From the Dean

Peabody Friends,

As I write this, we have returned to campus in a hybrid modality. It is wonderful to start to see signs of activity on campus, even in a limited way, to hear music in the hallways, and to see some familiar faces. And there are reasons for optimism in terms of this pandemic. A slow but increasing prevalence of vaccinations and decreasing numbers of new infections allow us at long last to begin to look ahead. What we see is a future full of both challenges and opportunities for a performing arts industry so devastated over the past year.

Clearly, it is essential for us as artists, educators, and leaders to figure out how to help our performing arts institutions survive first, and then recover. And yes, the next year or two will be critical. But I believe that if we don’t look beyond the immediate future to think about the impact of COVID within the context of trends that existed long before the pandemic and think about this over a longer horizon — over decades — then we will have missed an opportunity to shape that future and address some of the challenging macro trends as we solve for more immediate issues.

I would like to think that at Peabody, we’ve been forward-thinking when it comes to training artists for the future and diversifying the faces of our industry. But the pandemic has made us ask: How can we be even more bold? To do that, last fall we stood up the Peabody Conservatory Post-COVID Think Tank.

And in February, we were proud to convene “The Next Normal: Arts Innovation and Resilience in a Post- COVID World,” a free, virtual national symposium for the performing arts. Leading arts administrators, artists, educators, and funders engaged in a series of conversations with more than 1,300 attendees from around the world, exploring how we can be bolder as we emerge from the pandemic.

While, in truth, we could barely scratch the surface in just one day, certain things were deeply felt. The need for our field to diversify our institutions is urgent and existential. For too long we have approached this issue as peripheral. The other headline, for me, was that we need to build institutions across our field that are more flexible and adaptable structurally and programmatically, responsive to communities, open to evolving ways of making art that is relevant to peoples’ lives and needs, and embraced by an increasingly broader and more inclusive audience. Along with this, we must train creative artists with the kind of orientation that rewards and values the journey to who is being reached and how, as much as what is produced by the artist. And we all must approach our work, our institutions, the people we impact, and those we would like to engage with, with a sense of humility.

All in all, it was an exhilarating day, and a daunting one. I think it challenges all of us who are part of this field to be bolder, take more risks — and accept and learn from the mistakes that come with risk — all while not losing sight of why we fell in love with what we do in the first place.

I am proud that Peabody convened this important conversation, and I am buoyed by seeing that the things that are so important to the future of the field — diversity, flexibility, and adaptability alongside pride in our artistic outcomes — are the very things that we have been working on in a strategic and intentional way at Peabody in recent years. We are more determined than ever to continue on that path.

As we look to the future here at Peabody, we know that a strong strategic direction is reflected in the Breakthrough Plan 2024, which continues to be critical to our growth and direction. You’ll find stories on our latest initiatives, additional information about the recent symposium, and more, in this issue of Peabody Magazine. This is indeed a big moment for the performing arts and for the institutions that train performing artists. What we do in this time is likely to shape the landscape for our field and for our audiences for decades to come. It may well make the difference between survival and not, and to be sure, determine whether we just survive, or thrive.

Sincerely,

Fred Bronstein