and Randall Thompson.

Holiday fun for the entire family, featuring Pepito the Clown and a visit from Santa!

Kraushaar Auditorium at Goucher College

Christmas with Choral Arts Tuesday, Dec 5, 2017 at 7:30 pm The Baltimore Basilica

Blake Clark leads the Chorus and Orchestra in this popular annual holiday program.

Sing-Along Messiah Friday, Dec 15, 2017 at 7:30 pm

Kraushaar Auditorium at Goucher College

Join in singing the great choruses of Handel’s Messiah. Bring your own score or buy one at the concert.

Call 410-523-7070 or visit BCAsings.org

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PEABODY FALL 2017

Kraushaar Auditorium at Goucher College

Duruflé Requiem Sunday, May 6, 2018 at 3 pm St. Paul’s Episcopal Church 233 N. Charles Street

World-renowned organist Jeremy Filsell showcases the magnificent organ in the historic St. Paul’s Church, as Blake Clark conducts the Duruflé Requiem, Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms and other works.

States. Established in December 1914, Peabody Dance is currently run through the Peabody Preparatory, and offers high-quality, non-degree dance training for students of all levels, ages 3 through adult. Throughout its history, Peabody Dance has pioneered new dance forms, mounted numerous collaborative projects, partnered with prominent figures in 20th- and 21st-century American dance, and produced accomplished professional dancers, choreographers, directors, and teachers.

“I am honored for the opportunity to join the Peabody Institute as it embarks on a new and exciting period of innovative initiatives that build on its storied legacy of artistic academic excellence,” says bella, who has an MFA in performance from The Ohio State University and a BA in dance from the University of California in Santa Barbara. “I’m thrilled to bring my passion for dance and penchant for student-centered dance pedagogy to shape this groundbreaking new program that will prepare students to be globally engaged citizen-artists.” bella has worked in higher education since 2002 teaching modern dance technique, choreography, and dance theory, and has performed and presented her work throughout the country — including the Cool New York Festival, the United States Asian American Festival in San Francisco, the Bates Dance Festival in Maine, the American College Dance Association’s National Dance Festival at the Kennedy Center, Santa Barbara, and ReVIEWING Black Mountain College — as well as in Mexico and Italy. In addition, she has taught workshops and served as artist in residence for festivals and universities throughout the United States and abroad.

She is also a founding member of Colectivo Caliban, an artist collective that transgresses disciplinary borders through sound and movement.

—— Tiffany Lundquist

New Media Program for a New Marketplace Virtual reality. Augmented reality.

Video games and apps.

New media and entertainment platforms seem to be proliferating at an ever-increasing rate in today’s world. And all of them need music.

That’s where the Peabody Conservatory’s new Music for New Media program comes in. Slated to enroll its first cohort of undergraduate students in the fall of 2018, the Music for New Media degree builds on Peabody’s traditional strengths in composition, computer music, and recording arts, with new courses and an emphasis on preparing students to work in today’s new media marketplace.

The program is led by music and tech pioneer Thomas Dolby, who in 2014 was appointed Johns Hopkins Homewood Professor of the Arts.

“This field is absolutely exploding with possibilities,” says Dolby.

“Technologies like virtual reality and augmented reality, until recently the stuff of sci-fi fantasy, have rapidly become available on consumer entertainment platforms. The manufacturers recognize that great music and sound are central to the consumer experience and are hiring accordingly.

So we’ve designed this program to help students develop the skills and creativity needed to capitalize on those opportunities in the real world.”

Designed for strong music students with interests in composition, music production, electronic music, and recording, the Music for New Media program will introduce students to the fundamentals of music’s function within visual media. They will learn to work in industry-standard programming environments and complete sound design projects that model professional work.

The program culminates with an individual capstone project, equivalent to a recital given by a performance major.

“With the capstone projects, students will really be encouraged

to leverage the broad spectrum of unique collaborations that are possible across divisions at Johns Hopkins University,” says Scott Metcalfe, director of Recording Arts and Sciences and one of the architects of the new program. “Our Hopkins colleagues in engineering, in the arts and sciences, even in medicine and mental health are all doing work in these areas.”

In addition to cross-divisional relationships, faculty in the program expect to engage regularly with sound designers, software developers, and other professionals working in the field. This will include bringing guest presenters to campus to share their insights and expertise, as well as creating opportunities for students to gain hands-on experience in realworld settings.

Potential career paths for Music for New Media graduates include composing and sound design for conventional and interactive media formats, such as virtual and augmented reality, video games, and narrative video, as well as creating and deploying sound and audio effects for entertainment software products and for movies and TV. “What’s really exciting about new media is how quickly it continues to evolve and produce,” Dolby concludes.

“Really cool new worlds are opening up all the time, and Peabody students will be ready to explore them.”

—— Tiffany Lundquist

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Watch Thomas Dolby introduce the Music for New Media program: goo.gl/zv9b1r PEABODY FALL 2017

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Columbia Pro Cantare 2017 - 2018 SEASON Frances Motyca Dawson, Director Saturday, October 21, 2017 – 8 PM

Carmina Burana Kimberly Christie, soprano Rob McGinness, baritone David Dickey, counter-tenor Women of Wilde Lake High School Alison Gatwood & Erik Apland, pianos Percussion Jim Rouse Theatre, Columbia

Sunday, December 3, 2017 – 7:30 PM

Handel’s Messiah Amy van Roekel, soprano Leah Serr, mezzo Charles Reid, tenor Steven Eddy, baritone Henry Lowe, positiv organ Festival Orchestra Jim Rouse Theatre, Columbia

Sunday, December 10, 2017 – 3 PM

“A Christmas Noël” with the CPC Chamber Singers Christ Episcopal Church, Columbia

Sunday, March 18, 2018 – 4 PM

“Sing into Spring” Handel’s Harp Concerto, Op. 4, No. 6 Brahms Motets Mozart, Stephen Paulus Jacqueline Pollauf, harp Donald Fries, organ Howard County Concert Orchestra String Quartet First Evangelical Lutheran Church, Ellicott City

Saturday, May 5, 2018 – 8 PM

“Over There: Music of World War I” Cohen, Ravel, Butterworth and others who lived through the “Great War” show the range of emotion and experiences through song.

The Lexington Brass Quintet Jim Rouse Theatre, Columbia Tickets and information: www.procantare.org Or call 410-799-9321

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PEABODY FALL 2017

Changing the Culture Around Injury This fall, with the opening of the Peabody Clinic for Performing Artists, students and faculty gained easy access to an on-campus resource for assessment, treatment, and therapy for the injuries and conditions associated with their art.

The Peabody community, as a whole, gained an opportunity to change the culture around those injuries.

“For too long, musicians and dancers have learned to play through the pain. There’s been a stigma attached to admitting that you’re hurt,” says Sarah Hoover (DMA '08, Voice), associate dean for innovation, interdisciplinary partnerships, and community initiatives. “We have to change that, and our biggest goal with this clinic is to create a safe space where we can empower musicians to get the care they need to continue to do what they love.”

A component of the new, multidisciplinary Johns Hopkins Center for Music and Medicine, the Peabody Clinic brings together the expertise of Peabody musicians with Johns Hopkins Medicine’s neurologists, specialists from the Johns Hopkins Voice Center, and Johns Hopkins Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation therapists.

The interdisciplinary nature of the team is key to an innovative model that allows for comprehensive evaluation of each patient. Onsite assessment and therapy, as well as referrals for specialized treatment, are offered for movement disorders like dystonia; performance-related musculoskeletal disorders; neuromuscular conditions; otological issues, such as hearing loss; voice disorders; and mental health concerns. Preventive screenings and instrument-specific fitness classes are also offered.

The location of the clinic — on the first floor of the Cottage in the Wellness Center — is meant both to make it easy to visit, and to send a visual, brick-and-mortar signal that it’s okay to seek help.

Sarah Thomas (BM ’17, Violin) tests her grip strength at the Peabody Clinic.

Accompanying the opening of the Peabody Clinic, the first annual Wellness Immersion Week in early September welcomed students to campus with programming designed to prevent, recognize, and manage occupational health challenges. Workshops and trainings were provided on topics including practice strategies, anatomy and movement for instrumentalists and singers, body alignment, warming up, stress management and mental health, general fitness, and steps to take in the event of an injury. Presenters included Peabody and Johns Hopkins faculty as well as guests with expertise in these areas.

“It was important that we remove as many barriers as possible — be it lack of transportation, lack of time, or lack of awareness,” says Hoover. “For that we needed an actual, physical space, here on campus, where students, faculty, and others needing treatment will feel welcome and supported.”

The Peabody Clinic for Performing Artists is open to all musicians and dancers, whether affiliated with Peabody or not. To make an appointment, call 410-583-2664 and state that you would like to be seen at the Peabody location.

—— Tiffany Lundquist

Watch the Musicians’ Health and Wellness Seminar Series: goo.gl/dtyHHo

In Step with Advances in Dance Pedagogy Gabriella, an 8-year-old from Delaware, may not have known the names of guest faculty at Peabody Dance’s 2016 Day of Master Classes — but the teachers observing the Elementary Ballet session certainly did. The young dancer was able to attend free of charge while her regular instructor observed the class, learning pacing techniques, foundational pedagogy, and fresh technical corrections from masters in the dance field.

Historically, dance teachers teach the next generation of dancers the same way they were taught. But today that’s changing. Continuing advances in research and knowledge about the biomechanics and physical well-being of dancers makes continuing education a necessary part of dance education. That’s why every fall since 2003, Peabody Dance has offered this combination of performance master

classes and continuing education seminars for dance professionals.

The first portion of the day is broken up into master classes for serious ballet students, ages 8 through young adult. Students can select one or two sessions focusing on intermediate or advanced ballet, pointe, men’s ballet, or partnering.

Adults observe the full morning of master classes before attending an afternoon of demonstration-discussions covering topics such as “Communicating Beauty: The Essence of Classical Ballet,” and “Turn-Out: Theory, Practices, and History.” Active participation is not only encouraged: it’s required.

In the past dozen years, this annual event has expanded from just 28 students to more than 200 participants from four states along the East Coast. Local students come recommended from Baltimore School

for the Arts, George Washington Carver Center for the Arts and Technology, Towson University, Ballet Theatre of Maryland, and the Dance Conservatory of Maryland.

Guest artists bring experience from the National Dance Education Organization, New York City Ballet, Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet, and other elite troupes and programs.

Past guests have included Rafael Grigorian, Rhodie Jorgenson, Marcia Dale Weary, and Anna-Marie RabassiDavis, who will be returning this fall.

The 2017 Day of Master Classes and Ballet Seminar: Seeing the Music, will take place on Sunday, October 8. Guest faculty include Anna-Marie Rabassi-Davis, Rafael Grigorian, and Norma Pera.

—— Katy Pretz For more information, please visit peabody.jhu.edu/dancemc.

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PEABODY FALL 2017

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The BSO-Peabody Conducting Fellows: Where Are They Now? Launched in the 2007-08 season in partnership with the League of American Orchestras, the BSO-Peabody Conducting Fellowship is a unique, one-year program designed to provide exceptionally talented conductors in the early stages of their careers an opportunity to hone their skills before assuming a professional role. With Joseph Young’s Peabody appointment, we were prompted to check in with all of the Fellows to see how their careers have developed.

ILYICH RIVAS AD ’11, Conducting • conducted the YouTube Orchestra at the Sydney Opera House in 2011 • made his official debut at the Royal Festival Hall with the London Philharmonic Orchestra in 2014 • active career leading both symphonies and opera on many of Europe's most prestigious stages LEE MILLS GPD ’11, AD ’12, Conducting • resident conductor of the Orquestra Sinfonica Brasileira • winner of the Solti Foundation U.S. 2014 Career Assistance Award • assistant conductor of the National Youth Orchestra of the United States in 2014 ALEXANDRA ARRIECHE AD ’13, Conducting • first female music director of the Henderson (Nev.) Symphony Orchestra • principal conductor of “Night of the Proms” MICHAEL REPPER DMA candidate • music director of the New York Youth Symphony at Carnegie Hall • music director of the Northern Neck Orchestra in Virginia • assistant conductor of the Concert Artists of Baltimore • managing director of the Chamber Music Society of Maryland • music director of the Baltimore Basilica GONZALO FARIAS current fellow and GPD student • served as music director of the Joliet Symphony Orchestra in Illinois • studied at the Jarvi Academy under the mentorship of Paavo and Neeme Jarvi • attended the Pierre Monteux School for Conductors, where he was awarded the Osher Scholar Prize

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PEABODY FALL 2017

WILL KIRK/HOMEWOODPHOTO.JHU.EDU

Joseph Young Tapped as Artistic Director of Ensembles Peabody alumnus Joseph Young (AD ’09, Conducting), who in 2007 became the first recipient of the Baltimore Symphony OrchestraPeabody Conducting Fellowship, has been named the Ruth Blaustein Rosenberg Artistic Director of Ensembles at the Peabody Conservatory following an international search. In this role, Young will lead the programming and direction of all Conservatory instrumental ensembles. In addition, he will work with Marin Alsop, music director of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, who leads Peabody’s graduate conducting program.

Most recently, Young served as the assistant conductor of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, conducting more than 50 concerts per season, including programs on the classical series, family concerts, and various other concerts geared toward specific audiences in the community. He also served as the music director of the

Atlanta Symphony Youth Orchestra, where he was the driving force behind the ensemble’s artistic growth.

Young’s appointment comes as the Conservatory launches the new Breakthrough Curriculum in Music Leadership this fall, a model at the forefront of arts training in the United States (See story on p. 10).

He will oversee a new instrumental ensembles program developed as part of the curriculum, which is designed to move students through a rotation of varied ensemble experiences to ensure training across a range of performing contexts, musical styles, and ensemble configurations.

“Joseph Young is exactly the right leader to shape Peabody’s reimagined ensembles program and create excellent, meaningful, relevant, and diverse performance opportunities for our students,” says Dean Bronstein. “His artistry and energy on the podium will engage and

Hilary Hahn Headlines Commencement inspire both our student performers and Baltimore audiences. And his keen understanding of the varied roles artists and ensembles must play in communities today is a quality critical to the success of 21st-century musicians and music organizations.”

Young earned his bachelor’s degree in music education at the University of South Carolina and completed graduate studies with Gustav Meier and Markand Thakar at the Peabody Conservatory in 2009, earning an artist diploma in conducting.

He made his major American orchestral debut in 2008 with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, returned to the Baltimore Symphony in 2016-17, and also conducted the Peabody Concert Orchestra.

He is a recipient of the 2015 Solti Foundation U.S. Career Assistance Award for young conductors, an award he also won in 2008 and 2014. In 2013, he was a semifinalist in the Gustav Mahler International Conducting Competition. In 2011, he was one of six conductors featured in the League of American Orchestras’ prestigious Bruno Walter National Conductor Preview. He has been mentored by many world-renowned conductors, including Jorma Panula, Robert Spano, and Marin Alsop (who selected him as the first BSO-Peabody Conducting Fellow), with whom he continues to maintain a close relationship.

“It is an honor for me to join the outstanding artist-faculty of the Peabody Conservatory at this very exciting time,” notes Young about his appointment. “I look forward to working with the students, faculty, and leadership at Peabody to develop outstanding, flexible, engaged citizen-musicians and to make music that resonates with our communities.”

Young’s premiere appearance as the Ruth Blaustein Rosenberg Artistic Director of Ensembles took place on September 19, when he led the Peabody Chamber Orchestra in Dvořák’s Othello Overture and works

by Handel and Schubert.

—— Tiffany Lundquist

WILL KIRK/HOMEWOODPHOTO.JHU.EDU

Internationally renowned violinist Hilary Hahn, who began her violin studies as a child at the Peabody Preparatory, returned to Peabody as this year’s commencement speaker on May 23 in Miriam A. Friedberg Concert Hall.

“In my mind, I’m still an 8-yearold Prep kid,” she told the crowd assembled for the Conservatory’s 135th graduation exercises, where one Performer’s Certificate, 86 Bachelor of Music degrees, 106 Master of Music degrees, 11 Master of Arts degrees, 22 Graduate Performance Diplomas, two Artist Diplomas, and 9 Doctor of Musical Arts degrees were conferred.

“Music is and should be very much about serving others,” Hahn went on to say. “We do our best for the composer, for the audience, for education.

We donate our time, share our love for our art, and we try to create things of beauty for other people. This, in turn, often gives us happiness.”

Piano faculty member Alexander Shtarkman, who has been on the Conservatory faculty since 2002, was awarded the Johns Hopkins University Alumni Association Excellence in Teaching Award.

“I am rewarded with my dear, wonderful, talented, motivated, curious, tirelessly working students,” he said in accepting the award. “We learn together and from each other.

And I’m grateful to you for all the music we’ve studied, all the discoveries we’ve made, all the ideas we’ve

conceived.” He said his teachers taught him everything: “the fundamentals of our profession and secrets of our craft but more importantly they taught me that what we do is larger than a profession or a craft. It is larger than life.”

Between speeches were performances by Peabody graduates and students including Marquee Brass performing both Edward Elgar’s Pomp and Circumstance and Robert Martin’s Mercia Brass Quintet No. 7, “Arrival of the King.” Graduating students performed works by Benjamin Godard and Franz Liszt.

In his commencement remarks, Dean Bronstein updated the audience on the strides made under the Breakthrough Plan in the areas of community engagement, Music and Medicine, new programs, and diversity. “We build on our tradition of excellence but understand that we must be in and of the community: the university community, the civic life of Baltimore, and the international community,” he said. “We have a major role to play, and with all its accomplishments of the last 160 years, I am sure that Peabody’s best days are ahead, and yours as graduates and the future of our art form are as well.”

—— Margaret Bell Watch the commencement ceremony: goo.gl/x8qLi9 PEABODY FALL 2017

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PEABODY FALL 2017

Out of the Practice Room…

And Into the World Rolling out this fall, Peabody’s new Breakthrough Curriculum promises a bold culture shift for the Conservatory’s students and faculty.

By Richard Byrne Illustrations by Eva Vázquez

WHEN new students arrived at Peabody this fall, they became part of a continuing pursuit of artistic excellence that began in 1857. Yet these students also find themselves on a new journey, as the oldest conservatory in the United States embarks upon one of the boldest redesigns of a music curriculum in recent memory.

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Peabody’s new Breakthrough Curriculum in Music Leadership will challenge all students to embrace new repertoires, navigate the social and economic currents of artistry, and help build community through specific musical outreach in Baltimore and beyond.

The Breakthrough Curriculum is an ambitious and mandatory new track of study, empowering students to acquire tools essential to their professional and personal development as artists performing for wider audiences. It also asks students to broaden their range of ensemble experience, increasing their musical flexibility by rotating instrumentalists through a range of different ensemble formats. These include the new Peabody Chamber Orchestra, performing music ranging from — Joe Burgstaller, the Baroque and early Peabody Trumpet Faculty Classical eras to con­ temporary works for smaller orches­tral forces, and the Peabody Studio Orchestra, performing works ranging from film scores to typical pops-oriented programming.

“Peabody is uniquely positioned to actually take the step of fully integrating these ideas into the curriculum because of its strong history,” says Fred Bronstein, dean of the Peabody Institute. “Our base is so strong. We have the goods. And we also come by it honestly. Peabody was founded as a broad-based, holistic, cultural center.”

Joseph Polisi, president of The Juilliard School and a key voice in reimagining arts education, sees Peabody’s curriculum revamp as a strong institutional response to pervasive technological and economic shifts affecting professional musicians.

“The needs of our graduates have changed significantly in a digital world,” says Polisi, whose 2005 book, The Artist as Citizen, helped define the concept of “citizen-artistry” that is a foundation of the new curriculum. “The ability of our graduates to speak in public, to write effectively, and to understand the sociological, political, and economic contexts in which they live — and in which their art exists — is probably a more important factor than it’s ever been.”

Those involved in the effort acknowledge that sweeping changes involve risks. But they also believe that the Conservatory’s heritage of excellence built over 160 years is a firm foundation to pursue bold change.

“There is a need to be entrepreneurial in your career as an artist,” says Scott Metcalfe, director of Recording Arts and Sciences at Peabody. “I think this curriculum goes a long way in helping students recognize that.”

"I look at this as our moonshot. It’s an entire culture shift that will add to our core strengths."

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“I look at this as our moonshot,” says Joe Burgstaller, an international soloist who teaches trumpet and brass chamber music. “It’s an entire culture shift that will add to our core strengths.”

Ah Young Hong (BM '98, MM '01, Voice), voice faculty artist, believes the new curriculum will empower all students to take the risks required in a moment of shifting demands and expectations for musicians. “I was afraid of some repertoire more than others,” she observes, “and I have kicked myself for not exploring sooner. I learned the hard way to deal with contracts and negotiations. It is as if I have gone through my own personal ‘Breakthrough Curriculum’ over a long period of time.”

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The institute’s new curriculum was designed by task forces comprising students, staff, and faculty, including Melcalfe, Burgstaller, and Hong. And it’s no accident that the curriculum embodies a number of elements in Bronstein’s Four Pillars plan, which emphasizes concepts of excellence, interdisciplinary experiences, innovation, and community connectivity. Another key factor driving the change: the “student outcomes” at the center of so many vital discussions across American higher education in 2017.

Peabody and the other great conservatories in the United States embrace the idea that intensive training produces extraordinary artistry. Yet as opportunities available in traditional orchestras and other ensembles narrow, many conservatory graduates must redefine what constitutes a rewarding and fulfilling career in music.

A much-discussed article published in The New York Times in 2004 tracked the trajectories of a number of 1994 Juilliard graduates, and the results jolted music educators. While some of those instrumentalists surveyed had gone on to distinguished performance careers, more than 25 percent had left professional music entirely, and others were struggling.

“Those students were trained in the model where they were all going to walk out into professional piano careers, orchestra careers, singing careers, and when they didn’t, they often felt like failures,” says Peabody’s Abra Bush, senior associate dean of institute studies and one of the major architects of the new curriculum.

Yet while the traditional path to full-time performance careers has narrowed over the past few decades, new vistas for conservatory graduates are opening up, including careers that marry performance with arts advocacy, teaching, administration, audience development, and fundraising.

Offered during the junior year, the implement module of the Breakthrough Curriculum intends to bring student-created work directly into the community, similar to the mission of the Peabody String Sinfonia.

John Kieser, executive vice president and provost of New World Symphony, America’s Orchestral Academy, says that acknowledging the potential new arc of professional music careers is vital for students and faculty. His organization has crafted a vigorous and highly competitive postgraduate program to train future musical leaders — a program that helps map out opportunities in this shifting environment.

“The fellows start understanding their role as a musician is not going to be what their teacher’s career was,” says Kieser. “One thing we talk about a lot is how can faculty understand that their students’ lives are not going to be like their lives — and how can they help prepare their students for a different kind of world?”

Arts organizations that seek to survive and thrive need accomplished artists not only as performers but as advocates and leaders who will help shape the future of music.

“The people who run performing arts organizations are literally begging for the training of musicians to change,” Bronstein observes. “The acquisition of new 21st-century skills is important but more important is the mindset. That’s what has to change. We as musicians are all in the audience-development business, and we can’t grow audiences unless we do something differently and think broadly about our role.”

POISED t o LAUNCH Peabody’s new four-year track begins in freshman year with a course (explore) that introduces students to key concepts of community, citizen-artistry, and leadership. The one-credit class brings students into contact with career models and potential mentors, and acquaints them with Baltimore’s artistic community.

A network of mentors, classes with collaborative cohorts of 15 to 20 students, as well as the addition of online courses, will propel the next class in the track.

The build course, offered during the sophomore year, will give students a chance to develop, test, and assess their ideas on citizen-artistry and performance in increasingly complex settings. Online courses will impart fundamental skills and best practices in programming for diverse audiences, covering elements that may include programming of a concert, site selection, and marketing the event.

The mandatory track concludes in junior year with implement — a class in which small groups of students will undertake the planning and production of a community-based music project. The course encompasses preparation of programs and execution of formal agreements, as well as professional performance and analysis. The intention is to draw together all elements of the curriculum and bring studentcreated work directly into the community.

“The students will be influencing the way this looks,” says Burgstaller. “Going out into the community, they are going to be leading the charge and developing their own programs. What will they create that we could never have foreseen?”

A final optional course for students who want deeper immersion in citizen-artistry will be offered during the senior year. The launch module opens up a range of competitive, stipend-supported residencies and fellowships to students, including opportunities created in tandem with established programs such as Young Audiences of Maryland and the new Center for Music and Medicine.

Learn more about Peabody’s new curriculum: goo.gl/HKUxHJ PEABODY FALL 2017

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FILLING GAPS a n d FINDING BALANCE

“It’s my hope that students will leave here equipped with the habits of mind to leave a lasting legacy in their communities,” says Bush. “They will continue to be trained at the highest level of performance, but they will as a group go out into the world and have an impact in a way that we perhaps have not expected in the past.”

The mandatory aspect of the new curriculum is key, says Bronstein. “Many schools have developed programs, but they aren’t integrated into what the students are doing. They are optional. They are on the side. Whatever we were going to do, it needed to be practical, and it needed to be integrated across the board.”

A number of Peabody alumni have been strong voices for these changes, and they are bringing their own experiences to the discussion. An alumni survey conducted in 2016 found that more than 80 — Fred Bronstein, percent of alumni Dean valued skills in communication and audience development as important aspects of their work as professional musicians. But the data shows a significant gap between the reality of professional life and the training they received at Peabody in these areas.

Matthew Rupcich (BM ’90, Music Education), immediate past president of the Society of Peabody Alumni and alumni representative on the Peabody Curriculum for the Future Task Force, says he welcomes the addition of coursework in networking, community building, technology, and public speaking that was not available in his era at the Conservatory.

“I wish I’d had that kind of experience when I was at Peabody,” he says.

Rupcich adds that the goal is not simply “moving the Conservatory into the 21st century,” but also an understanding of “how to be a strong, positive musician. There is so much more to it now than excellence in your instrument.”

"We as musicians are all in the audiencedevelopment business, and we can’t grow audiences unless we do something differently and think broadly about our role."

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The trick in revamping music curriculum for students at the highest level is to innovate while still conserving the values and methods embedded in the notion of a “conservatory.”

Bronstein says the Conservatory’s continuing commitment to performance excellence remains central to the mission. “There’s no shortcut to that,” he says.

“You have to do the work.”

But making notions of community, citizen-artistry, and entrepreneurialism a mandatory part of the curriculum expansion, he adds, is an explicit rejection of what he calls a “false choice” between a singular focus on excellence and acquisition of other key skills. “There is an idea that if you broaden the context, you’re somehow compromising on excellence,” he says. “But it’s not either/or. It’s both/and.”

Kieser agrees that even music students reaching for the loftiest pinnacles of artistry will find changing expectations of excellence having a significant impact on their careers. “As far as I’m concerned this should start in the Preparatory division,” he says.

He believes auditions should be supplemented by interviews that explore other ways musicians will be able to contribute to the organization. He adds that Peabody’s new curriculum has the potential to mark out the institute’s graduates as especially equipped to navigate shifting currents in professional music.

“You need to be at the top of your game as an instrumentalist, but it’s more than that. You need to be a whole person and generous of spirit as well,” he says.

For Bronstein, the new curriculum’s insistence that students bring their work to the community is key. “The challenge for any school — and the challenge for Peabody — is that we’re well thought of, but we’re an icon on a hill,” he says. “We’re trying to open that up. To send the message that Peabody is an asset that the community can participate in. So the Breakthrough Curriculum is actually a kind of two-way street with the community. Students bring their talents to communities, and in doing so, are deepening those skills.”

Bronstein observes that the curriculum will continue an ongoing dialogue within Peabody and in the larger community about the power of music. He expects that conversation to be enlarged and refined by all of its participants.

“People imagine that when you change things they will be there for the next hundred years,” says Bronstein. “But actually I see this curriculum as a living roadmap, letting it grow, evolve, and be organic.”

Predicts Burgstaller, “The Breakthrough Curriculum will serve to raise our standards. Once we stop solely focusing on notes and include focusing on the relationship with our audience, we actually don’t miss as many notes.”

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DAVID LANE

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Reporting by Margaret Bell, Sue De Pasquale, and Tiffany Lundquist

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AFFILIATION ‌ History was made 40 years ago, when the Peabody Conservatory officially affiliated with Johns Hopkins University, greatly enriching the impact of both institutions and creating exciting new opportunities for students and faculty. To celebrate the anniversary of this partnership, we bring you an A to Z guide that highlights the myriad ways Peabody, Johns Hopkins, and the world have benefited from the unique union forged four decades ago.

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AFFILIATION:

Upon the inauguration of Daniel Coit Gilman as the first president of the Johns Hopkins University in 1876, the Peabody Board of Trustees adopted a resolution proposing an affiliation between the two institutions at the earliest possible time. It took more than 100 years — and ultimately was the work of Johns Hopkins President Steven Muller, who broached the idea of affiliation after Peabody Director Richard Franko Goldman went public with news of the institute’s dire financial situation. In July 1977, the university agreed to take over day-to-day administration of Peabody and throw its significant weight behind fundraising efforts for the school. Peabody faculty became faculty of Johns Hopkins, and all Conservatory students became Hopkins students “with the same rights, privileges, and services.” An editorial in The Baltimore Sun concluded, “The Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University will be a name of which both institutions can be proud.”

COURTESY OF THE PEABODY ARCHIVES

Muller, left, and Goldman

A Pop-Up concert in downtown Baltimore

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BALTIMORE SCHOLARS:

The Johns Hopkins program, established in 2004, recognizes high-achieving Baltimore City public school graduates with full-tuition scholarships. In 2016, the program expanded to include room and board and other fees. To date, some 25 students have attended Peabody under the Baltimore Scholars program.

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Learn more about the Baltimore Scholars: goo.gl/fc5d4H

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COMMUNITY:

In his Ten by Twenty Strategic Vision for the university, Johns Hopkins President Ronald J. Daniels prioritizes “Commitment to Our Communities,” with the goal of making Johns Hopkins the “exemplar of a globally engaged, urban university.” Similarly, Peabody Dean Fred Bronstein highlights community connectivity as one of the Four Pillars of the Breakthrough Plan for Peabody and a critical component of the training of 21st-century artists. This shared priority is being realized across greater Baltimore through a variety of programs and initiatives including: HopkinsLocal, Peabody Pop-Ups, and the revitalization of the Station North Arts and Entertainment District.

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Watch Peabody students perform Pop-Up Concerts at locations around the city: goo.gl/aVVCTD

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DOUBLE DEGREE:

Each year a handful of enterprising students pursue both a Bachelor of Music degree from Peabody and either a BA degree from the Krieger School of Arts and Sciences or a BS degree from the Whiting School of Engineering.

It’s a rigorous road — combining the daily practice regimen of a Conservatory student and the high academic expectations of Johns Hopkins — and only three to five students decide to follow this path annually.

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EXCELLENCE:

One of the Four Pillars of Peabody’s Breakthrough Plan as articulated by Dean Fred Bronstein (the other pillars are Interdisciplinary Experiences, Innovation, and Community Connectivity), excellence lies at the core of the mission of both Peabody and Johns Hopkins University. The proof, as they say, is in the pudding: in the seemingly endless stream of alumni who go on to be leaders in their fields; in the renowned prizes and honors (think: Nobel, Grammy, Pulitzer, Fulbright) earned by faculty; and by the young people who distinguish themselves — even while students — by advancing discovery and creativity at the highest levels.

WILL KIRK/HOMEWOODPHOTO.JHU.EDU

"Cathedral of books" NORM BARKER

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GEORGE PEABODY LIBRARY:

Formerly the Library of the Peabody Institute of the City of Baltimore, this visually stunning “cathedral of books” opened in 1878 and features more than 300,000 volumes contained in five tiers of ornamental cast iron balconies that rise dramatically to a skylight 61 feet above the floor. Reflecting the scholarly interests of the 19th century, the library consists of a non-circulating general reference collection on virtually every subject — except music. In 1982, the collection transferred to Johns Hopkins University, and today it is part of the Special Collections Department of the university’s Sheridan Libraries.

Hersch, left, with Daniels

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FRONTIER AWARD:

Launched in 2015 by Johns Hopkins President Daniels, the President’s Frontier Award provides $250,000 in funding to help one faculty member each year move forward with innovative work. Last January, Peabody composer and pianist Michael Hersch (BM ’95, MM ’97, Composition) — whose groundbreaking work has been performed worldwide — learned that he was the 2017 faculty recipient. “This will be transformative. I’ll be able to do things that were just simply not conceivable without the kind of support that this will allow,” says Hersch, who heads Peabody’s Composition Department and whose first opera, On the Threshold of Winter, is being performed in several U.S. cities this year.

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HENDERSON-HOPKINS SCHOOL:

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Johns Hopkins University was instrumental in the creation of Elmer A. Henderson: A Johns Hopkins Partnership School — East Baltimore’s first new public school in more than 20 years — providing funding for construction and operation and managing the day-to-day operations at the school under the auspices of the School of Education. Since 2016, the Henderson-Hopkins School has served as a home base for the Peabody Community Chorus, which brings together adults of all ages and backgrounds to make music.

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INTERDISCIPLINARY PARTNERSHIPS:

Collaboration across divisions has taken off at Johns Hopkins, and Peabody faculty are capitalizing on the fruits of cross-divisional teamwork. With funding from a 2016 Johns Hopkins Discovery Award, for example, Peabody’s Sarah Hoover (DMA ’08, Voice), associate dean for innovation, interdisciplinary partnerships, and community initiatives, is working with investigators from the School of Medicine and School of Nursing to examine whether patients and caregivers, singing side by side in organized sessions, can improve quality of life for dementia patients.

Read about Peabody’s collaboration with the Center for Music and Medicine: goo.gl/bDmW1Z

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KRIEGER SCHOOL:

Collaboration between Peabody and the Krieger School of Arts and Sciences gives both institutions an important new presence in Baltimore’s exploding Station North Arts and Entertainment District. Inside the recently renovated Centre Theatre complex (home to the Hopkins-MICA Film Center), Peabody recording arts students work side by side with Krieger School film students in the Sound on Film course. “It’s a great way for students to not only learn their side of the craft but also experience what the other roles involve,” says Scott Metcalfe, director of Peabody’s Recording Arts and Sciences program, now housed in the new complex. “There’s no other university that has this capacity with recording arts, composition, and film,” says Hollis Robbins (KSAS BA '83, Writing Seminars), Peabody Liberal Arts Department faculty member.

NED BURGESS

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JAZZ STUDIES OF THE BRAIN:

Double degree students Jonathan Mo, studying saxophone and neuroscience, and Nathaniel McKeever, studying jazz trumpet and materials science and engineering, wondered how preparation with improvisation affects creativity. So, they are using a Peabody Dean’s Incentive Grant to test the hypothesis that jazz musicians given the opportunity to prepare an improvisation would perform significantly differently than those asked to improvise on the spot. Preliminary results of their study are expected this fall.

Jonathan Mo, left, and Nathaniel McKeever Fleisher

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LEON FLEISHER:

This luminary faculty artist, conductor, and pianist has been a part of the Peabody community for more than 50 years. As a recipient of the Kennedy Center Honors in 2007, he was recognized as a "consummate musician whose career is a testament to the life-affirming power of art."

In 2015, in recognition of his artistic and academic accomplishments, Fleisher was awarded an honorary degree from Johns Hopkins.

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Watch Leon Fleisher conducting the Peabody Symphony Orchestra: goo.gl/NWd9vT

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MUSIC FOR NEW MEDIA:

Building on its historical strengths in Composition and Recording Arts and the wide spectrum of potential collaborations possible across Johns Hopkins disciplines, Peabody recently launched a Music for New Media degree program, which will prepare students to compose and produce music for computer games, virtual and augmented reality, and other emerging platforms. (See story, p. 5.)

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NEW MUSIC:

Johns Hopkins resources and relationships help create an environment at Peabody where new music thrives. The university’s Catalyst awards, which provide funding to early career faculty innovators, have supported both Peabody composer Kevin Puts’ 2015 work The City (Symphony No. 5), co-commissioned by the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and Carnegie Hall, and composition faculty member Oscar Bettison’s forthcoming violin concerto for faculty artist Courtney Orlando and her group Alarm Will Sound! When the Applied Physics Lab was planning its 75th anniversary celebrations, Kok Jun Phang (MM ’17, Composition) was selected through a Peabody student composition competition to write the soundtrack for a commemorative video.

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OCTOPODES:

Johns Hopkins’ oldest a cappella group exemplifies Peabody student involvement and impact in the Homewood musical community. Peabody students who have recently performed in the contemporary music singing group include its board members Nicholas Bentz, Kasey Cwynar-Foye, Jonathan Mo, and Kahler Suzuki.

Another Homewood-based performance group, the Hopkins Symphony Orchestra, is led by Peabody alumnus Jed Gaylin (DMA ’95, Conducting), and Homewood students regularly perform in the Peabody-Hopkins Chorus.

Watch the Octopodes perform their 2017 Spring Concert: goo.gl/bKYqde

Kahler Suzuki, center left, and the Octopodes executive team

HOMEWOODPHOTO.JHU.EDU

Orlando with Now Hear This

SOPHIA L. PORTER

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PEABODY AT HOMEWOOD:

Established in 2004, Peabody at Homewood is a center at the Krieger School of Arts and Sciences, led by Stephen Stone (MM '99, DMA '03, Composition), which offers a music minor taught entirely by Peabody faculty members. Faculty offer a variety of musicology and music theory courses on the Homewood campus.

Music is one of the most enrolled minors in the Hopkins undergraduate schools.

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SCHOLAR:

In 2011, Peabody musicologist Andrew Talle, a renowned Bach expert and accomplished cellist, was chosen as one of the 17 inaugural Gilman Scholars, named for Johns Hopkins’ first president, who was interested in promoting the highest standards of scholarship and research in the sciences and in the humanities.

Talle’s extensive research in Leipzig, Germany, on the influence that harpsichord and organ playing had on 18th-century social life, is captured in his recent book Beyond Bach: Music and Everyday Life in the Eighteenth Century.

INNOVATIVE SPORTS TRAINING, INC

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QUARTET:

While quartets of all kinds abound at the Conservatory, this particular foursome is not rooted in music but instead in philanthropy — philanthropy that dates back a century before Peabody’s 1977 affiliation. Johns Hopkins, George Peabody, Enoch Pratt, and William Walters were contemporaries and founders in the latter part of the 19th century of Baltimore’s major cultural and educational institutions. Today their namesakes — Johns Hopkins University, the Peabody Institute, Enoch Pratt Free Library, and the Walters Art Museum — continue to thrive as anchors of cultural life in Baltimore.

Watch the Peabody Institute celebrate the 150th anniversary of its dedication: goo.gl/NG6xb7

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RISING TO THE CHALLENGE CAMPAIGN:

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The $5 billion, university-wide fundraising campaign, launched in 2013, supports faculty, students, and clinicians across all of Johns Hopkins’ schools and divisions. To date, Peabody has raised more than half of its $75 million campaign goal to support scholarships, fellowships, faculty chairs, technological innovation, and community outreach.

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App developer Bastepe-Gray

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TECHNOLOGY:

Peabody ventured into the world of technology transfer with its first patent in January 2017, thanks to help from Johns Hopkins Technology Ventures. The Peabody SmartInstrument Series (PSI Series), developed by faculty artist Serap Bastepe-Gray (BM ’96, MM ’99, Guitar), is designed to measure how much force the fingers apply to the fingerboard or fretboard. In addition, faculty members Ken Johansen (MM '89, Piano) and Travis Hardaway received a grant from the Center for Educational Resources’ Technology Fellowship Program in 2012. Their ReadAhead app, now available in the AppStore, helps students become more fluent sight-readers.

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UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH:

For Peabody undergraduates, close ties with a major research university like Johns Hopkins open doors for funded investigations. Ben Swartz (KSAS BA ’12, MA ’12, History; BM ’12, Cello), for example, broke new ground in historical musicology, thanks to funding from a Woodrow Wilson Undergraduate Research Fellowship. Today Swartz tours (with a trio and Les Enfants d’Orphée) and teaches at the Community Music Center of Boston, where he passes along the rare expertise his fellowship gave him in historically informed performance practice.

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VENUES:

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WHITING SCHOOL OF ENGINEERING:

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Through Peabody’s unique, fiveyear Recording Arts and Sciences program, launched in 1983, students balance rigorous Conservatory music coursework with classes in electrical engineering at the Whiting School. When they finish, they’ve earned a dual degree in music or composition and in recording arts and sciences.

(Advanced studies are also available through a master’s program.) Not surprisingly, program grads prove highly employable, earning spots in recording studios, film and video game studios, public radio — and even the oil industry: Katie Walker (MA ’09, Audio Sciences), for example, has used her training in acoustics and recording to detect pipe and drum corrosion for ExxonMobil.

Thanks to Peabody’s connection to Johns Hopkins’ vast enterprise, student and alumni musicians get the opportunity to perform for audiences beyond Mt. Vernon. Through the Music on the Mezzanine Concert Series at the Carey Business School in Harbor East, for instance, Peabody musicians present late afternoon concerts several times a semester. The same series has brought student/alumni groups, such as the Atlas String Quartet, to concertize at Johns Hopkins’ Nitze School of Advanced International Studies in Washington, D.C. Closer to home, the Jazz at the Hopkins Club concert series has brought top jazz musicians to perform regularly at Homewood.

HOMEWOODPHOTO.JHU.EDU

Dean’s Concert Series at SAIS

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X-RAYS AND XYLOPHONES:

Baseline screenings for movement- and performance-related disorders will be easily accessible to musicians and dancers at the new Peabody Clinic for Performing Artists, which leverages Peabody’s partnership with School of Medicine clinicians and researchers to make it easier for performing artists to get the specialized health care they need. (For more, see the story on p. 6.)

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YONG SIEW TOH CONSERVATORY OF MUSIC:

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The Singapore Minister of Education wanted to add a music conservatory to its National University of Singapore (NUS) and looked to the strength of a school in a similar circumstance — one part of a larger university. Peabody partnered with NUS to found the conservatory in 2001.

Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music opened in 2003 and has quickly established a reputation as the most exciting international conservatory in Asia and one of the most distinctive in the world.

In 2011, Peabody and YSTCM announced a joint degree program, the first of its kind, in which students earn degrees from both Peabody and YSTCM. The presidents of the two universities — Ron Daniels of JHU and Tan Chorh Chuan of NUS — signed the joint degree agreement at a ceremony in Carnegie Hall.

WILL KIRK/HOMEWOODPHOTO.JHU.EDU

SOL GABETTA PERFORMS TCHAIKOVSKY

FRI, OCT 27 | 8 PM • SUN, OCT 29 | 3 PM Marin Alsop, Music Director Sol Gabetta, cello

MENDELSSOHN // A Midsummer Night's Dream Overture TCHAIKOVSKY // Variations on a Rococo Theme DEBUSSY // Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun R. STRAUSS // Der Rosenkavalier Suite

PINCHAS ZUKERMAN PERFORMS BACH

FRI, NOV 10 | 8 PM • SAT, NOV 11 | 8 PM Pinchas Zukerman, conductor and violin BACH // Violin Concerto in A Minor SCHOENBERG // Verklärte Nacht BEETHOVEN // Symphony No. 2 in D Major

ANDRÉ WATTS RETURNS FOR RACH 2

FRI, NOV 17 | 8 PM • SUN, NOV 19 | 3 PM Robert Spano, conductor André Watts, piano

CHRISTOPHER THEOFANIDIS // Dreamtime Ancestors ELGAR // Falstaff RACHMANINOFF // Piano Concerto No. 2 in C Minor

TICKETS

FROM $33

EXPLORE THE 2017-2018 SEASON BSOMUSIC.ORG | 410.783.8000

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ZUILL BAILEY:

Alumni A to Z with Peabody Conservatory diplomas have made their alma mater proud for more than 150 years and, for the last 40 years, those diplomas have also read Johns Hopkins University. Bailey (BM ’94, Cello) represents his fellow alumni well, having recently won two Grammy awards for a recording with the Nashville Symphony and recognition in 2014 from Hopkins with the JHU Distinguished Alumni Award.

JOSEPH MEYERHOFF SYMPHONY HALL

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Watch Zuill Bailey receiving the 2014 JHU Distinguished Alumni Award: goo.gl/BhxSwi

DEPA RTM ENT N EWS In this issue of the Peabody Magazine, you’ll notice a new approach to how we share Peabody student, faculty, and alumni news. Instead of an Applause section, which featured student and faculty news, and Class Notes, which featured alumni news, we’ve combined all of our exciting updates about members of the Peabody community into one news section. We’ve sorted this information by department to make it easier for you to find your colleagues and classmates. Please tell us what you think by emailing magazine@peabody.jhu.edu.

Beauty Slap — a group with Hakeem Bilal (BM ’10, Bass Trombone), Gabriel Colby (BM ’10, GPD ’12, Trombone), and Scott Nadelson (BM ’11, Trumpet) — was on CBS’s Pittsburgh Today Live on June 27 promoting their new project Thunderfunk Machine.

Also see Beauty Slap in VOCAL STUDIES NEW FACULTY

VELVET BROWN, tuba, is an international soloist, chamber ensemble performer, recording artist, conductor, and orchestral player. She has served as principal tuba with the River City Brass band in Pittsburgh and is a founding and current member of Stiletto Brass Quintet, and the Monarch Brass Quintet and Brass Ensemble.

The Melodica Men — Joe Buono (BM ’13, MM ’15, Bass Trombone) and Tristan Lane Clarke (’12, Trumpet) — were featured on ABC’s The Gong Show, a reboot of the popular TV talent show from the ’70s.

The Peabody trumpet studio and alumni were well represented at the International Trumpet Guild Conference in Hershey, Pa., this summer. Faculty artist Joe Burgstaller headlined a recital and was featured with Washington Symphonic Brass. Dontae Winslow (BM ’97, MM ’99, Trumpet) soloed and rapped with The United States Army Blues. Winslow also presented a clinic titled “How to Succeed and Monopolize Every Opportunity in the

Music Industry.” Elisa Koehler (BM ’87, Music Education, Trumpet; DMA ’96, Conducting), professor at Goucher College, presented lecture recital “Arban at the Opera.” David “Buddy” Deshler (MM ’17, Trumpet) and Joshua Ganger (MM ’14, Trumpet) both performed and presented modern music solo works at the International Trumpet Guild’s New Works Event. Deshler presented his commission of Stefan Schuck’s Sounds of the Wilderness for flugelhorn and string quartet. Ganger premiered the piano reduction version of his commission of James Stephenson’s Concerto for Piccolo Trumpet and Wind Ensemble.

Marquee Brass — DMA candidate Brandon Cave, trumpet; David Deshler (MM ’17, Trumpet); Samuel James Bessen (MM ’17, Horn); Ricson Poonin (MM ’16, GPD ’17, Trombone); Michael James Minor (MM ’17, Tuba) — was selected as one of five chamber groups to participate in Ensemble Connect’s Audience Engagement Institute, an eight-day series of tuitionfree workshops in Carnegie Hall’s Resnick Education Wing this June.

NEW FACULTY

See Nathan Royer in VOCAL STUDIES See Daniel Trahey in PREPARATORY Faculty members Denise Tryon, horn, and Joe Burgstaller, trumpet, performed and gave master classes this July as members of the Summit Brass at the Rafael Méndez Brass Institute in Denver, Colo.

See Elijah Wirth in PREPARATORY

C O M PO SITIO N See Judah Adashi in PIANO See Oscar Bettison in MUSIC THEORY Faculty artist Douglas Buchanan (MM ’08, Composition, Music Theory Pedagogy; DMA ’13, Composition) and Benjamin Buchanan (MM ’14, Composition; MM ’15, Music Theory Pedagogy), co-founders of Voices Rise: A Baltimore Choir of Hope, were included along with the choir in the WYPR podcast Out of the Blocks, produced by Aaron Henkin and Peabody faculty member Wendel Patrick. Voices Rise is a street choir, welcoming all individuals, particularly those experiencing homelessness and poverty, to make music together.

See Viet Cuong in PERCUSSION

Zach Gulaboff Davis, a DMA

SCOTT SUCHMAN

BR A S S

DAVID MURRAY is the second trombonist of the National Symphony Orchestra and a member of the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music. Some of his early training was at the Peabody Preparatory on both piano and trombone. His primary teachers were Blair Bollinger, John Marcellus, Ralph Sauer, and Christopher Dudley.

candidate studying composition, has been awarded the National Federation of Music Club’s Young Composers Award for his composition, Piano Trio No. 1.

Davis was also awarded second place in Southeastern Composers League’s 2017 Philip Slates Memorial Competition for Graduate Students for his composition, Sonata for Two Pianos, and an honorable mention in the National Association of Composers, USA Young Composer Competition for his solo piano work Nocturne.

PEABODY FALL 2017

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DEPA RTM ENT N EWS NEW FACULTY

GIORGIA FANELLI

DU YUN — born and raised in Shanghai, China, and currently based in New York — is a composer, multi-instrumentalist, performance artist, and curator, working at the intersection of orchestral, opera, chamber music, theatre, cabaret, pop music, oral tradition, visual arts, electronics, and noise. She is the winner of the 2017 Pulitzer Prize in Music, awarded for her opera Angel’s Bone.

The New York premiere of end stages by Composition Department Chair Michael Hersch (BM ’95, MM ’97, Composition), commissioned by the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, was performed by the group at Carnegie Hall on February 4.

Ben Kapilow (MM ’17, Composition) has

been appointed the new resident music director of Media Music Theatre Company in Media, Pa. He has written the score for three children’s musicals for the Media Theatre.

One of the three, Peter Pan and Wendy, won the Broadway World Best of Philadelphia Theatre Award for Best New Work.

Also see Marin Alsop in WOODWINDS

Brandon Keith Brown (MM ’11,

Composer FELIPE LARA’s work — which includes orchestral, chamber, vocal, film, electroacoustic, and popular music — engages in producing new musical contexts by means of (re) interpreting and translating acoustical and extra-musical properties of familiar source sonorities into project-specific forces. His music has been commissioned by leading soloists, ensembles, and institutions, such as Claire Chase, Brentano Quartet, and São Paulo Symphony Orchestra.

Composer Jake Runestad (MM ’11, Composition; MM ’12, Music Theory Pedagogy) was chosen for a McKnight Fellowship for Composers by the McKnight Foundation. The award, which includes $25,000 for each recipient, acknowledges excellence in the field of music composition.

See David Smooke in MUSIC THEORY VISITING COMPOSER

Amy Beth Kirsten (DMA ’10,

Composition) was recently appointed to the composition faculty at Longy School of Music at Bard College in Cambridge, Mass.

Faculty composer Kevin Puts’ string quartet Credo closed the Mimir Chamber Music Festival at Texas Christian University in Fort Worth, Texas, on July 13. Puts’ first chamber opera, titled Elizabeth Cree, was premiered by Opera Philadelphia, September 14–25. Mark Campbell, with whom Puts won the Pulitzer Prize for Silent Night in 2012, is the librettist.

Also see Kevin Puts in WOODWINDS See Christopher Rouse in WOODWINDS

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PEABODY FALL 2017

C O N DUC TIN G On March 8, Director of the Graduate Conducting Program Marin Alsop and Valentina Peleggi conducted the São Paulo Symphony Orchestra in a special live-streamed concert from São Paulo that featured the works of three female composers in celebration of International Women’s Day 2017.

HUGO GLENDINNING

NEW FACULTY

Conducting) conducted the Staatskapelle Weimar on July 1, in the Weimarhallenpark on the Seebuhne.

Thomas Fortner (GPD ’17, Conducting) has been named music director of the South Dakota Symphony Youth Orchestra (SDSYO) and assistant conductor for the South Dakota Symphony Orchestra beginning in the 2017–18 season.

Hopkins Symphony Orchestra’s Concert Orchestra, led by DMA conducting student Blair Skinner, presented a concert featuring Astor Piazolla’s Tres piezas para Orquestra da camera and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7 on February 19.

See Elisa Koehler in BRASS The Listening Lab, a former dean’s incentive grant project curated by conducting DMA candidate Rebecca Smithorn, has been adopted by the Baltimore Chamber Orchestra and the Johns Hopkins Social Innovation Lab. The Listening Lab is a music education program that teaches students concentration, awareness, and listening skills through a series of classroom sessions and live orchestra concerts.

G UITA R

NINA C. YOUNG draws equally from elements of the classical canon, modernism, spectralism, American experimentalism, minimalism, electronic music, and popular idioms. She is the winner of the 2015–16 Rome Prize in Musical Composition at the American Academy in Rome and has held several fellowships, including at the Aspen and Atlantic festivals.

Faculty artist Manuel Barrueco (BM ’75, Guitar) and the Beijing Guitar Duo’s — artist diploma candidate Meng Su (PC ’09, GPD ’11, MM ’16, Guitar; GPD ’15, Chamber Ensemble) and Yameng Wang (MM ’08, GPD ’11, Guitar) — performance in the MetLife Foundation Music of the Americas Concert Series in June was reviewed on the New York Concert Review website and their performance at the Cordoba Guitar Festival was reviewed by Spain’s Scherzo Magazine. Barrueco was interviewed in the June issue of Baltimore Magazine and reflected on music, performing, and his 25-year career at Peabody.

a 50-minute multimedia program titled Baltimore DIMENSIONS.

Anastasia Pike (MM ’07, Harp) pre-

sented a workshop at the American Harp Society’s Summer Institute in Northfield, Minn., in July. Pike also gave a recital as part of her harp and voice duo, the Élan Ensemble. On June 17, she led a workshop and performed at Wilmington Harp Day, sponsored by the Coastal Carolina Chapter of the American Harp Society.

FREE TO ALL Welcome to our 31st season of Music for All! Please join fellow music lovers from the Baltimore area for 16 FREE CONCERTS in the beautiful sanctuary of Second Presbyterian Church 4200 St. Paul Street Baltimore, MD 21218

Jacqueline Pollauf (BM ’06, Harp;

As winner of the 2016 Yale Gordon Concerto Competition, junior Junhong Kuang, a guitar student of Manuel Barrueco, performed in March at the Shriver Hall Concert Series and at the Chamber Music Society of Maryland.

In June, Jose Lezcano (BM ’81, Guitar) performed his double concerto for flute, guitar, and string orchestra, Sojourners, for the New York City and U.S. premiere with Lisa Hansen and the North-South Consonance Orchestra. Earlier in the concert season he premiered his Key West Suite in Munich, Germany, and Trnava, Slovakia.

See Ronn McFarlane in HISTORICAL PERFORMANCE

William Simms (MM ’91, Guitar) was featured on theorbo in the Capitol Hill Chamber Music Festival’s The Art of Modulation in August at the Baltimore Basilica.

HARP Peabody students Erin Baker, Olivia Castor, Peggy Houng (BM ’14, Harp; KSAS BA ’14, Cognitive Science), Melody Leung, Jessica Sudarta; and alumni Tianyang Chen (BM ’15, Harp; MM ’17, Harp/Pedagogy), Olivia Kim (BM ’15, MM ’17, Harp), and faculty artist Jasmine Hogan (BM ’11, AD ’16, Harp; MM ’14, Harp Pedagogy) played two full programs at the World Harp Congress in Hong Kong, July 7–13. On July 8, they performed a 90-minute presentation of new music in the USA International Harp Competition Composition Forum, a competition created and chaired by faculty artist Ruth Inglefield. The selections performed included a composition by Nathan Cornelius, doctoral candidate in guitar and master’s candidate in theory pedagogy. The second program was

MM ’07, Harp Pedagogy) is the founder, director, and sole instructor at the annual weeklong Baltimore Harp Camp, which offers children who are interested in honing their skills as harpists in a oneweek intensive day camp.

Students and faculty of HarpAdventures, a community engagement project by the members the Peabody Conservatory’s Harp Pedagogy class, performed at FlowerMart on May 6.

They also presented their annual spring recital on May 13 at Enoch Pratt Library Orleans Branch in Baltimore.

H I STO RI CA L PERF O RM A N C E (E ARLY MUSIC)

Pro Musica Rara, an early music ensemble, featuring faculty members Stephen Bard, Ivan Stefanovic, and Adam Pearl (BM ’99, Piano; MM ’01, DMA ’09, Harpsichord), and guest artist Paul Leenhouts, recorder, presented Bohemian Baroque on May 14 at the Baltimore Museum of Art. Faculty artist Mark Cudek (MM ’82, Lute) was featured on WYPR’s program Midday on June 16 with Julie Bosworth (MM '14, Early Music Voice) and Brian Kay (BM ’13, MM ’15, Lute). They performed Arabic, Christian, and Jewish music and spoke about the Words and Music of Three Faiths program, which took place on June 18 at Second Presbyterian Church in Baltimore.

The Peabody Consort repeated the music from this program at the Indianapolis Early Music Festival on June 25.

On July 13, Thrive Music at Jordan Faye Contemporary hosted a Finissage Party for Thrive and Jordan Faye. Wade Davis (MM ’11, GPD ’13, Baroque Violoncello) performed works by Bach, and master’s candidate Ledah Finck (BM ’16, Violin) performed solo works with voice.

SUNDAYS @7:30PM

CHAMBER MUSIC

BY CANDLELIGHT

Featuring members of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra

SEPT 17, 2017 OCT 15, 2017 NOV 5, 2017 JAN 28, 2018 MAR 11, 2018

SUNDAYS @3:30PM

SEPT 24, 2017

Felix Hell, Organ

OCT 8, 2017

Amadi Azikiwe, Viola

NOV 12, 2017 Robert Cantrell, Bass-Baritone

JAN 14, 2018

Philadelphia Brass

FEB 11, 2018

Alon Goldstein, Piano

For more information call 443.759.3309 or visit CommunityConcertsAtSecond.org

PEABODY FALL 2017

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DEPA RTM ENT N EWS Brian Kay (BM ’13, MM ’15, Lute) is the

co-director of Apollo’s Fire’s Mediterranean Roots program, with six performances in the Cleveland area, June 8–13. Kay also performed with Ronn McFarlane (’79, Guitar) in his group Ayreheart at this year’s Boston Early Music Festival on June 12.

JT Mitchell, a master’s candidate

studying baroque flute and harpsichord, presented a recital in collaboration with harpsichordist Gabriel Benton on April 30 at Grace and St. Peter’s Church in Baltimore.

An article by faculty artist John Moran titled "Baltimore Baroque Band: An Ensemble Grows" was featured in Early Music America.

JA ZZ Faculty artist Nasar Abadey was honored by the DC Jazz Leadership and Service Awards in celebration of International Jazz Day on April 30.

Vocalist Irene Jalenti (BM ’14, Jazz Voice) and her quartet presented a concert dedicated to the music of Thelonius Monk on June 15 at the Smithsonian American Art Museum.

Mark G. Meadows (BM ’11, GPD

’13, Jazz Piano; KSAS BA ’11, Psychology) has been appointed adjunct assistant professor of jazz at the Shenandoah Conservatory in Winchester, Va. Peabody faculty member Blake Meister (BM ’08, Jazz Double Bass) performed with NYC jazz guitarist Peter Mazza and D.C. guitarist Steve Herberman on July 19 at Baltimore’s An Die Musik.

LIBE R AL ARTS Faculty member Hollis Robbins (KSAS BA ’83, Writing Seminars) released a new book, The Portable Nineteenth-Century African American Women Writers, which opened at number one in New Releases in Classic American Literature. Robbins has also been named as a 2017–18 National Humanities Center Fellow.

MU S I C EDU CATION Faculty member Harlan D. Parker was the guest conductor for the Maryland All-State Community Band, which performed its fifth annual concert on August 6 at Marriotts Ridge High School.

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PEABODY FALL 2017

Rich Tilley (MM ’15, Music Education)

has been appointed as associate instructor for the Department of Music Education at Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music, where he is a candidate for the PhD in music education.

M USIC O LO GY NEW FACULTY

See Daniel Trahey in PREPARATORY See Elijah Wirth in PREPARATORY

MUS I C T H EO RY The results of a 2015 Discovery Award grant, "Identifying Psychedelic and NonPsychedelic Music Elements for Psilocybin Research” — by Peabody faculty members Oscar Bettison, Composition; Jenine Brown, Music Theory; Hollis Robbins (KSAS BA ’83, Writing Seminars), Liberal Arts; and David Smooke (MM ’95, Composition), Music Theory; with faculty members from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine’s Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Science — have been released on the Frontiers of Psychology website.

Music theory faculty member Jenine Brown and Nathan Cornelius, doctoral candidate in guitar and master’s candidate in theory pedagogy, presented their research at the national biennial meeting of the Society for Music Perception and Cognition this summer at the University of California, San Diego. The study investigates which chords are best remembered in a piece of music composed by Bartók.

See Douglas Buchanan in COMPOSITION

DAVID GUTKIN is a scholar of American and European music from the early 20th century through the present.

Gutkin’s research focuses on technologies of mediating music (from notation to television), theories of race and modernity, the history of globalization, and relationships between musical experience and historical memory.

Musicology faculty member David Hildebrand and former Peabody archivist Elizabeth Schaaf (’77, Voice) have written Musical Maryland: A History of Song and Performance from the Colonial Period to the Age of Radio which prominently features Peabody and is published

by Johns Hopkins Press.

NEW FACULTY

See Benjamin Buchanan in COMPOSITION See Gavin Farrell in PREPARATORY Music theory faculty member Joshua Fishbein and Chorus Austin are this year’s winner of the Dale Warland Singers Commission Award. In conjunction with this award, Fishbein will receive a $5,000 commission to compose a new choral work for Chorus Austin.

See Elisa Koehler in BRASS Music theory faculty member Ian Power and percussionist Eric Derr presented Home Drones: Music of Domesticity and Radiation for Percussion and Organ, a concert of immersive, intensive experimental music for electric organ, percussion, piano, electronics, and kitchen appliances in May at Peabody’s Centre Street Performance Studio.

See Jake Runestad in COMPOSITION

ANICIA TIMBERLAKE’s research focuses on musical citizenship: how political ideologies can come to be experienced in the body. Her current book, Political Education Beyond Words, examines socialist music education in the German Democratic Republic. Timberlake teaches courses on 20th-century music, music and politics, aesthetic theory, and music and childhood.

O RG A N

See J.T. Hassell in STRINGS

P I A NO

A review of An Organ Legacy, a CD by faculty artist Jeremy Filsell, was featured in the May 2017 edition of The American Organist. An Organ Legacy features the works performed on the 172-rank organ of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C., and marks 50 years of music at the Shrine and the 40th anniversary of the organ.

WILL KIRK/HOMEWOODPHOTO.JHU.EDU

NEW FACULTY

DANIEL AUNE has been the director of music and organist at Christ Lutheran Church in Baltimore since 2011. At Christ Church he leads the choral and instrumental programs, as well as the “Hafenmusik: Music by the Harbor” concert series. He has also composed choral anthems and hymn arrangements for organ, brass, and choir.

See Chad R. Bowles in PREPARATORY

Jennifer Nicole Campbell (BM

’14, MM ’15, Piano) has been appointed composer in residence at the Academy of International Ballet (AIB) in Media, Pa.

Yu-An Chen (MM ’16, GPD ’17, Piano)

performed Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 3 in C minor with the Miami Music Festival Orchestra in July, as a winner of the festival’s concerto competition.

Faculty artist Katherine Jacobson Fleisher (’81, Piano) recently released a solo CD, Scriabin, Mozart & Schubert: Piano Works, on Steinway Classics.

On July 30, Matthew Ganong (BM ’97, Piano) performed several of his own piano compositions, including Fantasy, Chorale and Fugue for viola and piano with Alvoy Bryan, viola, at the Anglican Church of the Epiphany in Columbia, S.C. Ganong has performed as a collaborative pianist throughout the U.S.

Sahun “Sam” Hong (GPD ’15, MM

’17, Piano) received second prize in the International Beethoven Competition Vienna 2017 in Vienna, Austria, at the Vienna Musikverein.

Timothy Jones, a junior piano student

of Marian Hahn, received first prize in piano at the Music Teachers National Association’s Competition for Young Artist Performance. He performed as part of the winner’s concert in March.

Also see Timothy Jones in STRINGS See Sungpil Kim in VOCAL STUDIES Faculty artist Yong Hi Moon and Young-Ah Alyssa Tak (DMA ’13, Piano) played a duo recital in IBK Hall at the Seoul Arts Center in September, presented

by Emyoun in Korea.

Mellasenah Morris (BM ’68, DMA

’80, Piano; MM ’71, Piano Pedagogy), retired dean of the Conservatory, has been appointed interim dean of the School of Music at DePauw University in Greencastle, Ind.

Patrick Hawkins (BM ’92, Organ)

performed two concerts on the 19th century square fortepiano with the Raleigh Camerata in Raleigh and Durham, N.C., titled “Inside the Square,” this past February.

P E RC U S SION Sandbox Percussion — Victor Caccese (BM ’11, Percussion), Terry Sweeney (BM ’13, Percussion), Ian Rosenbaum (BM ’08, Percussion), and Jonathan Allen — premiered a new concerto by Viet Cuong (BM ’11, MM ’12, Composition) titled Re(new)al with the Albany Symphony’s new music ensemble, The Dogs of Desire, in June.

This piece was commissioned by General Electric, and each of its three movements deals with one of their renewable energy initiatives: hydro, wind, and solar.

See Gavin Farrell in PREPARATORY

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DEPA RTM ENT N EWS In March, Matthew Odell (MM ’03, GPD ’05, Piano) completed a European tour of concerts, lectures, and master classes in France, Spain, and England.

Highlights included a solo recital at St. Martin-in-the-Fields in London, a performance of the three piano sonatas of Pierre Boulez at the University of Sheffield, and lectures and master classes at the Universitat Rovira i Virgili in Tarragona and the Universitat de Barcelona in Spain.

Min Yoo Yi, a master’s candidate

studying piano with Yong Hi Moon, won fourth place and a $3,000 cash prize in the 2017 National Competition for Pianists presented by the Artist Series Concerts of Sarasota in April.

Also see Min Yoo Yi in VOCAL STUDIES

P ROF E S SIO NA L STUDIE S NEW FACULTY

See Adam Pearl in HISTORICAL PERFORMANCE See Dmitry Samogray in STRINGS The Baltimore Lieder Weekend, founded and directed by Daniel Schlosberg (BM ’00, MM ’01, Piano; KSAS BA ’00, History), will take place at An die Musik from October 20 to 22 with the theme of "New American Song: Unusual Suspects."

Peabody contributions include performances by Schlosberg and Laura Strickling (MM ’06, Voice), a composition by Judah Adashi (MM ’02, DMA ’11, Composition), and a panel discussion including Peabody Dean Fred Bronstein.

Meng-Sheng Shen, a DMA can-

didate studying piano with Boris Slutsky, was awarded fourth prize in the Hastings International Piano Concerto Competition. On March 4, he performed Beethoven’s Emperor Concerto with the London Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.

The competition included a cash prize and concert tour in the UK. Piano faculty artist Boris Slutsky was a guest artist for the Southeastern Piano Festival in June in Columbia, S.C. Slutsky and Washington Garcia (MM ’98, DMA ’03, Piano) served on the Arthur Fraser International Piano Competition jury in June.

Phillip Thomas (MM ’78, Piano)

was awarded the rank of Distinguished Professor of Music by the Lee University Board of Directors. This title is the highest honor that can be bestowed on a member of Lee’s faculty.

See Sorab Wadia in VOCAL STUDIES

Riko Weimer (BM ’88, Piano) spoke

about her early career, her passion for music education, and the Riko Method School of Piano in an interview with VoyageLA Magazine.

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PEABODY FALL 2017

DERRICK WANG is a composer, lawyer, dramatist, and scholar exploring the future of law, music, and theater. He is the composer and librettist of the opera Scalia/Ginsburg, which was inspired by the opinions of Supreme Court Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Antonin Scalia. Born in Maryland, he graduated from Gilman School while studying piano at the Peabody Preparatory.

RE C ORD IN G A RTS Head of the Music for New Media program and recording arts faculty member Thomas Dolby recently released his memoir, The Speed of Sound: Breaking the Barriers Between Music and Technology, which highlights his career at the intersection of music and technology, including his rise to the top of the music charts, a second act as a tech pioneer, and the sustaining power of creativity and art. Dolby was also featured in an in­terview by Ethan McLeod of the Baltimore Fishbowl. The interview centered on Dolby’s career highlights, his inspiration in teaching, and his role and vision in the crafting of Peabody’s New Media Program for undergraduates.

Director of Recording Arts and Sciences Scott Metcalfe toured to promote his book titled Creating Sounds from Scratch: A Practical Guide to Music Synthesis for Producers and Composers, released this spring. Metcalfe presented an event at Berklee College of Music in April and Bill’s Music in Catonsville, Md., in May.

STRIN G S Andrea Casarrubios (BM ’11, Cello)

joined the roster of the Manhattan Chamber Players and was featured on their March 21 concert at Baruch College’s Engelman Recital Hall. In addition, Casarrubios was selected as a member of Lake Champlain Chamber Music Festival’s trio in residence.

Faculty artist Victoria Chiang, viola, gave a mini-recital and presentation titled “The Wonder of the Stradivarius: A Park Family’s Love Story” at the Park School’s Brain sPark 2017 in March.

The pre-college studio of Elizabeth Faidley (MM ’04, Violin) at the Manhattan School of Music was followed for a year by Heejin Weisbrod (MM ’03, GPD ’05, Violin), who wrote an article published on violinist.com. Faidley hosted master classes with several renowned soloists for her young students and collaborated with the Washington Heights Chamber Orchestra.

Amos Fayette (BM ’08, Violin) has been named the new director of The Music School of Delaware’s Milford Branch.

Fayette has taught at Miami’s New World School of the Arts and at the Lawrence Eisman Center for Preparatory Studies in Music at Queens College.

See Ledah Finck in HISTORICAL PERFORMANCE

Kat Gates (’82, Cello) has been hired as

senior creative director at WHOSAY, an influencer marketing company. Gates will join the creative team to elevate ideas and content with a performance-first mindset.

Faculty artist Violaine Melançon, founding violinist of the Peabody Trio, has been appointed a visiting professor for the 2017–18 season at McGill University’s Schulich School of Music. She was appointed faculty for Northwestern University Bienen School of Music’s Summer Violin Institute. In addition, she was on faculty at Yellow Barn Music Festival and an artist for Music in the Vineyards last summer.

Distinguished Visiting Artist Midori was featured on the panel of “Cultural Diplomacy: To Tackle Today’s Global Challenges,” hosted at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), in May at Johns Hopkins SAIS in Washington, D.C. A UN Messenger of

Peace, Midori reflected on how cultural diplomacy can help better address today’s most pressing global challenges.

Dian Zhang (BM ’12, MM ’14, Violin), who

See Martha Morrison Muhleisen in VOCAL STUDIES

Jianze Zhang, a master’s student study-

The student performing group Peabody Peled Cello Gang, led by faculty artist Amit Peled, performed Wonderful/ Hallelujah arranged by Brett Howland as the encore to their sold-out performance at Grace Church as part of the Grace Church Concert Series in June.

Dorotea Racz (BM ’10, MM ’11, Cello), Dmitry Samogray (BM ’11, Piano), Gleb Kanasevich (BM ’11, Clarinet),

and flautist Ginevra Petrucci, have released a CD featuring the chamber music of American composer Robert Muczynski under the Brilliant Classics label.

studied with Victor Danchenko, won a first violin position at the San Francisco Opera. ing double bass, was selected to compete in the live rounds of the second Bradetich Foundation International Double Bass Solo Competition, September 1–5, at the University of North Texas.

VO CA L AC C O M PA N Y IN G Eileen Cornett, director of graduate vocal accompanying program in collaborative piano, played keyboard for the national tour of Beautiful at Baltimore’s Hippodrome Theatre in January.

VO CA L STUDIE S NEW FACULTY

The Aspen Institute hosted Trio ex Animo, a Peabody Honors ensemble comprised of juniors Helen Wong, who studies violin with Keng-Yuen Tseng; Ethan Sandman, who studies cello with Amit Peled; and Timothy Jones, who studies piano with Marian Hahn, in a concert in April at the Inn at River House on the Institute’s Wye River campus in Queenstown, Md.

CLAUDIA HANSEN

See Lauren Rausch in PREPARATORY

TONY ARNOLD is a leading proponent of contemporary music in concert and recording, having premiered hundreds of works by established and emerging composers. Arnold has collaborated with the most cutting-edge composers and instrumentalists on the world stage. As the soprano of the International Contemporary Ensemble, she is a catalyst for dozens of groundbreaking projects, including David Lang’s Whisper Opera.

Alicia Berneche (GPD ’95, Opera) The Caelus Piano Quartet — juniors Mei Zhan, violin; Setareh Parvaresh, viola; Marcie Kolacki, cello; and J.T. Hassell, piano — was invited to participate in Benjamin Zander’s “Interpretations of Music: Lessons for Life” master class in Boston in March.

This series was broadcast by the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra.

was one of six chosen to be part of the 2017 Hall of Legends in Howard County, Ind. She was chosen for her accomplishments in the world of opera. Berneche now teaches voice at Glenbrook North High School in Illinois and tutors local and international singers at a private studio in Chicago.

PEABODY FALL 2017

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DEPA RTM ENT N EWS NEW FACULTY

winners of the Bruce Haynes International Competition for the rhetorical singing of the music of Johann Sebastian Bach.

Jason Hardy (MM ’00, AD ’04, Voice),

Susan Lyle (MM ’78, Voice) has been

SIMON PAULY

who is the director of development for Opera Memphis, has been selected as a participant in Opera America’s Leadership Intensive Program. Participants gathered at the National Opera Center in New York City in August for a weeklong learning program for the most promising professionals in the field of opera administration.

Christopher Hartung, a sopho-

American tenor WILLIAM BURDEN has won an outstanding reputation in a wide-ranging repertoire throughout Europe and North America. A supporter of new works, he appeared in the U.S. premiere of Henze’s Phaedra at Opera Philadelphia and created the role of Niklas Sprink in Kevin Puts’ Pulitzer Prize-winning Silent Night at the Minnesota Opera.

KARLI CADEL

NEW FACULTY

ELIZABETH FUTRAL is considered one of the world’s leading sopranos. With her stunning vocalism and vast dramatic range, she has embraced a repertoire that ranges from the Baroque to world premieres. She was catapulted to stardom with critically acclaimed performances of Delibes’ Lakmé at the New York City Opera in 1994.

Faculty artist Denyce Graves, mezzosoprano, portrayed the mother of Emile Griffith — the closeted gay boxer whose knockout of a homophobic rival in the early 1960s led to unexpected tragedy — in Terence Blanchard’s "opera in jazz" Champion at the Washington National Opera in March. She was featured on The Kojo Nnamdi Show, a live magazine program of the NPR member station in

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Washington, D.C., and with Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg in an interview by NBC Washington’s News4 about the production.

PEABODY FALL 2017

more voice student in the studio of Stanley Cornett; Ross Tamaccio, a master’s candidate in the studio of Stanley Cornett; and Claire Iverson, a sophomore voice student in the studio of Ah Young Hong, performed in the Young Victorian Theatre Company’s production of Gilbert and Sullivan’s HMS Pinafore this July.

Mezzo-soprano Megan Ihnen (MM ’09, Voice) performed a site-specific program of contemporary classical and electronic music in the Devonian fossil gorge at Coralville Lake in Iowa on June 16. On June 23, she performed Gÿorgy Kurtág’s Kafka Fragments with Martha Morrison Muhleisen (MM ’07, Violin). Through video and sound, the audience journeyed through the life and writings of Franz Kafka through the lens of a "historical fiction" of Junko Tabei — the first woman to climb Mt. Everest.

INTERPLAY, a teaching and performance collaboration between the University of Maryland Baltimore County and Peabody, brought DMA candidates countertenor Min Sang Kim (MM ’15, Voice) and pianist Sungpil Kim (BM ’11, MM ’12, Piano) to UMBC to coach vocal students and perform in March.

DMA candidate Min Sang Kim (MM ’15, Voice), countertenor, won first place at the Wonderlic 2017 Voice Competition presented by the Community Concerts at Second in Baltimore. Kim, who studies with William Sharp, performed in the winner recital on April 23.

Elaine Lachica (BM ’97, Voice)

was featured as a soloist in Montreal Baroque’s recording of Bach Cantatas. The program was presented at the Tage Alter Musik, Regensburg, Germany, and at the Montreal Baroque Festival and broadcast throughout Europe via the European Broadcasting Union and in Canada on CBC Radio 2. All featured soloists are

appointed director of music and organist of Congregational Church in Tryon, N.C.

Michael Maliakel (’12, Voice) and Sorab Wadia (BM ’93, MM ’95, Piano)

had lead roles in the world-premiere of Mira Nair’s Monsoon Wedding — a musical based on Nair’s 2001 film of the same name — at the Berkeley Repertory Theater in July.

Baritone Tim Mix (BM ’01, Voice) appeared as Tsar Dodon in Nikolai RimskyKorsakov’s The Golden Cockerel at the Santa Fe Opera this summer.

NEW FACULTY

SAMUEL MUNGO, the new managing director of Peabody Opera Theatre, has fostered an international reputation as an opera pedagogue, particularly for his skill adding strong acting technique to singers’ vocal skills. Most recently serving as the director of Texas State Opera Theatre, he oversaw a comprehensive undergraduate opera preparation program.

Outcalls — a band with Britt OlsenEcker (BM ’09, Voice), Melissa Wimbish (GPD ’11, Voice; GPD ’14, Chamber Ensemble), and Nathan Royer (MM ’07, Euphonium) — performed with special guests Beauty Slap — Gabriel Colby (BM ’10, GPD ’12, Trombone), Hakeem Bilal (BM ’10, Bass Trombone), and Scott Nadelson (BM ’11, Trumpet) — on June 2 at Baltimore’s Metro Gallery.

Soprano Katie Procell, a master’s candidate studying with Phyllis BrynJulson, and pianist Min Yoo Yi, a master’s candidate studying with Yong Hi Moon, presented Messiaen’s “Harawi: Chant d’amour et de mort” on May 6 at An Die Musik in Baltimore.

See Elizabeth Schaaf in MUSICOLOGY

NEW FACULTY

See Laura Strickling in PIANO

Soprano Charity Sunshine Tilleman-Dick (’06, Voice) has written a memoir coming out this fall from Simon & Schuster and will be making her debut at Symphony Hall in Boston shortly after the book is released.

See Kristen Toedtman in PREPARATORY This summer, mezzo-soprano Laura Virella (BM ’03, Voice), a native of Puerto Rico, made her company debut with Long Beach Opera in the title role of Frida, an opera based on the life of Mexican artist Frida Kahlo.

Thrive Music opened its 2017–18 season with Melissa Wimbish (GPD ’11, Voice; GPD ’14, Chamber Ensemble) and Elspeth Davis (MM ’06, Voice) in September featuring the music of Danny Felsenfeld.

Clarinetist ALEXANDER FITERSTEIN, chair of the Woodwinds, Brass, Percussion, and Harp Department, has performed in recital, with distinguished orchestras, and with chamber music ensembles throughout the world. He won first prize at the Carl Nielsen International Clarinet Competition and received the prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant Award.

the new executive director of Symphony Number One. Tracey serves as the academic services administrator for the Peabody Preparatory and is an avid performer and promoter of new music.

Clifton Guidry, a junior studying

bassoon, performed with bassoonist Rebekah Heller on her album release show for her newest album Metafagote at Abrons Arts Center in New York City in April. Guidry performed in the ensemble of the title piece of the album, faculty artist Felipe Lara’s Metafagote for solo bassoon and six bassoons.

See Gleb Kanasevich in STRINGS NEW FACULTY

PERRIN & ASSOCIATES

FINE VIOLINS Serving the professional & those aspiring since 1994 Antique and contemporary instruments & bows Expert repairs, restoration & rehairing on premises

WO O DW IN DS See Rachel Choe in PREPARATORY Faculty artist Alexander Fiterstein, clarinet, performed works by Peabody faculty composers, including Kevin Puts’ Quintet “The Red Snapper” and Distinguished Composer-in-Residence Christopher Rouse’s "Rotae Passionis” (Passion Wheels) at the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra’s inaugural New Music Festival. Director of Peabody’s Graduate Conducting Program Marin Alsop directed the festival and also led the BSO in Puts’ The City on July 15.

Brian Tracey (MM ’16, Clarinet) is

Tonal adjustments & Appraisals Accessories, cases

NICHOLAS STOVALL has served as principal oboe of the National Symphony Orchestra since September 2008 and made his solo debut with the orchestra in December 2014. In addition to regular appearances with the Kennedy Center Chamber Players, Stovall is a member of the Washington-based Eclipse Chamber Orchestra.

Quality Instrument Rentals with Credit Toward Ownership

517 North Charles Street, Baltimore, MD 21201.

(410) 539- 0043 www.perrinviolins.com perrinviolins@verizon.net

PEABODY FALL 2017

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P R E PAR ATORY Natalie Bartholet, a Preparatory flute student of Rachel Choe (MM ’02,

GPD ’03, DMA ’09, Flute) and member of the Peabody Wind Orchestra, was selected as one of the Carson Scholar Fund’s Carson Scholars. Additionally, she volunteers as Choe’s assistant in the flute class of the Baltimore Symphony’s OrchKids program.

Chad R. Bowles (MM ’05, GPD ’07,

Piano), chair of the Peabody Preparatory Piano Department, has released his fourth CD, Chopin/Liszt Piano Sonatas by JRI Recordings, featuring the Chopin and Liszt B minor sonatas.

Katelynn Cherry, a Preparatory voice student in the studio of Alina Kozinska, won third place in the 16- to 18-year-old age category of the National Society of Arts and Letters’ Washington, D.C., chapter’s Shirley Rabb Winston Annual Voice Scholarship Competition. Cherry performed at NSAL-Montebello Music Club Concert this June in Alexandria, Va.

Sarah Kim, an alumna of the Pre-

Conservatory Violin Program who studied violin with Rebecca Henry, performed Samuel Barber’s Violin Concerto in G major with the Frederick Orchestra in May as their 2017 Young Artist Competition grand prize winner. In addition, Kim has recently won the Jack Weaver Memorial Competition and Landsdowne Symphony Competition.

Angelina Lim, a Preparatory flute

student of Rachel Choe (MM ’02, GPD ’03, DMA ’09, Flute), received an honorable mention at the U.S. Army Orchestra’s 2017 Young Artist Competition. Lim was invited to perform with the U.S. Army Band in their May performance of Gershwin’s An American in Paris at Brucker Hall on Fort Myer. She also performed as a concerto soloist with the Baltimore Symphony in their side-by-side concert.

Kiri Maza, who was a Preparatory stu-

dent in the Tuned-In program, graduated from the Interlochen Center for the Arts and will attend Occidental College in Los Angeles, majoring in business and minoring in music. Maza played in the Preparatory Wind Orchestra and Peabody Youth Orchestra and was an intern this summer for the Tuned-In summer program, the Creative Composition and Improvisation Intensive.

HOMEWOODPHOTO.JHU.EDU

Preparatory student Christina Rivera won an ACIS Travel Scholarship to assist in the cost of last summer’s Peabody Children’s Chorus trip to Hawaii. Rivera is a member of the PCC and the Young People’s String Program (YPSP). She studies violin with Lauren Rausch (DMA ’14, Violin).

GAVIN FARRELL (MM ’99, Percussion; MM ’01, Music Theory) has been appointed executive director of the Powers Music School in Belmont, Mass., just outside of Boston. Farrell led the Peabody Preparatory since 2013, first as interim dean and then as executive director in 2015. During that time, he implemented the Pathways program, which was funded by the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation, and led the expansion of the Performance Academies Program to include winds, brass, percussion, and jazz. Farrell was a presence on the Peabody campus — as student, faculty member, and administrator — for more than 20 years.

On June 1, members of the Peabody Community Chorus visited Earl’s Place.

The chorus is directed by Kristen Toedtman (MM ’98, Voice). The Community Chorus is open to adults in the Baltimore region and meets on Wednesday evenings at 6:00 pm at Henderson-Hopkins Elementary School.

Brandon Woody, an alumnus of the

Preparatory’s Tuned-In program, presented a concert with his group Upendo 5tet in June at An Die Musik Live in Baltimore.

Woody currently attends the Brubeck Institute, an elite, full scholarship jazz program in California, and next year will attend the Manhattan School of Music on a full scholarship.

The Peabody Wind Orchestra, directed by Elijah Wirth (BM ’99, Tuba; MM ’02, Music Education), performed at Baltimore’s Light City Festival in April at the Inner Harbor Amphitheater. They performed Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture and works by Grainger and Bjork.

The Peabody Wind, Brass, and Percussion Congregation — led by Elijah Wirth (BM ’99, Tuba; MM ’02, Music Education); and Daniel Trahey (BM ’00, Tuba, Music Education) — represented TunedIn at Hopkins on the Hill, an event in June that featured federally funded, early career researchers from across the university. The event, where Johns Hopkins University President Ronald J. Daniels spoke, took place in the Russell Senate Office Building in Washington, D.C. Students in the Preparatory PreConservatory Violin program — including Connor Chaikowsky, Nicholas Kim, Megan Rabe, and Luka Stefanovic — joined the Lark Quartet in a side-by-side performance of Mendelssohn’s Octet in E-flat major, Op. 20, in April at the Smith Theatre, Horowitz Center in Columbia, Md. Members of the Preparatory Annapolis campus harp ensemble performed for the National Day of Prayer breakfast hosted

by Governor Larry Hogan in Annapolis on May 4.

IN M EM O RIA M Janet Wright Beyers (’66, Piano)

Maurice Feldman

(MM ’66, Music Education)

Carver T. Green

(MM ’16, Organ)

John Plier

(MM ’98, DMA ’06, Voice)

Karl Hampton Porter

(’63, Bassoon)

Ruth Buettner Renneburg

(TC ’40, BM ’42, MM ’48 Piano; JHU BS ’41)

David Riley

(BM ’69, Church Music)

Harold Stern (TC ’58, Piano)

Frank H. Tucker, PhD

(TC ’45, Bassoon; JHU BA ’48, General Music)

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PEABODY FALL 2017

FA N FA R E Introducing the Piano Excellence Fund This year Peabody has established the Piano Excellence Fund to provide new, quality pianos across campus, including Steinway pianos for the concert halls and for use in practice rooms and piano studios. The fund is a new philanthropic focus, created to support the needed replacement of more than 65 pianos and the ongoing maintenance and upkeep of nearly 200 pianos on stages and in classrooms and practice rooms across Peabody.

Peabody Institute Advisory Board Chair Taylor Hanex (BM ’75, MM ’78, Piano) and Marc von May made an initial gift in June to fund the purchase of a new Steinway.

Fellow PIAB member Barbara Bozzuto, who is also a piano student of Peabody alumnus and former faculty member Arno Drucker, hosted a party at her home in Baltimore on June 11 to kick off the Piano Excellence Fund campaign. Faculty artist Benjamin Pasternack performed for this intimate gathering, dazzling the audience with pieces

by Frédéric Chopin, who was well known for performing in salon-like settings. Bozzuto and Peabody Dean

Fred Bronstein joined Pasternack and spoke passionately about the importance of providing high-quality instruments for training the next generation of leaders in the field.

The Piano Department at Peabody, one of the Conservatory’s largest, has a long tradition of excellence dating back to the days of Arthur Friedheim, a student of Franz Liszt, and continuing to today’s faculty of world-renowned artists — including the eminent Leon Fleisher, who can trace his pedagogical lineage back to Beethoven.

Both Conservatory and Preparatory constituents will benefit from this critical investment.

A gift of any size to the Piano Excellence Fund is greatly appreciated — and if you wish to fund a specific piano or name one for yourself, your family, or in honor of a beloved friend, family, or faculty member, please contact the Office of External Relations at 667-208-6551.

—— Leslie Procter

Watch the arrival of Peabody’s newest concert piano: goo.gl/HBfY3J

Left to right: Faculty artist Boris Slutsky, PIAB Chair Taylor Hannex, Marc von May, and Dean Fred Bronstein toured the Steinway and Sons piano factory in August 2017.

Philanthropic giving to support improved technical capabilities enhanced the Peabody Symphony Orchestra recording project for the Naxos label.

Above, composer Aaron Jay Kernis and Marin Alsop work with the orchestra during the recording.

Supporting Technological Innovations Larry and Jane Droppa have committed a generous gift of $100,000 to support technology initiatives at the Peabody Institute. The largest gift of its kind, it will provide direct support for the Recording Arts and Sciences Department, recording initiatives across the institute, new online course development, the development of the New Media curriculum, and related technology upgrades.

These funds have been critical in allowing Peabody to update and improve its technical capabilities throughout the entire campus. In 2016–17, the Recording Arts and Sciences Department was able to completely update the wiring infrastructure of Miriam A. Friedberg Hall. “This has given us even more flexibility in the use of the newly renovated space, particularly with larger projects like the recent Naxos recording that we did with the Peabody Symphony Orchestra,” says Edward Tetreault (MM '05, Recording and Production), manager of recording services.

Tetreault adds, “We work really hard to make sure that the Recording Arts facilities are utilizing the latest technology available, and, because of support like that of Droppas, we will continue to stay on the cutting edge.”

Larry Droppa is the president of Automated Processes Inc. (API), the leading audio broadcast console manufacturer for radio and television networks and high-profile stations.

—— Leslie Procter PEABODY FALL 2017

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George Peabody Society We recognize those philanthropic visionaries whose lifetime cumulative giving has matched or exceeded George Peabody’s founding gift of $1.4 million. Their generosity has expanded and transformed the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University. The names are ordered by the date when they joined this elite group of donors.

George Peabody Sidney M. Friedberg Charitable Trust The Blaustein-RosenbergThalheimer Philanthropic Group Eric and Edith Friedheim Loretta Ver Valen Arabella Leith Symington Griswold

Wendy G. Griswold and Benjamin H. Griswold IV Elizabeth J. and Richard W. Case Florence H. and Charles R. Austrian Michael R. Bloomberg Anonymous Tristan W. Rhodes

Hilda P. and Douglas S. Goodwin Claire S. and Allan D. Jensen Marc von May Thomas H. Powell Anonymous John L. Due Taylor A. Hanex Rheda Becker and Robert E. Meyerhoff

Laifun Chung and Ted Kotcheff Sandra Levi Gerstung and the Levi Family Fund II of the Baltimore Community Foundation

Legacy Circle The Legacy Society consists of individuals who have made a provision in their estate plan for the Peabody Institute in the form of a bequest, a life income gift, or a trust arrangement, thus becoming a part of the Peabody legacy — and a part of its future.

Anonymous (6) Marilyn Abato Sallie M. Albright Frances K. and George Alderson Anne-Truax Darlington Andrews Estate of Robert Austrian Herman C. Bainder * Wilmot C. Ball Jr. * Mary B. Barto Meta Packard Barton * Mary Lou Bauer Catherine H. Beauchamp Lisa D. Bertani Dorothy and Wakeman S. Bevard Jr. Edith Blum * Alma T. Bond Esther B. Bonnet Tammy Bormann and Mark Paris Barbara and Thomas Bozzuto Elizabeth Bryan * Sophia A. Burkey * Laura R. Burrows Jean Burton Elana R. Byrd

John F. Cahill Carol Cannon Josepha Caraher Kathryn Chilcote Laifun Chung and Ted Kotcheff Estate of Virginia C. Cochran * David Dasch Deborah Davis Doris and Richard Davis Jane E. Donato Miriam B. Dorf Ronya Driscoll John L. Due* Jane R. Dummer Phillip T. Dunk Jr. * Beverly Kinsman Eanes and Edward Eanes Tinka Knopf de Esteban Ruth L. Fisher Stephen W. Fisher Leon Fleisher E. Carl Freeman Jr. Owen B. Fuqua Jr. Sandra Levi Gerstung Hilda Perl Goodwin Basil Gordon * Daniel M. Graham

Nancy and Louis Grasmick Janet Rayburn Greive Beatrice C. and Frederick N. Griffith Leith Symington Griswold * Wendy Goodyear Griswold and Benjamin H. Griswold IV Taylor A. Hanex Estate of William Sebastian Hart Lynn Taylor Hebden * Wilda M. Heiss David Wayne Helsley * Jeanie A. Hillman-Brotman Reginald D. Hobbs Jr. Christina Holzapfel and William Bradshaw Amy Elizabeth Hutchens Ludmilla Ilieva Helen J. Iliff * Claire S. and Allan D. Jensen Laima Kallas Thomas Kaurich Dale Kellenberger Harriet Kessler Galan Kral Thomas P. Lake Trust * John Larner

Marjorie G. Liss H. Bruce McEver John R. Merrill Suzanna N. Miller * Jill E. McGovern and Steven Muller * Martha K. Nelson Dorothy L. Rosenthal and William A. Nerenberg Nancy W. and William * Nicholls Michele Parisi Claude and David Paulsen Alan J. Pearlmutter Scott Pender Anthony Piccolo Thomas H. Powell Joan M. Pristas * Virginia M. Reinecke Tristan W. Rhodes and Daniel Kuc Howard Rosenfeld Winifred Ross Doris Rothenberg Joseph Russ * Suzanne J. Schlenger Christine Rutt Schmitz Karen A. Schwartzman Carol Scruggs

Rising to the Challenge Campaign Update for Peabody Goals TOTAL RAISED BY PEABODY THROUGH AUGUST 30, 2017: $46.3 MILLION

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PEABODY FALL 2017

PROGRAM SUPPORT (39%)

SCHOLARSHIP SUPPORT (59%)

ALLOCATION OF $46.3 MILLION RAISED TO DATE

FACULTY SUPPORT (2%)

Carolyn J. and Mark J. * Sienkiewicz Arlene and Len Singer Hardwick R. Spencer Beatrice E. Stanley Dorothy Fahey Stanley * Carroll F. Stewart Walter C. Summer Phyllis Bryn-Julson and Donald S. Sutherland Leo B. and Ruth A. Swinderman * Carol * and Roy R. Thomas Francis H. Thomas * Marc von May Robert W. Wagner Charles Emerson Walker Mary C. Walker * Carol Schultz Weinhofer Deloris Elinor Wilkes-Williams and Neville Williams Charlotte L. and Bruce M. Williams Peter J. Wolf Robert M. Worsfold Phyllis A. Zheutlin Carrie May Kurrelmeyer Zintl Trust * Deceased

The 2016–17 Friedberg Society This society is named in honor of Sidney and Miriam Friedberg, whose generosity launched a new era of philanthropic leadership at the Peabody Institute. Friedberg Society donors sustain and enhance Peabody by giving $1,000 or more over the course of a fiscal year.

CHAIRMAN’S CIRCLE $100,000 AND ABOVE

VIRTUOSO’S CIRCLE $10,000 - $24,999 Anonymous Laifun Chung and Ted Kotcheff Alexandra L. Clancy Charles Delmar Foundation Helen P. Denit Charitable Trust Estelle Dennis Scholarship Trust Evergreen House Foundation Edith Hall Friedheim and the Eric Friedheim Foundation Amy L. Gould and Matthew S. Polk Jr. Tamera and Brian Hays Sallie Harper Helm * + Nina Rodale Houghton Hae-Kyung Ko-Im and Dwight Im Abbe Levin Marshall Macks + Paul E. McAdam Dae-Won Moon Peabody Court Hotel +

HOMEWOODPHOTO.JHU.EDU

Stanley Altan Rheda Becker and Robert E. Meyerhoff Brookby Foundation Phyllis Bryn-Julson and Donald Sutherland Margaret H. Cooke * Tammis A. Day * + Jane W. I. and Larry D. Droppa Phillip T. Dunk Jr. * Sandra Levi Gerstung and the Levi Family Fund II of the Baltimore Community Foundation Wendy G. Griswold and Benjamin H. Griswold IV In Memory of Michela Mitchell Halpern + Taylor A. Hanex Hecht-Levi Foundation Claire S. and Allan D. Jensen C. Albert Kuper III * Jill E. McGovern Dorothy and Louis Pollack Julie A. Walters and Samuel G. Rose Adam G. Shapiro Marc C. von May

Sumati Murli and Sunil Kumar Mildred S. Perlow + Howard and Geraldine Polinger Family Foundation Carol J. * and Roy R. Thomas Andrew Yang Shirley S. L. Yang

HOMEWOODPHOTO.JHU.EDU

The donors listed below have made outright gifts or pledges at the Friedberg Society level between July 1, 2016, and June 30, 2017.

Connor Chaikowsky (left) and Patelle Harris at the Leadership Luncheon.

Margaret Glasser + Ruby and Robert Wesley Hearn Jephson Educational Trusts Robert Wood Johnson Foundation ** Jane B. McKewen * Wilbur O. Nelson Jr. * Clara Juwon Ohr Peabody Institute Fund of the Baltimore Community Foundation Lori Raphael and J. Michael Hemmer Rock Family Foundation Christine Rutt Schmitz and Robert Schmitz Lisa Smith and W. Christopher Smith Jr. Elaine B. and Solomon H. Snyder Dorothy Richard Starling Foundation Vivian Thompson-Goldstein and Robert Goldstein

Laura R. Burrows Carol Cannon W. P. Carey Foundation Linda P. Carter Denise Caves Trust L. Chinsoo Cho Georgia R. Crompton Russell Davidson Foundation Nijole Boguta Dedinas Ruth L. and Arno P. Drucker Lydia and Charles Duff Harriet J. Eaton Hildegard and Richard Eliasberg Kimberly and Donald Evans Patrick Fraser Christine and John Fraser Hang Fung Mary Jo and James Gary Alison Matuskey Gatwood Wendy and Robert Ginsburg

Alma D. Hunt/VCM Charitable Trust Indian Spring Academy of Music Patricia E. Kauffman Harris L. Kempner Jr. Irene T. Kitagawa and Stephen S. McCall Galan Kral Beth Kronenwetter Sara W. Levi Jessica Preiss Lunken and David A. Lunken Lois and Philip Macht Family Philanthropic Fund Lauren and Flemming Madsen Paul B. Mathews Carol and Paul Matlin Audrey C. McCallum Hugh P. McCormick Jr. * Cynthia and Michael McKee Gary Melick James L. Meyerhoff Suruchi Mohan and Prabhat K. Goyal Mary C. R. S. Morgan and David J. Callard Cynthia W. Murray + Margaret B. Otenasek Kimberly and Townsend Plant Donald Regier Tracey Pullo Schutty Burdette Short Terry Meiselman Shuch and Neal Meiselman Thomas R. Silverman Eleanor Simon and Patrick O’Neall

Sandi Gerstung (left), Dick Davison, and Nancy Grasmick at the scholarship brunch.

COMPOSER’S CIRCLE $50,000 - $99,999 Anonymous Liza Bailey and Michael Musgrave Barbara and Thomas Bozzuto Elana R. Byrd David Wayne Helsley * Evelyn Johnson Charitable Foundation Thomas H. Powell Jean and Steve Robinson +

MAESTRO’S CIRCLE $25,000 - $49,999 Pennie and Gary Abramson Paul M. Angell Foundation Robert Austrian * Peggy J. Decker + Peggy and Yale Gordon Charitable Trust Nancy Grasmick

Neil D. Pennington + T. Rowe Price Foundation Barbara and David Roux Soo-Jung Shin Carolyn J. Sienkiewicz Sheridan A. L. and John W. Skouge Speedwell Foundation Esther Carliner Viros John Walker Barbara P. and Martin P. Wasserman Kurt Weill Foundation for Music Thomas Wilson Sanitarium for Children of Baltimore City

CONCERTMASTER’S CIRCLE $5,000 - $9,999 A L H Foundation Herman C. Bainder * Bank of America Foundation ** Liz and Fred Bronstein C. Sylvia Brown and Eddie C. Brown

Anthony Accurso + Frances K. and George Alderson Edward J. Asher Ira J. and Mary K. Basler Foundation Abra Bush Constance R. Caplan Exelon Foundation ** Abigail and Ryan Frederick Christopher Kovalchick Links Inc. Cynthia and Paul Lorraine Thomas MacCracken Barbara and John McDaniel Lloyd E. Mitchell Foundation Trust Edward Mortimore + Helen Stone Tice Marguerite M. VillaSanta Charles Emerson Walker Margaret C. and Patrick C. Walsh

DIRECTOR’S CIRCLE $1,000 - $2,499 Marin Alsop Anonymous (4) Carol and Steven Batoff Larraine Bernstein and Kenneth D. Hornstein Aurelia G. Bolton Anders V. Borge Paula Borge Helene Breazeale

HOMEWOODPHOTO.JHU.EDU

PRINCIPAL’S CIRCLE $2,500 - $4,999

Bronwyn Wheeler (left) and Martin and Barbara Wasserman dine on May 18, 2017.

Cyrus Ginwala Basil Gordon * Janet Rayburn Greive and Tyrone Greive David B. Grossman and the Bill Grossman Fund of the Isidore Grossman Foundation Ellen Halle and the Halle Family Philanthropic Fund Maureen Harrigan and David McDowell Barbara S. Hawkins and Stephen W. Singer Wilda M. Heiss Kris Hoffman and Paul D. Raschke Lynnie and Ian Hoffman Nancy and Robert Huber Thanh V. Huynh and Jeremy Nathans

Linda B. and Richard Q. Snurr St. Patrick Celebrations Rochelle Stanfield and Edward Grossman Edward Steinhouse Kenneth R. Talle Angela and Daniel Taylor Sheila and Erick Vail Phyllis H. Vogel Yuh-Wen Wang Beverly Dietrich Weber Susan F. Weiss Kenneth Whittington Wolman Family Foundation Avedis Zildjian Company Ireneus Bohdan Yaromyr Zuk + In-Kind Gift * Deceased ** Matching Gift

PEABODY FALL 2017

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STUDENT SPOTLI GHT After earning her bachelor's degree from Peabody last May, cellist Najette Abouelhadi has returned to Peabody to continue her studies with Alan Stepansky as a GPD candidate. As an undergraduate, she was very active outside the practice room — taking courses at Homewood, and serving as an officer with the Kappa Alpha Theta sorority, marketing coordinator with the TEDxJHU conference, and as a Panhellenic Judicial Board Member. She also is a student representative for both the Johns Hopkins Alumni Association and Society of Peabody Alumni.

We checked in with her over the summer, in Santa Barbara, California, where she was a fellow at the Music Academy of the West.

Why did you choose Peabody?

I really wanted to study music, science, and psychology during college.

Music made me happy, but I didn’t yet see it as my career. I got into Peabody; my mom was ecstatic, and after meeting Alan Stepansky, I was, too. Johns Hopkins was (and still is) one of the top five schools for neuroscience, and even though I didn’t choose to do the double degree program, I’m so grateful that I was able to be at a world-class conservatory associated with a premier university.

It gave me the ability to have a more traditional college experience and choose the amount of non-musical learning I could also experience.

At Peabody, I also received a minor in Business of Music, which required that I take Intro to Business and Principles of Marketing at the Homewood campus and prepared me for a career in such valuable ways. I took advantage of other opportunities there, enrolling in several neurosciences and Italian classes.

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PEABODY FALL 2017

WILL KIRK/HOMEWOODPHOTO.JHU.EDU

Catching Up with Najette Abouelhadi

What made you decide, as a senior, to get involved in the TEDxJHU conference, which challenges thought leaders to deliver the “talk of their lives” in 18 minutes or less?

I knew I could choose to be a senior who sits back and participates from a distance. But I decided I wanted to be as involved as possible. In addition to handling much of the event’s social media, I also engaged a Peabody alumnus to speak about how his training prepared him for his career as a diplomat, and I recruited students to play, as well. The musicians offered music that made people question their expectations of the kinds of music that Peabody students play, which fit in beautifully with the TEDx philosophy of exposing people to new ideas.

Who is your biggest inspiration?

In middle school we were required to do a large scale history project on a significant figure, and for no obvious reason I chose Leonard Bernstein. Little did I know he would become my biggest inspiration in the years to come. I started off watching his Young People's Concerts, as I became a little older I started watching his Harvard Norton Lectures, and

before long I was totally enraptured by his speaking, his knowledge, and the obvious love that he had for teaching and music making. In 1963, he penned the following line commemorating the death of President John F. Kennedy: “This will be our reply to violence: to make music more intensely, more beautifully, more devotedly than ever before.”

I share this quote because of all of the things going on in our world right now and this feeling is my response to so much of what we see. I think people often get so worked up talking about it all, and as musicians we have the ability (and quite frankly, the obligation) to communicate in different ways, through a medium the whole world understands. For me this quote is twofold, also applying to the personal violences we experience everyday, whether it's seen by others or not. In the past, whenever I was having a bad day, or feeling anxious about something coming up, I would skip out on my practice for that day because I wanted to relax or not make myself more stressed: Now I know that those are the times I need my cello and music most of all.

We want to support aspiring artists and leave a meaningful legacy.

We all have that dream, to make a world of difference. With a legacy gift, you can fufill your dream to give back to the Peabody Institute and help the next generation of artists achieve their goals and aspirations.

There are many ways to support the Peabody Institute — options that benefit you and your family, too. A gift through a will, trust, or by beneficiary designation supports our future and allows you to remain in control of your assets during your lifetime. Contact the Office of Gift Planning to help plan your legacy.

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

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