Peabody Magazine Fall 2018 Vol. 13, No. 1

PEABODY MAGAZINE

JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY

Fall 2018

Vol. 13 No. 1

MUSICIANS on CALL Thanks to a new initiative, student musicians are improving the quality of life for hospital patients — and developing important skills as performers.

ALSO:

Telling a Social Story

I want to support a new generation of artists and receive extra income in retirement.

We all want to find that balance, a means to give back to the Peabody Institute and still meet our own financial goals. When you establish a charitable gift annuity, you benefit now and enable aspiring artists to fulfill their dreams in the future.

A charitable gift annuity supports the future of the Peabody Institute and provides lifetime income to you or a loved one, along with significant tax benefits. Take advantage of recently announced higher payout rates for a new charitable gift annuity. Contact the Office of Gift Planning for a personal proposal, or visit our website to calculate your income and benefits.

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

CONTENTS

12 Musicians on Call

By Christine Grillo Thanks to a new initiative, student musicians are improving the quality of life for hospital patients — and developing important skills as performers.

3 Headliners

The MASS that Unites

Tracing the Path

Concert Halls as Classrooms

Preparatory Revives Chamber Music for Adults

2018 Commencement in Photos

Set to LAUNCH

Making the BSO’s Rich History Accessible

New Programs at Peabody

22

Alumni News

Letter from Alumni President

23

Department News

The latest news and accomplishments involving

students, faculty, and alumni from the

Preparatory and the Conservatory.

32 Fanfare

Honoring a Loved One’s Request

Gift Funds a Piano and Supports Breakthrough Curriculum

16

36

Student Spotlight

Junior Oboist Sonia Matheus

Telling a Social Story

By Richard Byrne With leaner productions no longer tied to the big stage, contemporary composers of operas are casting a fearless gaze upon some of the most serious issues in modern society — including human trafficking, terminal illness, and gender transition.

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 five pillars of excellence, interdisciplinary experiences, innovation, community connectivity, and diversity, Peabody is introducing the Breakthrough Curriculum to prepare artists for a world that is constantly changing yet still deeply in need of what music and dance bring to the human experience.

Cover illustration by Nanette Hoogslag

FR OM TH E DE A N I was fortunate to have the opportunity to see Maestra Alsop conduct the MASS in Chicago last summer and was struck once again by its power, its timeliness, and its relevance to the social issues of today.

Peabody is staging Bernstein’s MASS on October 26 at New Psalmist Baptist Church in West Baltimore. I invite you to read more about the performance on page 4, and to experience this singular work with us.

Dean Fred Bronstein

Peabody Friends, With the 2018–19 academic year well underway, excellence, innovation, community connectivity, and diversity are fully on display at Peabody, as our students, faculty, and guests premiere new works, launch new programs, and build new relationships through the performing arts.

Among the many academic and programmatic highlights of this fall, I am especially excited about Peabody’s performance of Leonard Bernstein’s MASS, conducted by Marin Alsop, in celebration of the Bernstein centennial.

The MASS is a theatrical and musical spectacle unlike anything else, featuring a cast of hundreds, including the Morgan State University Choir and other community partners. Through an eclectic score influenced by rock, jazz, gospel, and other musical styles, it explores challenging issues of peace and conflict, truth and faith, and the individual’s place in society.

It goes without saying that a performance of the size and scope of the MASS would be impossible without visionary artistic leadership from our faculty, a student body of diversely talented performers, and an engaged network of community partners. These all speak to Peabody’s strengths in recent years as we continue moving forward with the tenets of the Breakthrough Plan.

More than thirty outstanding new faculty members joined the Conservatory this fall, including internationally renowned violinist Vadim Gluzman as Distinguished Artist in Residence, and an exciting new cohort of jazz faculty under the leadership of Richard and Elizabeth Case Chair in Jazz Studies Sean Jones. The future health of our field depends on its diversification. It’s important to note that this year brings the most diverse faculty in Peabody’s history, with nearly 13 percent of our faculty being underrepresented minorities, up from 7 percent only last year. In addition, we welcome new leadership to the Preparatory with director Maria Mathieson.

Our largest incoming Conservatory class in recent years includes inaugural classes in two new undergraduate programs — the BM in New Media and the BFA in Dance — and represents a 29 percent increase in underrepresented minority students from only three years ago. Importantly, not only have we met or exceeded our enrollment goals across the Conservatory and recruited the most diverse class in our history, but also the overall talent level is among the highest in recent years as benchmarked by audition scores.

And among the ways we can measure community support for Peabody’s mission and initiatives, one of the most impactful is seen in our fundraising success over the last year, which along with other efforts, allowed us to beat our overall financial targets in FY2018, the first year of a new 5-year financial plan.

As I begin my fifth year as dean of the Peabody Institute, I could not be more enthusiastic about the trajectory of the school, the new initiatives, and the exceptional people — faculty, staff, and supporters — that are making the Peabody Institute not just a pillar to the past, but a beacon for the future by training the next generation of artists to be at the forefront, leading the charge to ensure the health of the performing arts in the coming decades.

Sincerely,

Fred Bronstein

The Spring 2018 article titled “A String Quartet for Younger Players” misattributed the composition of Butterfly Highway in the photo caption.

It was written by Ledah Finck. Peabody Magazine regrets the error.

PEABODY MAGAZINE Editorial Staff

Advertising

Peabody Institute Advisory Board

Margaret Bell, Assistant Director of Marketing and Communications

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

Janie E. Bailey Rheda Becker Paula E. Boggs Barbara M. Bozzuto, Vice Chair Richard Davison Larry D. Droppa Leon Fleisher Nancy S. Grasmick Michael Greenebaum Taylor A. Hanex, Chair Allan D. Jensen, Vice Chair Michiko S. Jones Laifun Chung Kotcheff Christopher Kovalchick

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 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

Abbe Levin Jill E. McGovern Christine Rutt Schmitz Solomon H. Snyder David Tan David L. Warnock Shirley S. L. Yang

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

H E A DLI N ERS

Pulitzer Prize winner Du Yun was named a Guggenheim Fellow and one of this year’s 38 Great Immigrants.

JISU JUNG (BM ’16, GPD ’17, Percussion) won the Grace Woodson Memorial First Prize and the audience prize, which led to $26,000 in awards at the Houston Symphony Ima Hogg Competition, one of the foremost multi-instrument competitions in the world. Named to honor the cofounder of the Houston Symphony, this prestigious competition is designed to identify outstanding young instrumentalists and support their pursuit of careers in music.

Jung performed Séjourné’s Concerto for Marimba and Strings with the Houston Symphony on June 2.

NATE RYAN

Faculty artist DU YUN, composition, was named a Guggenheim Fellow for Music Composition. She will create a new multidisciplinary work for orchestra, film, and vocalists co-commissioned by Carnegie Hall, London Southbank Centre, Kennedy Center, and Cal Performances. The composition, Where We Lost Our Shadows, is in response to a film captured by Ramallah-based Palestinian visual artist Khaled Jarrar, which documents the refugee crisis in Europe. It will be premiered on April 11, 2019, by the American Composers Orchestra. Du Yun was also named one of this year’s 38 Great Immigrants by the Carnegie Foundation, which recognizes immigrants who enrich the fabric of American culture and strengthen our democracy through their lives, their work, and their example.

BYEONG WOO LEE

(GPD ’98, Guitar; GPD ’00, Chamber Ensemble) was one of the composers of the official music for the Winter Olympics opening and closing ceremonies at the PyeongChang Olympic stadium in February. He also performed for Kim Jong Un and Moon Jae In at the Korean Demilitarized Zone during the historic meeting between North Korea and South Korea. Lee, who was the first recipient of the Music for the World Award for distinguished Peabody alumni, played his solo guitar piece Bird. He has also been nominated to be a member of the music division of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

Sophomore TIANYUAN LIU, a

piano student of Boris Slutsky, won first place in PianoArts 2018 North American Competition and Festival in Milwaukee.

He was also awarded Best Performance of a Composition Written

by J. S. Bach and Best Performance of a North American Work Written After 1950. At the competition’s grand finale concert on June 5, Liu performed Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 3 in C minor with the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra.

Master’s conducting candidate JONATHAN RUSH won first place in the Respighi Prize at the 2018 New York Conducting Workshop, a one-of-a-kind program founded in collaboration with the prestigious London Conducting Workshop. As winner, Rush made his professional orchestra debut with the Chamber Orchestra of New York, New York City’s premier young professionals orchestra, conducting the first movement of Schubert’s Fifth Symphony on the season finale concert at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Hall on June 7.

Watch Tianyuan

Liu's PianoArts performance:

youtu.be/ oNFbggEXKdc

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The MASS that Unites

M SS A Theatre Piece for Singers, Players and Dancers

The year 2018 is being celebrated around the world as the centenary of Leonard Bernstein’s birth, inspiring countless performances of his works, including the MASS. Other performances with Peabody ties have included: • An April 6 performance at London’s Royal Festival Hall was “inspiringly conducted

by Marin Alsop” (The Times) and “didn’t pull its punches” (Classical Source).

• Peter Bay (MM ’80, Conducting) organized and led two performances on June 29 and 30 in Austin, Texas, involving an unprecedented collaboration of all the major performing arts organizations in Austin.

• Maestra Alsop led the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s premiere performance of the work at the Ravinia Festival on July 28.

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George Alderson remembers being deeply moved by the world premiere performance of Leonard Bernstein’s MASS, A Theatre Piece for Singers, Players, and Dancers. A scholarship donor and member of the Peabody Institute’s Friedberg Society, Alderson has a unique perspective on that 1971 performance: He was in the viola section of the orchestra contracted to perform the premiere.

“The rehearsals were interesting, of course,” he recalls. “But it didn’t make its full emotional impact until the whole thing was put together in front of an audience.”

The transformational experience of participating in the MASS was also on Marin Alsop’s mind when she proposed a Peabody performance of the singular work to celebrate Bernstein’s Led by Marin Alsop (right), director of Peabody's centennial year. graduate conducting program, Leonard “It is a piece that embraces and Bernstein’s MASS will have a cast of hundreds unites, bringing together hundreds including the Peabody Children’s Chorus (top) and Morgan State University Choir (bottom). of performers of all ages and backgrounds, to work together toward scope, and message,” the MASS is a a common goal,” says Alsop, who massive undertaking whose many worked closely with Bernstein early logistical challenges render live in her conducting career. “For music students it is not only a journey about performances of it relatively uncommon — making it a unique experithe musical piece, but also a journey ence not just for the artists involved, with a moral. Bernstein wanted all but also for the audience. (It was last young people to feel the transformaperformed in Baltimore 10 years ago, tional power of music and use that under Alsop’s baton, by the Baltimore power to make important statements Symphony Orchestra.) in our world.”

Its overarching message of unity Peabody’s October 26 performance gives listeners the opportunity to of Leonard Bernstein’s MASS is reflect on issues of individuality and sure to create indelible memories community, peace and conflict, as for the many performers involved — they absorb a theatrical spectacle with Conservatory students including the widely varying musical styles tacked Peabody Opera Theatre and Peabody onto the framework of the Latin Mass.

Opera Theatre Orchestra, vocal “This is Bernstein’s ultimate narrative soloists, and dancers in the new BFA Dance program; Peabody Preparatory reflecting his deep faith in the goodness of humankind and his belief in students including the Peabody our extraordinary potential when we Children’s Chorus, the Peabody Community Chorus, and members of join together,” Alsop adds.

For his part, George Alderson is the Tuned-In program; and performlooking forward to taking the journey ers from the Baltimore community, including the renowned Morgan State in a different seat. “The performers involved will have a wonderful experiUniversity Choir and students from ence,” he reflects, “and I am eager to Baltimore City College. take part as an audience member this Described by Alsop as “an entirely time around.” unique piece in content, structure, —— Tiffany Lundquist

Tracing the Path

HOMEWOOD PHOTOGRAPHY

Peabody’s performance of Leonard Bernstein’s MASS, A Theatre Piece for Singers, Players, and Dancers, will take place at 7:30 pm on Friday, October 26, at Baltimore’s New Psalmist Baptist Church.

A post-concert community discussion reflecting on the performance and the many social issues explored in the MASS will be held at the Church of the Redeemer in Baltimore, co-hosted by the Institute for Islamic, Christian, and Jewish Studies and Peabody. For details, visit redeemerbaltimore.org/ events.

Tickets for the concert are $45, or $15 with a valid student ID, and are available through the Peabody Box Office: 667-208-6620 or peabody.jhu.edu/mass.

Meeting a new challenge requires “It sets you up to pursue this work knowing what’s happened before. in an official way and have structure And as Peabody pushes forward with and support,” says Thomas. intensified commitments to create The fellowship also connects greater inclusion and diversity within recipients with archivist and faculty the institute, one graduate student mentors to help facilitate the research. in the Conservatory is excavating its Matthew Testa, archivist in the Arthur past struggles with segregation before Friedheim Library, is one of Thomas’ the Civil Rights Movement. mentors. He says the project provides Master's degree student Sarah Jane an opportunity “to clear up some Thomas (BM ’17, Violin) is poring questions that I’ve also had” about the through institutional records and an history of race relations at Peabody. oral histories project to better grasp “It’s important to know who we how a conservatory in a city with a are as an institution in relation to legacy of segregation and instituthat history,” Testa says. “Thinking tional racism grappled with controsimultaneously about past, present, versy and change. and future.”

Thomas is looking at a wide range The Hawkins fellowship stipulates of documents, but she will focus on that Thomas’ work will be deposinternal deliberations and discussions ited in the Ferdinand Hamburger on integration in the 1940s and 1950s, University Archives of the Sheridan particularly during the William Luke Libraries. Testa also hopes to add any Marbury Jr. presidency and chairman- new interviews or other material to ship of the board of trustees. It was in Peabody’s archives. this period that the institute grappled Thomas additionally plans to most intensely with its policies, from create a path for the public into her a 1949 decision to admit Africanresearch by creating a web exhibit.

American students on a case-by-case “I’m trying to understand how to capbasis, to a 1955 decision to eliminate ture the effect that it’s having on me,” all race-based policies. she observes.

“I’m looking specifically at the In particular, Thomas says she is conversations that were happening struck by administrative language behind the scenes at Peabody surshe finds “eerily familiar” in docurounding integration,” says Thomas. ments from the era she is investigat“Why was integration delayed at ing. She cites one letter from 1949 Peabody? Who wanted to push it forfrom a faculty member arguing for ward? Who was holding it back?” the admission of African-American Thomas’ initial interest was students, “providing that they are sparked when she noticed key exceptionally talented.” intersections between prominent Testa says that “what Sarah is doing Baltimoreans involved in the institute in 2018 could be interesting decades and the fraught racial politics of the from now as well. This is a moment city in the 19th and 20th centuries. when Peabody, and Hopkins, and (Marbury’s father, for instance, was broader society, are doing a little a former slave owner and prominent more accounting of the past. And legal advocate for eugenics and disen- there is also a component, in that, of franchisement of African-Americans.) how we can do better in the present.”

Thomas was awarded a Hugh —— Richard Byrne Hawkins Research Fellowship for the Study of Hopkins History to aid in Read more about current this work. She is the first Peabody

diversity initiatives Peabody: student to be selected for the uni peabody.jhu.edu/diversity versity-wide research grant, which provides support for a summer of archival investigation in Baltimore.

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Concert Halls as Classrooms

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“Hearing these concerts in close succession is essential to beginning to build their aural memory,” says Hoffman, who notes that post-concert discussions are an essential aspect of the trip. Participants discuss their experiences and compare the sound qualities (warmth, clarity, reverberance) that each heard in different locations. He wants students to understand the aural signature that results from the shape, materials and design of each hall and hall type.

“Some spirited debate goes on before and after the concerts and some get pretty heated,” Wagner says. “Not everyone experiences the room the same way, so getting to hear other people’s experiences and impressions is helpful.”

By the third or fourth concert, Hoffman says, students can anticipate the qualities of the sound they’re about to hear and compare what they really hear to what they expected to hear. Students learn to listen for factors like the “direction of the early energy, the bass response, the pizzicato of the strings, the distinctness of attack, and the articulation of the sound — but also the spaciousness of the sound,” says Hoffman.

They also explore the difference between the halls and discuss how the design or technical qualities can influence the sound. “It is essential to benchmark our experiences against many of the ‘standards’ of the concert hall repertoire, around the world,” Hoffman says.

The Concertgebouw, in Amsterdam, one of the beloved examples of a 19th century shoebox hall.

JORGE FRANGANILLO CC BY 2.0

What better place to learn about acoustics than in the physical spaces where music is performed?

Peabody graduate students in acoustical studies participate in field learning by researching and experimenting in each of the concert halls on campus, as well as many around the Baltimore area. Most recently, some students have participated in a pilot program that offers them direct, applied learning from some of the most famous concert halls in the world.

Ian Bryan Hoffman — the faculty member who leads leads the audio sciences, acoustical studies concentration — is an architect and an expert in room acoustics and performance space design. For the past two years, during spring break week, Hoffman has led students on listening tours of concert halls in Reykjavik, Amsterdam, Paris, Vienna, Prague, and Berlin. Their tours have taken them to contemporary halls like the Philharmonie de Paris, opened in 2015, and traditional shoebox halls like the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, and Musikverein, in Vienna, dating from the late 19th century.

“There’s really nothing that can describe the feeling you get from being in the space,” says Kate Wagner (MA ’18, Audio Sciences), who participated in each of the last two trips. “Your own impressions inform your opinion of acoustics; you develop a taste or an aesthetic for different types of rooms.”

Over seven or eight concentrated days, students (six the first year and about a dozen last spring) and their faculty and guest-expert chaperones travel to three or four cities, attending performances night after night.

Hoffman arranges for tickets in each concert hall in consistent locations — the first row of the highest balcony, on the sides, and near the rear of the main floor — where students take notes, draw sketches, and then compare their experiences from place to place. In each concert, the group splits up into multiple seating locations, and then switch seats during intermission, in order to gain a second perspective for the second half.

The Berlin Philharmonie (above) was the first concert hall with a vineyard-style seating arrangement, which has been emulated in the Philharmonie de Paris (right) and concert halls in Los Angeles, Hamburg, and Copenhagen.

The trip is not just about acoustic performance, but the experience helps students to connect music and buildings with history and place. For example, the formally unique Berlin Philharmonie opened in 1963, overlooking the former Berlin Wall, not only as a home for the renowned Berlin Philharmonic, but as a symbol of free thought and creativity juxtaposed against the Communist east. Its social historical value and “its reason for being exactly where it is, is much deeper than only the music and acoustics,” says Hoffman, “and those things start to connect with the students.”

Eric Engler (BM ’18, Jazz Trumpet), a recording arts and audio sciences student, says the trip allowed him to “see the cultures that created these halls.” He adds, “To be able to be fully immersed in the city and then listen to these concerts in these really unbelievable halls that, in a lot of ways, we just don’t have the equivalent of in the U.S. was really quite an amazing experience.”

Hoffman hopes this field study can expand into a course in the curriculum, one critical to the experiential learning in the graduate program in acoustical studies.

—— Margaret Bell

Preparatory Revives Chamber Music for Adults Pianist Michael Auerbach, a professor of medicine at Georgetown and a hematologist and oncologist, has studied music his entire life, except for a brief time during medical school. Music, he says, “is one of the great things we’ve given to ourselves as humans.”

So Auerbach is thrilled to be part of a chamber music duo with cellist Dominique Ashen, a PhD cardiology nurse practitioner. The two study with Lura Johnson (’01, Piano) through the Preparatory’s chamber music program for adults, which was revived last January.

Johnson, who regularly plays piano for the Baltimore Symphony and has taught piano minors at the Peabody Conservatory since 2002, says she loves working with adult students and finds it to be a very different experience than working with typical Conservatory students. “Adults come to the process with more specific goals related to self-improvement and growth. It’s a more self-directed motivation,” she says.

Auerbach and Ashen, who practice together at least once a week, are currently working on the Schumann Fantasiestücke. “Having a teacher like Lura is a gift,” says Auerbach, who also studies privately with Johnson.

“The nuances that she elucidates for us in the lessons are filled with things that I would never notice.”

Johnson, who is also teaching a viola/ piano duo through the chamber music program, says she respects and is inspired by the musicians’ willingness to be part of a group and to be vulnerable in the name of “playing music, connecting with people, and growing.”

Ensemble lessons are often more guided rehearsal times than coaching, because the students typically don’t get much practice time together, says Johnson. She’s found the students enjoy the detailed work and the opportunity for personal growth.

Johnson remembers one point toward the end of the spring semester, when an ensemble mastered an accelerando after lots of hard work and one of the players said happily, “This is why we do this!”

—— Margaret Bell

SUNDAYS @3:30PM SEP 16, 2018

BENJAMIN PASTERNACK, PIANO

SEP 30, 2018

MORGAN STATE UNIVERSITY CHOIR

OCT 27, 2018 (5:00PM)

DAVID SIMON: A TRIBUTE CONCERT

NOV 04, 2018 ZODIAC TRIO

SUNDAYS @7:30PM CHAMBER MUSIC BY CANDLELIGHT All Chamber Music by Candlelight concerts are programmed and performed by Baltimore Symphony musicians

SEP 23, 2018 OCT 21, 2018 NOV 11, 2018

For more information call 443.759.3309 or visit CommunityConcertsAtSecond.org

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2018 COMMENCEMENT in Photos On May 23, the Peabody Conservatory held its 136th graduation exercises, where 67 Bachelor of Music degrees, 126 Master of Music degrees, seven Master of Arts degrees, 40 Graduate Performance Diplomas, two Artist Diplomas, and seven Doctor of Musical Arts degrees were conferred.

Dean Fred Bronstein (top-left photo) presented the George Peabody Medal for Outstanding Contributions to Music in America to Leon Fleisher, and Deborah Rutter, president of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, gave the commencement address. Ear-training faculty member Clinton Adams (top-right photo) received the Johns Hopkins University Alumni Association Excellence in Teaching Award.

ALL PHOTOS BY HOMEWOOD PHOTOGRAPHY

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Watch the 2018 Commencement: youtu.be/-vR7Kqwel7I

Set to LAUNCH The driving force behind the Peabody Conservatory’s innovative Breakthrough Curriculum is the need to provide today’s young artists with the training and skills required to be successful in their careers — skills that extend beyond simply being an excellent musician or dancer. Through specialized coursework and a new, more varied ensemble program, students are gaining musical flexibility and confidence in programming, community engagement, public speaking, and other critical career skills.

Now, Peabody’s career services office is evolving to better complement the curriculum — with a new name, new focus, and new leadership in interim director Zane Forshee (MM ’01, GPD ’03, DMA ’11, Guitar).

LAUNCHPad will provide a comprehensive suite of support, strategies, and tools for students and recent graduates to forge real-world careers in performance, teaching, citizen artistry, and arts leadership.

Working in close collaboration with Conservatory studio faculty, LAUNCHPad will empower students to define what success means for them from the start of their time at Peabody — by beginning to build relationships and portfolios long before graduation.

“There’s so much more to launching your career than sending out résumés and taking auditions,” notes Forshee, an alumnus, performing artist, and member of the guitar faculty who also teaches ACTIVATE: Strategic Career Preparation. “We want students to think about what’s possible, to envision their ideal future, and begin to forge the path to create that future. And we stand ready to serve as partners and coaches, helping young artists to set and achieve their career goals.”

LAUNCHPad’s new model of career coaching will put the emphasis on holistic student growth and development, while still helping identify opportunities for internships, residencies, fellowships, paid performances, and grant funding.

The office — staff members include Christina Manceor (MM ’17, Percussion) and Robin McGinness (MM ’17, Voice) — will continue to provide career development workshops and presentations, including visits by professionals in the field.

One piece of LAUNCHPad’s work this fall is leading the introduction at Peabody of Handshake, a new online career services platform rolling out across all Johns Hopkins divisions this year.

To learn more about LAUNCHPad, whose offices are across from Goodwin Recital Hall, visit: peabody.jhu.edu/Launchpad.

—— Tiffany Lundquist

Guitarist Zane Forshee takes on a new role as interim director of LAUNCHPad.

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Making the BSO's Rich History Accessible Having performed more than a century’s worth of concerts, the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra has a rich history of public performance.

Now, a new collaboration between the BSO and the Music Library Association’s Atlantic chapter looks to make information about thousands of concerts accessible to a wide audience of scholars and music lovers.

Peabody Institute librarians Kathleen DeLaurenti and Matt Testa and Catholic University graduate student Paul Sommerfeld are working with BSO ensemble librarian Michael Ferraguto to gather concert information from electronic records and archived concert programs. The librarians are building and refining a data set about the orchestra’s thousands of public performances, with

2018-19 |

information on where and when the concerts took place, what pieces the orchestra played, and who performed as a conductor or soloist.

“Performance data provides an immense, rich data set for our scholars and researchers. The New York Philharmonic has been leading the way with making this kind of information available to patrons and scholars,” says DeLaurenti, head librarian of the Peabody Institute and chair of the Music Library Association Atlantic Chapter. “[This project] will provide a fun tool for BSO patrons to see how often their favorite Beethoven symphony has been on the program … [and] that information will give researchers important insight into representation, trends, and popularity of repertoire.”

&SONG

FINE VIOLINS ANTHONY BLAKE CLARK Music Director

BRAHMS: A GERMAN REQUIEM

SING-ALONG MESSIAH

Kraushaar Auditorium at Goucher College

Kraushaar Auditorium at Goucher College

Brahms’ virtuosic vocal writing leads you on a heartening journey from loss and despair to comfort in his “London Version” for piano four-hand.

The Baltimore Choral Arts Chorus invites area choruses and YOU to join in and enjoy highlights of Handel’s great oratorio.

John D. Miller John Henry Anthony Blake Clark Scenes from a Heroic Story Schütz “Selig sind die Toten” Brahms Ein deutsches Requiem

LITTLE MATCH GIRL

Sunday, October 28, 2018 at 3 pm

CHRISTMAS WITH CHORAL ARTS Tuesday, December 4, 2018 at 7:30 pm

The Baltimore Basilica, 409 Cathedral Street

Holiday choral favorites with a bold twist – a brass bonanza! Thirteen of Baltimore’s most talented symphonic brass instrumentalists, two percussionists, and Associate Conductor Leo Wanenchak on organ join the Chorus this season.

CHRISTMAS FOR KIDS

Saturday, December 15, 2018 at 11 am Kraushaar Auditorium at Goucher College

Baltimore Choral Arts brings holiday cheer to the entire family, as the ever-popular Pepito the Clown tells a brand new Christmas story.

PICK2 or MORE Concerts and Save!

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PERRIN & ASSOCIATES

A Season of

STORY

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The resulting data set will be openly available to researchers on a GitHub site and will have an interactive interface hosted through a partnership with the Open Music Library.

“We hope this is just the first step in uncovering the amazing archives of the BSO,” DeLaurenti says. “The orchestra has been a centerpiece to the musical life of Baltimore for over 100 years, and we’re excited to make that history available to the citizens of Baltimore and the global research community.”

This project is funded by the Atlantic Chapter of the Music Library Association, with additional funding from the Music Library Association Chapter Grant program.

Sunday, December 16, 2018 at 3 pm

Sunday, February 10, 2019 at 3 pm Falvey Hall, Brown Center at MICA

This a cappella performance of the Baltimore Choral Arts Chamber Singers recounts Hans Christian Andersen’s Little Match Girl in this unique MICA mash-up!

Bach Four Chorales from St. Matthew Passion Stephen Chatman How Sweet and Fair David Lang the little match girl passion

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Sunday, May 12, 2019 at 3 pm

Kraushaar Auditorium at Goucher College

Two dramatic tales come vividly to life with blockbuster choral music and collaborations with Muse 360 Arts, The Maryland State Boychoir, The Larks of the Junior League of Baltimore and more.

Mendelssohn Die erste Walpurgisnacht Jonathan Dove The Monster in the Maze

BaltimoreChoralArts.org | 410.523.7070

517 North Charles Street, Baltimore, MD 21201.

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

This fall, Peabody welcomes the first Conservatory students matriculating into its new Music for New Media and BFA Dance programs. Their education here is supported by a host of new faculty, discipline-specific courses, and specialized facilities. Here, a snapshot of what each of the new programs has added to the Peabody community.

MUSIC for NEW MEDIA Designed for students interested in composing and producing music for emerging areas of non-linear entertainment such as computer games, virtual reality, and augmented reality.

Number of students, Fall 2018:

14 Faculty includes: Thomas Dolby, director; Chris Kennedy Degree offered: Bachelor of Music HOMEWOOD PHOTOGRAPHY

Sample Courses: The Tools of New Media, Sound Design for Video Games, Introduction to Programming, Recording for Musicians, Composition Lessons

DANCE Prepares students to be at the forefront of dance innovation through performance, choreographic and crucial historical and theoretical exploration.

Number of students, Fall 2018:

15 Faculty includes: danah bella, chair; Yin Yue, visiting artist in dance; jhon r. stronks, artist in residence in dance Degree offered: Bachelor of Fine Arts Sample Courses: Ballet, Modern Dance, Dance of the Diaspora, Improv/Authentic Movement, Choreography

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MUSICIANS on CALL

By Christine Grillo Photography by Keith Weller

Clad

in a yellow isolation gown in a hospital room at Johns Hopkins Hospital, Peabody master's piano student Misael Tambuwun plays Beethoven’s “Für Elise” on his keyboard. When he finishes, he leans over and asks for requests.

“How about some Mozart?” says Stephanie Battles, a kidney recipient and Tambuwun’s primary audience.

So Tambuwun launches into Mozart’s “Turkish March,” and Battles, who has just finished today’s dialysis, is all ears. She perks up in her hospital chair as the young pianist performs. Nurses come around the corner and give the thumbs-up from the hall.

Battles’ husband, Joseph McDonald, sits next to her, also enjoying the concert.

“Now I know why he [was] at Carnegie,” says Battles.

She’s referring to a recent performance at Carnegie Hall in which Tambuwun’s own composition — on flute, piano, and violin — was performed.

Tambuwun has been performing at the comprehensive transplant unit of Johns Hopkins Hospital since

April, playing once a week as part of the Musicians on Call pilot program. He wheels a Yamaha keyboard to rooms with patients who have requested music and plays a short program pairing pieces he’s selected with patient favorites.

This pilot program, launched with Tambuwun and double degree student in oboe and public health Sophia Lou, is one of several initiatives born of the Center for Music and Medicine, a collaboration between the Peabody Institute and Johns Hopkins Medicine that aims to advance wellness for musicians as well as the use of music in medical and therapeutic settings. Other initiatives include a singing project for dementia patients and a choral group for Parkinson’s patients.

The aim of Musicians on Call is to help student musicians develop flexibility and communications skills as performers while improving the quality of life for patients — and to boost the mood of health care providers, as well.

Misael Tambuwun performs bedside at Johns Hopkins Hospital.

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“This is a wonderful opportunity for musicians …

They get to see the value of their music, and it helps clarify why they’re doing what they’re doing — and why music matters.”

— Sarah Hoover

Kidney patient Stephanie Battles, and husband Joseph Battles, find Tambuwun’s music a welcome antidote during her repeated hospital stays. Hospital staff members say they also get a lift.

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“This is a wonderful opportunity for musicians to forge an important part of their musical identity within the health care context,” says Sarah Hoover, associate dean for innovation, interdisciplinary partnerships and community initiatives at Peabody. “They get to see the value of their music, and it helps clarify why they’re doing what they’re doing — and why music matters.”

Hoover points out that Peabody is currently the only conservatory in the nation that requires all of its students to engage with the community as part of their musical education, thanks to the Conservatory’s Breakthrough Curriculum, launched last fall.

The idea for the Musicians on Call partnership came from former patient Melissa Grant. When her water broke early in her pregnancy, she was admitted to the hospital and stayed for two months — plus another month once her son was born. “For 91 days, I didn’t leave the hospital,” she says. “I received wonderful care, but it’s a tumultuous time.”

Feeling compelled to address the emotional needs of long-term patients, she joined the hospital’s Patient and Family Advisory Council. “You can be very grateful for the care you’re receiving, but at the same time you’re away from your home, your family, your work, and anxiety and depression can become

prevalent,” she says. One of the offerings that she and Hoover came up with was Musicians on Call, to lift patients’ spirits.

Battles has been admitted to the hospital six times in 2018, facing complications after a kidney transplant. “I wish they gave frequent flyer miles,” she jokes.

But she’s grateful for the live music that she and her husband have been able to enjoy during her stays. At different points in her life she’s played trumpet, saxophone, and oboe, and she’s always loved music — so Tambuwun’s performances are one antidote to the frustration of spending so much time in the hospital.

“It means something,” says Battles.

The nurses in the transplant unit say they’ve seen immediate benefits to patients resulting from the hospital-room concerts. Nurse clinician Dee Charoenpon says, “You see them light up. The religious patients especially like the hymns, and you’ll find them singing along.”

“I think it brings them joy and soothes their anxiety,” says fellow nurse Miguel Briones.

“Some patients who are here for a long time start to get stir crazy. But the music helps with their anxiety,” notes Guy Chapman, the clinical customer service coordinator for the unit.

Tambuwun, who has also performed in the maternity inpatient unit, recalls a particularly moving performance there: One of the patients broke out in song, accompanying his keyboard performance by singing the lyrics to the opera aria, “O Mio Babbino Caro,” while a small crowd of other expectant mothers listened and applauded.

Patients aren’t the only ones who benefit from the Musicians on Call program. The unit’s staff members also feel their spirits lift when they see Tambuwun and hear his music.

“When I see him coming, I just feel happy … I want him to come all the time. Some days are really stressful, and this helps.”

— Apolonia Chukwu

Apolonia “Apple” Chukwu, technician; Dee Charoenpon, RN; Amy Pond, RN; and Miguel Briones, RN, take a break to enjoy the music.

“When I see him coming, I just feel happy,” says Apolonia Chukwu, a technician on the transplant unit. “I love it. I want him to come all the time. Some days are really stressful, and this helps.”

Sometimes when Tambuwun plays hymns, Chukwu sings along, reciting lyrics by heart from songs such as “The Old Rugged Cross.”

Hymns are a natural go-to for Tambuwun, who “grew up in church” in Indonesia, where both his parents are pastors. He learned music by memory there, especially contemporary Christian music and hymns, and he earned his undergraduate degree in composition at Texas A&M. Before moving to Baltimore, he played piano in nursing homes in Texas and served as the music director at a non-denominational church in Philadelphia. At Peabody, he’s just begun his second year of a two-year MM degree.

Hoover says the pilot of Musicians on Call was so successful that the program will add more days this fall, with additional student musicians. Tambuwun is thrilled to continue working with the program.

“In this work with patients, I learn to read emotions and share what people want to hear,” says Tambuwun.

“It’s a special kind of satisfaction.”

Watch the video for the Breakthrough Curriculum: youtu.be/LYKk9EAM6yA

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MIKE MAGUIRE

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Telling a

Social Story

by Richard Byrne

Samuel Mungo, managing director of the Peabody Opera Theatre, is blunt, even bullish.

“We live in a golden age of American opera,” he says.

Until the last few decades, one might not have thought so. The emotional grandiosity and lavish production values of traditional opera have long been fettered tightly to audience expectations, with little room for growth.

A new sort of opera is now pressing its claims, often in smaller performance spaces. These works strip away massive stage machinery, thin plots, and bombast to cultivate greater intimacy and emotional forthrightness. “The fat lady’s dead,” quips Mungo.

“She represents something that was not accessible by the average human being not steeped in classical ideals.”

Traditional opera is expensive, and shrinking institutional budgets have driven some of the shift to newer modes. And while Mungo says that “there will always be a place for opulent opera productions,” contemporary composers have seized upon the opportunities offered by a “leaner and meaner opera.”

Faculty artist Ah Young Hong performs in Michael Hersch's opera On the Threshold of Winter at Peabody.

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Hersch says that “over the years, a broadening expectation of what the operatic experience might mean has allowed an augmenting freedom for composers to continue to push the format into areas which may stray from historical expectation.”

Du Yun agrees that opera is undergoing “a big renaissance” that “allows producers to put more mobile operas on a smaller stage. The opera is no longer tied to the big stage.” She is not surprised to find herself in a wave of composers exploring opera.

“It’s not just me,” she continues. “It’s all the people I’ve been working with over the past 10 years. We’ve been growing together. And that’s very exciting.”

Mungo says the focus in these new works on creating true emotion and character “brings us to the apex of an opportunity to do some beautiful and important things. And one of those things is to tell a social story.”

Peabody composers Michael Hersch (above) and Du Yun (right) are both involved in what Yun describes as “a big renaissance” in opera.

GIORGIA FANELLI

Feathers Are Prickly Things

In the program notes of a concert reading of Angel’s Bone, librettist Royce Vavrak recalled the work’s conception.

“How about a piece about angels,” said I. “How about a piece about prostitution,” said she. And an idea was born.

In the same program notes, Du Yun drew explicit connections between child prostitution in Thailand In operas such as George Benjamin’s Written on and human trafficking in the United States. She took Skin (2012), or Thomas Adès’ The Exterminating Angel particular note of “the middle men, the pimps” in (2016), postmodernism exerts a profound gravity. these sordid and devastating transactions: “I am very These composers deploy shifting narrative view- interested in the middle man’s mind. Why? How? Who points, surrealism, and fallen angels to mirror the are they? What’s going on? Why do they make the kinetic energies of wired modern life. choice they make? Greed? Conviction? Desire? Lust?”

Yet an even more profound development is the Angel’s Bone has garnered immense attention. Its fearless gaze that today’s operas cast upon some of disparate musical forms — choral music, the squonk the most serious issues in modern society: human of dark electronics — collide and collaborate to depict trafficking, terminal illness, gender transition, and innocence wrenched violently into exploitation and military hazing. perversion, and a deep darkness lurking beneath Peabody faculty composers Du Yun and Michael seemingly placid lives. As key lines from the libretto Hersch (BM ’95, MM ’97, Composition) are among the articulate it: artists engaged in this important work.

Du Yun’s searing and combustible opera, Angel’s Bone, won the 2017 Pulitzer Prize for music. It is a Feathers are prickly things work that connects human trafficking to the seemIn the wrong hands. ingly placid surfaces of contemporary life.

The softness turns sharp Michael Hersch, chair of the Composition With greed.

Department, has written two acclaimed operas grappling with terminal illness. On the Threshold of Winter and a new companion piece, I hope we get to visit soon, draw upon Hersch’s own experiences with While Du Yun is adamant that “art does not solve cancer, as well as poetical and personal explorations problems,” she does take great interest in the way that of terminal illness. the role of art resembles and differs from journalistic

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Watch the trailer for Angel's Bone: youtu.be/Z1kXcbU3gKI

efforts to grapple with social issues. “If journalists can report on a problem, why can’t a composer take that role? We should not shy away, as long as we really are doing a great job,” she says.

Du Yun points out that television can show its audiences terrible images on a 24-hour basis. Yet this repetition often degrades one’s moral responses to the tragedy. “The brain is active, but the heart dies,” she says. “It closes up.”

Art activates something else when it addresses an issue such as human trafficking. “Awareness can happen in many different forms,” she observes.

“You can focus on an emotional arc, and you can align yourself to the textures in a story. It also has a sustained rippling impact. That is a powerful tool the artist has.”

Du Yun says she did not anticipate the acclaim for Angel’s Bone, and the discussions it has spurred. The key to pushing opera into new territory, she says, is to “do what you want to do, and create more of a dialogue. If you do that with integrity, bravado, and vitality, sometimes it does show.”

A scene from Du Yun’s Angel’s Bone.

The Work of Dying Elegy articulates the loss that death creates in those left behind. But Michael Hersch’s two operas — On the Threshold of Winter and I hope we get to visit soon — grapple with something more complex and immediate. Hersch’s works fuse the elegiac tradition with harrowing direct utterances of those dying from terminal illness.

Drawing on poetry, philosophy, and emails exchanged with a friend who died of cancer, Hersch’s operas are music of unsparing ferocity and pain.

Grief is not mere reflection, but an intense personal struggle, as mind and spirit wrestle with inevitable and imminent death.

Some of Hersch’s chamber and orchestral work draws inspiration from the works of Thomas Hardy, Robert Lowell, and Friedrich Hölderlin. But On the Threshold of Winter (2012), a monodrama in two acts, was his first opera.

“I did not attempt to write opera until I felt the work I composed required the need for the work to be seen, in addition to heard,” says Hersch, “and that which was to be observed required a particular visual atmosphere, in addition to musical elements engaging with singers or speakers.”

A staging of On the Threshold of Winter, which was made into a concert film, creates a landscape of shrouding and unveiling, small lights of truth

“I think opera is ideally positioned to tell the story of the oppressed … to tell the story of social ideals and issues.”

— Samuel Mungo PEABODY

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In composing I hope we get to visit soon, Michael Hersch found inspiration in emails from his close friend Mary O’Reilly (pictured above), who died from cancer.

glimpsed in vast darkness, and the visceral force of blood. The New York Times wrote that the opera’s 2014 premiere in New York “rendered the terror and indignities of terminal illness so viscerally that … it left the audience shellshocked and the soloist [Peabody faculty member Ah Young Hong (BM ’98, MM ’01, Voice)] in tears.”

Hersch himself is a cancer survivor, as is his wife, Karen Klaiber Hersch. At the same time that the composer was undergoing treatment, his close friend, historian Mary O’Reilly, also became ill from cancer and died.

O’Reilly’s death spurred Hersch to compose On the Threshold of Winter. As he cast about for words, the composer was reading Romanian poet Marin Sorescu’s The Bridge, which had been translated into English by a neighbor. The book comprises Sorescu’s final poems, written as he lay dying of cancer.

“There was a particular quality to Sorescu’s expression that I found especially searing, even outside the context of the shared experience of cancer,” says Hersch. The composer recalls thinking that the first lines of Sorescu he read resonated deeply with emails he exchanged with O’Reilly before her death:

So the composer went back to the emails, and found the seeds of I hope we get to visit soon in them.

The libretto also includes verse written by Rebecca Elson, a Canadian astronomer and poet who died of cancer in 1999. Hersch says Elson “seemed to be able to capture in her words many of the thoughts and feelings Mary often avoided discussing or expressing.

The juxtaposition of the two women’s words completed something of a portrait of the experience of the disease as I witnessed it in Mary.”

Says Hersch, “It is not my intention to start a conversation, though I’m happy if one results.

Certainly terminal illness is something that affects nearly everyone, whether personally, or with loved ones, but ultimately it is a private affair.” The public component of this private work, he adds, is to create spaces where audiences can “engage with art which doesn’t attempt in any way to sanitize certain aspects of our time and lives, and this is, no doubt, a positive thing.”

Bringing in New Worlds

As Peabody composers blaze new trails in contemporary opera that tackles social themes, Samuel Mungo is creating pathways for these kinds of works at Peabody Opera Theatre.

This winter as part of its Opera Outreach program, Peabody will present Laura Kaminsky’s As One, a chamber opera that explores the internal struggles of Hannah, a transgender character who gropes to reach balance within herself and with the world outside.

Hannah’s transition finds expression in two voices: a baritone and a mezzo-soprano.

“Mary’s death remains something very much unre“Sometimes, the character identifies as a woman; solved for me and within me, and in the almost sometimes, as a man,” says Mungo. “Sometimes, decade since she passed away, I have come no nearer there are duets. It’s very sensitive in its ability to tell to any sense of closure,” says Hersch. the story of the transgender experience.”

Devils have entered me ...

There are throngs of them, legions.

Hordes that kick me with unclean hooves And poke me inside with sharp horns.

The doctors say I have one in every cell.

Goaded from somewhere inside by flames.

I’ve no idea how they might be contained.

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Watch the trailer for On the Threshold of Winter: youtu.be/NezULkfSF5w FALL 2018

Samuel Mungo is the managing director of the Peabody Opera Theatre.

HOMEWOOD PHOTOGRAPHY

In the spring, Peabody will present a contemporary opera that investigates the human costs of conflict.

Zach Redler’s The Rising and the Falling examines the interior journey of an unnamed female soldier felled by a roadside IED and placed in a coma to facilitate the healing of her brain.

“All these people are people we know,” Mungo observes. “People we see every day. It forces the audience to look at themselves through these characters.

We buy into the idea of huge emotions because the music brings us there.”

Mungo’s efforts also directly extend into the community. Earlier this year, Peabody’s Opera Outreach program presented English composer Errollyn Wallen’s Anon to audiences across the region, including those at the Kennedy Center for the Arts. Anon is a retelling of the classic 18th-century novel Manon Lescaut, but viewed through a strongly feminist prism that foregrounds its themes of human trafficking and exploitation.

Mungo says the vibrant post-show discussions for Anon showed him how vital the combination of music and theatre that opera represents can be in addressing social issues, especially at a moment when, he believes, Broadway musicals are edging away from more daring work.

“I think opera is ideally positioned to tell the story of the oppressed,” Mungo says. “To tell the story of social ideals and issues.” He believes the new wave of operas presents “a great opportunity to fill the void and become the social mirror. To take on the mantle of being the social mirror … the art that makes you look at what we have become and what we are.”

Tia Price as Alma Stinney (left), and Tariq Al-Sabir as George Stinney Sr. in the 2015 production of Stinney.

Acclaim for Stinney In 2014, then-graduate-student Frances Pollock (MM ’15, Voice) received a Johns Hopkins University Diversity Innovation Grant supporting the creation of Stinney, an opera telling the true story of a black 14-year-old who was wrongly accused and convicted of a brutal crime, executed, and — 70 years later — exonerated.

The sold-out and critically acclaimed premiere, which was semi-staged in Baltimore in May 2015, launched Pollock’s career as a composer focused on complex social issues. Her What Gets Kept, with libretto by Vanessa Moody, explores medically assisted suicide as a family struggles with terminal illness, and was selected for the Washington National Opera’s 2017 American Opera Initiative Festival. Most recently, Pollock was selected as one of six composers to participate in Composers & the Voice, a two-year training program where composers, librettists, and singers collaborate to create new vocal works. Meanwhile, she has continued to develop Stinney, which is now programmed for New York City’s prestigious Prototype Festival, with performances on January 12 and 13.

Frances Pollock

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A LUM N I N EWS Dear Alumni and Friends of Peabody, I am excited to be president of the Society of Peabody Alumni at a time when the school is engaging with its alumni in so many ways. Last year, Dean Bronstein asked that alumni work closely with admissions, career services, development, and marketing, because he is keenly aware of the value of Peabody’s alumni. I am happy to share that there are projects moving forward in all those areas.

The admissions office has always appreciated the fact that alumni are the best examples of the benefits of a Peabody education, and they are eager to engage us in the formation of relationships with young performers, teachers, and influential figures in the music world. Director of Admissions John Huling reached out to several groups of alumni around the world last year and looks forward to working with more of you in the coming years. To get involved, please contact him at jhuling1@jhu.edu.

Career Services is now a multifaceted area at Peabody, with career development skills built into the new curriculum, and the office evolving into LAUNCHPad where staff members help transform artistic talents and passions into careers (see story on page 9). Alumni are encouraged to be special guests at LAUNCH @ Lunch, a weekly lunch-hour initiative engaging students on different topics. To participate in this initiative

MARK YOUR CALENDARS! Reunion Weekend will be

FRIDAY, APRIL 26 through

SUNDAY, APRIL 28.

or explore other ways you can be involved with the LAUNCHPad office and its programs, please contact Zane Forshee at zforshe1@jhu.edu.

Dean Bronstein has put an ambitious five-year plan in place that both lays out a strong programmatic direction around Peabody’s Five Pillars, and at the same time, places Peabody on an increasingly strong financial footing for the future. Success will depend on the entire Peabody community working together, and alumni can be helpful in many ways.

Of course, first and foremost I hope you will make a gift to Peabody this year. Gifts of any size are extremely valuable to the school, particularly from alumni, because they not only help the bottom line but also show other potential donors that alumni continue to believe in the direction of the school. Alumni can be helpful by spreading Peabody news through their social media channels, being volunteers for special crowd funding and giving days, and providing constructive ideas and feedback to the development team. To find out more, and help in this area, please contact the alumni office: peabodyalumni@jhu.edu.

Communication is vital in this time of rapid change, and the mediums we use for communications are changing rapidly as well. If you haven’t responded already, I hope that you will respond to the Johns Hopkins Alumni Association’s university-wide

survey to help both the university and Peabody better understand the engagement and communication preferences of alumni. You’ve probably also received information about Peabody’s alumni directory project.

PCI is doing a lot of work for us to update the emails, addresses, and phone numbers of alumni in our database. We really want to be able to get invitations and newsletters out to ALL alumni. Even if you think all is well with your information, please take a few minutes to talk with PCI and confirm the details. The directory will be Peabody only (not all of JHU) and will include a handy section in the front with lots of Peabody fun facts, including a list of all the directors/deans in Peabody’s history (to help jog your memory …). If you have any questions or concerns about the directory or the project, please reach out to the alumni office: peabodyalumni@jhu.edu.

And speaking of communication, I want to make sure you mark your calendar and save the date for Peabody’s Homecoming/Reunion activities, April 26–28, 2019. I hope to see you there!

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Braphus Kaalund (BM ’02, Trumpet) President, Society of Peabody Alumni

Congratulations to this year’s Johns Hopkins Alumni Association Award winners!

Formal presentations of the awards will take place in the next few months.

Johns Hopkins University Heritage Award Allan and Claire Jensen, Friends of Peabody Paul Matlin (BM ’70, MM ’72, Viola; Bus BS ’81, Mathematics; ENGR MS ’84, Computer Science)

Johns Hopkins University Distinguished Alumni Award Vivian Adelberg Rudow (TC ’57, BM ’60, Piano; MM ’79, Composition)

Johns Hopkins University Outstanding Recent Graduate Award Zachary Herchen (BM ’06, MM ’09, Saxophone; BM ’07, Recording Arts & Sciences)

Johns Hopkins University Community Hero Award Daniel Trahey (BM ’00, Tuba, Music Education)

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Best,

DEPA RTM ENT N EWS Peabody student, faculty, and alumni news all in one place, sorted by department to make it easier for you to find your colleagues and classmates.

BR A S S

NEW FACULTY

Peabody trumpet faculty artist Joe Burgstaller performed with several former and current students at the International Trumpet Guild Conference in San Antonio last spring. He also performed as part of Ryan Anthony’s “Cancer Blows” concert, with Doc Severinsen leading several trumpet soloists in front of the United States Air Force Band of the West; and was featured on the cover of the Spring 2018 issue of Woodwind & Brasswind’s Magazine and Catalog, which goes out to 40,000 subscribers.

DMA candidate Brandon Cave, trumpet, has won a position with the Navy Fleet Band.

NEW FACULTY

C O M PO SITIO N

Born in Porto, Portugal, ABEL PEREIRA was appointed principal horn of the National Symphony Orchestra in 2014.

He was a founding member of the ARZTIZ Woodwind Quintet and Porto Brass Quintet, and the music director of the Portuguese Horn Ensemble. He is also music director of Eclipse Chamber Orchestra and was appointed music director of the Summer Music Institute Orchestra of the National Symphony Orchestra in 2017.

NEW FACULTY

WEI-PING CHOU holds the second horn position with the Kennedy Center Opera House Orchestra and Washington National Opera Orchestra. A native of Taoyuan, Taiwan, Chou was acting assistant principal horn for the San Diego Symphony from 2007 to 2011. As an active freelancer in New York City, she performed regularly with orchestras and chamber groups such as the Orchestra of St. Luke’s and American Symphony Orchestra.

See Jordan Dinkins in WOODWINDS

Sam Hughes (BM ’18, Trumpet) has won the position of principal trumpet of the Thunder Bay Symphony Orchestra, a Canadian professional orchestra located between Toronto and Winnipeg.

Faculty artist Dan Trahey (BM ’00, Tuba, Music Education) led a daylong workshop in collective composition for The Ravinia Festival and Chicago Public Schools arts teachers in April. He also traveled to Honduras as part of a State Department initiative working with the Honduran Youth Orchestra.

Faculty artist Judah Adashi (MM ’02, DMA ’11, Composition) released a track, No Refuge: For the Love of The Game, to coincide with Super Bowl. The piece was part of a collaboration with Tariq Touré, whose poem, “Colin Kaepernick: For the Love of The Game,” served as partial inspiration.

All proceeds from this piece went to Know Your Rights Camp, a campaign for youth that is fully funded by Kaepernick.

Master’s candidate Camila Agosto had several works premiered in New York. In June, imprint premiered at the Areté Gallery in Brooklyn, and todavia premiered at National Sawdust with the Refugee Orchestra Project performing it as part of the inaugural Hildegard Competition concert.

Nicholas Bentz (BM ’17, Composition; BM ’17, MM ’18, Violin) participated in the 2018 EarShot New Music Readings, a program of the American Composers Orchestra. Through EarShot, Benz was paired with the Jacksonville Symphony and received mentorship and private readings and feedback about his piece E.W. Korngold Goes to Kikkatsu.

See Gabriel Bouche Caro in GUITAR ROBERT REARDEN, horn, joined the National Symphony as second horn in 2016. He previously served as principal horn of the Florida Orchestra. He has performed regularly as guest musician with the Cleveland Orchestra, including multiple recordings and tours of Europe, Asia, and the U.S., and was a member of the New World Symphony.

He also appeared frequently as guest principal horn of the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra.

Brandon Sklute (BM ’18, Trumpet) has accepted a two-year position as second trumpet/assistant principal in the Wichita Symphony.

See Samuel Burt in JAZZ See Jordan Chase in GUITAR In March, Peter Dayton (MM ’16, Composition) released a new CD of chamber music for strings and piano, Notes to Loved Ones, Music for Strings and Piano. Lavena Johanson (MM ’13, Cello), Michael Sheppard (BM ’98, MM ’00, GPD ’03, Piano), Marika Suzuki (BM ’17, Violin), and master’s student Sarah Jane Thomas (BM ’17, Violin) perform on the album.

Natalie Draper (DMA ’17, Composition) has been awarded a tenure-track faculty position at Syracuse University, where she will teach theory and composition.

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DEPA RTM ENT N EWS Faculty artist Du Yun, composition, and Corinne Winters (MM ’07, Voice) were

TJ Martin (BM ’18, Composition) and

his team at Boba Studios have won $20,000 through MICA’s Up/Start Venture Competition. Their debut video game, Squirrely Roo Rabbit, involves using color theory to solve environmental challenges.

featured in Musical America’s special “Where Are They Now?” issue, which highlighted the best of Musical America’s New Artist of the Month past features and gave updates about their successes. Du Yun was also a co-curator of and participant in the annual Spring Revolution Festival of Music in March at National Sawdust in Williamsburg, N.Y. She programmed the festival with a focus on new works from Asian composers and a strong presence of female composers and musicians.

See Sean McFarland in MUSIC TECHNOLOGY See Edmund Scott Miller in GUITAR Faculty artist Kevin Puts, composition, will make his Santa Fe Opera debut with his work Letters from Georgia to be performed by soprano Renée Fleming in August 2019. He was awarded the Lancaster Symphony Orchestra 56th annual composer’s award, and the orchestra performed his music in April.

Peabody Composition Chair Michael Hersch (BM ’95, MM ’97, Composition) was the featured composer at the Ojai Music Festival in June, and his Images from a Closed Ward was chosen by violinist Patricia Kopatchinskaja as one of the top five recordings she “can’t live without.” She was interviewed by the Violin Channel and named the FLUX Quartet’s recording of Hersch’s music in her list.

Faculty artists Kevin Puts, composition, and Joel Puckett, music theory, will have their operas performed in Minnesota Opera’s 2018–19 season. Puts’ Pulitzer Prize-winning opera Silent Night will make its return to the company in November, and Puckett’s opera The Fix, about the 1919 Black Sox Scandal, will premiere in March 2019. Both of these operas were commissioned by Minnesota Opera.

Also see Michael Hersch in VOCAL STUDIES

HENRY FAIR

Amy Beth Kirsten (DMA ’10,

Composition) premiered a new work, Savior, about Joan of Arc. The April concert in Chicago was presented as part of the MusicNOW series and is a collaboration with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and HOWL ensemble.

Scott Lee (MM ’13, Composition) and Carlos Bandera (MM ’17, Composition) participated in the 27th annual Underwood New Music Readings held by the American Composers Orchestra in June.

Jake Runestad (MM ’11, Composition; MM ’12, Music Theory Pedagogy) was the featured composer for Carnegie Hall’s Convergence Festival, which concluded with a performance of Runestad’s works by the festival’s chorus of 600 singers.

He also guest conducted the Choral Arts Ensemble of Portland in April and had the Chicago premiere of his work Dreams of the Fallen in May. The Santa Fe Desert Chorale released a recording of Runestad’s Reflections, a piece they commissioned in 2016.

A new work by Peabody composition master’s candidate Samuel Saunders was premiered by an ensemble that included Jacques-Pierre Malan (GPD ’12, MM ’16, Cello; GPD ’13, Chamber Ensemble). The piece, Brightmoor, draws on themes that the composer developed while living in an abandoned house in Detroit, Mich.

C O ND UC TIN G Todd Craven (GPD ’18, Conducting) has

been appointed assistant conductor of the Buffalo Philharmonic.

Gonzalo Farias (GPD ’18, Conducting) has been appointed the new assistant conductor of the Virginia Symphony Orchestra.

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Faculty artist and violinist Courtney Orlando, music director of Now Hear This, performed at Carnegie Hall in March with Alarm Will Sound featuring the music of György Ligeti.

Peabody’s Ruth Blaustein Rosenberg Artistic Director of Ensembles Joseph Young (AD ’09, Conducting) was the resident conductor for the 2018 National Youth Orchestra of the USA’s three-week training program in July. Young also led master classes, chamber music readings, and seminars. In March, Young conducted the Detroit Symphony Orchestra at a concert that marked the 40th anniversary of the orchestra’s Classical Roots Program, which honors African-American composers, musicians, and educators for lifetime achievement and raises funds to support the orchestra’s music and development programs.

DA N C E NEW FACULTY

JHON R. STRONKS will be an artist-in-residence in the Conservatory dance program in the spring. He is the artistic director of jhon r. stronks|“there… in the sunlight,” a project heading for his independent choreography. He specializes in outreach education and pedagogy for special populations. His choreography has been commissioned by the Houston Metropolitan Dance Center, Urban Souls Dance Company, Houston Black Dance Festival, Highways Performance Space, and more.

NEW FACULTY

VIVALDI FOUR SEASONS FRI, OCT 19

8 PM

GRIEG PIANO CONCERTO SUN, OCT 28 YIN YUE is an artist-in-residence in the Conservatory dance program in the fall.

She is the artistic director and founder of the New York City-based contemporary dance ensemble YY Dance Company. Yue has been commissioned to create new works for Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, BalletX, NW Dance Project, and others. Born and raised in Shanghai, she trained in Chinese classical and folk dance, as well as classical ballet technique.

G U I TAR Faculty artist Manuel Barrueco (BM ’75, Guitar), artistic director of the Baltimore Classical Guitar Society, selected new works for a concert in February in celebration of the city and of the society’s 30th anniversary.

Compositions inspired by the city written by Gabriel Bouche Caro (MM ’17, Composition), DMA candidate Jordan Chase, and Edmund Scott Miller (MM ’15, Composition, Music Theory Pedagogy) were performed by Peabody guitarists Katie Cho, Zoe Johnstone Stewart (MM ’05, Guitar), Mengyi Li (MM ’17, Guitar), Jeremy Lyons (MM ’11, DMA ’15, Guitar; MM ’15, Musicology), Connor Milstead, and Shon Stelman (BM ’18, Guitar).

Faculty artist Serap Bastepe-Gray (BM ’96, MM ’99, Guitar) is part of an interdisciplinary team of researchers chosen to receive a 2018 Johns Hopkins Discovery Award for their proposal, “Step Into My Brain: Experiencing Depressive Brain with Virtual Reality.” The team also includes Lucy Bucknell (Arts & Sciences), Frederick Barrett (Medicine), and Annette Porter (Arts & Sciences).

3 PM

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FALL 2018

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DEPA RTM ENT N EWS The Charm City Trio — made up of Peabody students Jordan Colquitt, Tobias James, and Joseph Tollefsen — was selected as one of the three finalists at the Southern Guitar Festival Ensemble Competition. The group was invited to perform in the competition finals during the festival in Columbia, S.C., in June and won third place in the ensemble division.

NEW FACULTY

NEW FACULTY

MARGARET OWENS, Baroque oboe, has appeared with many of North America’s period-instrument ensembles, including American Bach Soloists, Apollo’s Fire, North Carolina Baroque Orchestra, Tafelmusik, and Tempesta di Mare. Owens has also made solo appearances with Arcanum, Berkshire Bach, Chatham Baroque, Four Nations, REBEL Baroque Ensemble, and the Sebastian Chamber Players.

Grammy-nominated pianist and composer ALEX BROWN is a Peabody Visiting Artist for the 2018–19 academic year. Brown has been a member of Paquito D’Rivera’s ensemble since 2007, performing on and contributing arrangements to their Latin Grammy award-winning album Jazz Meets the Classics. Brown collaborates frequently with vibraphonist Warren Wolf, steel pan virtuoso Victor Provost, and the classical wind quintet Imani Winds.

HARP See Michaela Trnkova in PREPARATORY

H ISTOR ICAL PER FORMANCE Junior Marc Armitano Domingo, viola da gamba, was featured in The New York Times as a “Maker to Know.” In New York, he creates porcelain plates and cups, which he sells under the name Botticelli Ceramics.

Faculty artist Mark Cudek (MM ’82, Lute) organized the 52nd annual Indianapolis Early Music Festival last summer.

Nola Richardson (MM ’10, Voice Pedagogy; MM ’11, Early Music Voice) won first prize in the 2018 Audrey Rooney Bach Competition presented by the Kentucky Bach Choir. She also recently sang at the National Cathedral with ACRONYM.

NEW FACULTY

JA ZZ

Amy Domingues (MM ’12, Viola da

Gamba) is a founding member of the early music ensemble Sonnambula, which has been appointed ensemble in residence for the 2018–19 season at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. Their first performance in residence will be "Sound and the City: Street Cries from Renaissance London" on Saturday, November 17, at 3:00 pm. Domingues served as faculty at the Madison Early Music Festival in 2017 at the University of Wisconsin and at the Viola da Gamba Society of America Conclave in 2018.

See Sarah Lynn in WOODWINDS

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Faculty artist Nasar Abadey, jazz percussion, received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the DC Jazz Festival in June at the Kennedy Center. He was also selected to serve on the Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation’s panel for the FrenchAmerican Jazz Exchange (FAJE). FAJE seeks to support ambitious projects that demonstrate ingenuity, artistry, and a vision for the evolving contemporary jazz scene.

Jazz bassist KRISTOPHER FUNN has toured internationally with alto saxophonist Kenny Garrett and traveled to every major jazz festival in the world with artists including Sean Jones, Benny Golson, Bruce Williams, Nicholas Payton, Warren Wolf, and many others.

Funn recently released his debut album, Cornerstore, and he continues to perform in the Washington, D.C., area, and elsewhere.

See Troy Long in MUSIC TECHNOLOGY

NEW FACULTY

See Kayin Scanterbury in MUSIC TECHNOLOGY NEW FACULTY

LAURA DILIBERTO

Baltimore native TIM GREEN, jazz saxophone, has played with some of the most recognized names in jazz, gospel, R&B, hip-hop, and pop music, including Christian McBride, Eric Reed, Mulgrew Miller, Jon Faddis, Queen Latifah, and Yolanda Adams. He has played in venues including Carnegie Hall, Radio City Music Hall, Disney Hall, the White House, and the Village Vanguard.

Several Peabody alumni and faculty received top prizes in the Maryland State Arts Council (MSAC) Individual Artist Awards, including faculty artists and jazz bassists Blake Meister (BM ’08, Jazz Double Bass) and Kristopher Funn, and alumni Todd Simon (BM ’07, Jazz Piano) and Patrick McMinn (MM ’12, Computer Music). Samuel Burt (MM ’05, Composition), Byung Kang (BM ’14, GPD ’16, Jazz Percussion), and Russell Kirk (BM ’05, Jazz Saxophone) were awarded second prizes. Third prizes were awarded to Adam Rosenblatt (BM ’10, Percussion; KSAS BS ’10, Molecular/Cellular Biology) and faculty artist Warren Wolf, vibraphone.

NEW FACULTY

CHARENÉE WADE, jazz voice, is a singer, composer, arranger, and educator. Her accolades include Betty Carter’s Jazz Ahead Program, where she performed her original music at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. Wade performs internationally and graces the stages of the Jazz Gallery, Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Dizzy’s Club Coca-Cola’s, and the Smalls and the Zinc Bar in NYC. Her debut CD, Love Walked In, was released in July 2010.

NEW FACULTY NEW FACULTY

JIMMY KATZ

Richard and Elizabeth Case Chair in Jazz Studies SEAN JONES is an internationally acclaimed trumpeter, bandleader, composer, and educator.

He has worked closely with Wynton Marsalis and the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, among many other leading jazz figures. A member of the Jazz Education Network’s Board of Directors, Jones also serves as artistic director of Carnegie Hall’s NYO Jazz, which made its Carnegie Hall debut and inaugural European tour last summer.

He has recently released his eighth recording, Live from Jazz at the Bistro, on Mack Avenue Records.

MATT STEVENS, jazz guitar, has been an essential contributor to new work by artists including Christian Scott, Terri Lyne Carrington, Harvey Mason, ERIMAJ, Sean Jones, Walter Smith III, Linda Oh, NEXT Collective, and Esperanza Spalding. In 2016, DownBeat Magazine included Toronto-native Stevens in their 25 For the Future issue and have placed him in their Annual Critics Poll Rising Star Guitar Category for the past two years.

WARREN WOLF, vibraphones, is a multi-instrumentalist who graduated from the Baltimore School for the Arts.

Wolf has played and recorded with many of the world’s best musicians, including Wynton Marsalis and the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, Christian McBride and Inside Straight, Nicholas Payton, David Sanborn, Aaron Diehl, Tia Fuller, Sean Jones, Aaron Diehl, The SFJAZZ Collective, Joey DeFrancesco, Terri-Lyne Carrington, Bobby Watson, and many others.

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DEPA RTM ENT N EWS LIBE R AL ARTS

M USIC O LO GY

MU S IC EDU CATION See Dan Trahey in BRASS See Leo Wanenchak in PREPARATORY

MU S IC TECHNOLOGY Thomas Dolby, head of the Music

for New Media program, released his greatest hits on a two-disc album called Hyperactive. In July and August, he went on a CD release tour where the set list for each of the small-setting concerts were largely decided by the audience, and Dolby revealed fun anecdotes about each piece.

Musicology faculty member David Hildebrand presented a program,

“Musical Maryland: A History of Song and Performance from the Colonial Period to the Age of Radio,” at the Star-Spangled Banner Flag House in Baltimore in March.

ANTHONY LUPACCHINO

Liberal arts faculty member Jelena Runić gave a presentation titled “Where is the I? Cultural Diversity and the Self in L2 Student Writing” at the 9th Inter-Varietal Applied Corpus Studies International Biennial Conference (IVACS) 2018: Corpus Linguistics: Languages, Communities, Mobility, at the University of Malta Valletta Campus in June. She also gave a presentation titled “Between East and West: The Rhetoric of the Self in L2 Student Writing” at the Center for Language Research Conference (CLARC) 2018: Perspectives on Language Diversity, at the University of Rijeka, Croatia, in June.

Peabody senior Anthony Peña, studying recording arts and computer music, has signed his recording group June Pastel with The Native Sound, an independent recording label. Their album, Collages, features Peabody students and alumni, including senior Troy Long, jazz piano; Kayin Scanterbury (BM ’18, Jazz Percussion), and Sean McFarland (’17, Composition). This group will also be on an East Coast tour in March.

MUS I C TH EO RY See Edmund Scott Miller in GUITAR

See Patrick McMinn in JAZZ

See Joel Puckett in COMPOSITION

Bijan Olia (BM ’11, MM ’12, Computer Music) won a Motion Picture Sound Editors Golden Reel Award for his work as music editor on Lego DC Super Hero Girls: Brain Drain.

See Jake Runestad in COMPOSITION NEW FACULTY

Faculty artist Wendel Patrick’s podcast Out of the Blocks has received an Edward R. Murrow Award. Aaron Henkin and Patrick co-produce the podcast which focuses on the diversity that can be found on specific blocks throughout Baltimore and presents the residents’ stories in a documentary-style setting. The episode that was specifically honored was "2100 Edmondson," which aired in 2017.

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See Jeremy Lyons in GUITAR Musicology faculty member Laura Protano-Biggs is the recipient of a

2018 Johns Hopkins Catalyst Award for her project: “Operatic Technologies in Late 19th-Century Italy.” Each of the 32 recipients of the award received $75,000 to fund a yearlong project. Protano-Biggs is the only recipient from Peabody.

Musicology faculty member Susan Forscher Weiss was one of six recip-

ients of the first JHU Digital Education and Learning Technology Acceleration, or DELTA, grants. Her project, called "Hacking Harmony," will assist students in creating apps and wearable technology that enhance music performance and history. The grants offer up to $75,000 to each recipient to develop, implement, and evaluate new digital education initiatives that can enrich teaching and learning at Johns Hopkins, whether online or on its campuses.

O RG A N

Composer OMAR THOMAS will serve as visiting faculty in music theory.

Thomas’ music has been performed in concert halls and on stages across the country and internationally. A number of celebrated singers have performed his arrangements, including Stephanie Mills, Yolanda Adams, Nona Hendryx, BeBe Winans, Kenny Lattimore, Marsha Ambrosius, Sheila E., Leela James, Dionne Warwick, and Chaka Khan.

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Adjunct faculty Mónica LópezGonzález, musicology, participated as a fellow of the Salzburg Global Seminar during Session 593: “The Shock of the New: Arts, Technology and Making Sense of the Future.” She was also invited to write an op-ed, "A Scientist-Artist’s Address to Today’s Future," as a part of the seminar.

GPD student Paul Byssainthe was named a semi-finalist in the National Young Artists Competition in Organ Performance through the American Guild of Organists. The competition took place in July at the AGO National Convention in Kansas.

Felix Hell (AD ’07, MM ’08, DMA ’16, Organ) started performing his program of the Goldberg Variations on organ in October 2016 at Peabody. He has continued to perform this program throughout the U.S., including at Disney Hall in Los Angeles, New York, Aspen, Florida, Oklahoma City, and San Francisco.

Master’s candidate Jordan Prescott, organ, won the 16th annual International Organ Competition at West Chester University.

Nicholas Will (MM ’11, Organ) was appointed director of liturgical music at the Pontifical North American College, Rome. There he will oversee all musical activity, serve as primary organist, conduct the 45-voice Seminary Choir, and offer musical instruction to the seminarians.

P E RC U S SION Peabody master’s candidate Zachary Taylor Mosher-Davis, percussion,

received the Presser Foundation’s Music Award for his proposal, “Percussion Education Website.” The website will provide beginning and intermediate instruction on percussion instruments and create a digital library of high-quality percussion performance videos.

Master’s candidate Robert Rocheteau was accepted into the

artist-in-residence program for the Victory Players in Holyoke, Mass. In this inaugural project, an ensemble will work with music inspired by the rich culture of Puerto Rico. The ensemble will work with clinicians to explore aspects of Puerto Rican style and premiere new compositions written by the clinicians.

See Adam Rosenblatt in JAZZ

P IA N O DMA candidate Sun-A Park, a student of Boris Slutsky, won first place in the 2018 Serge and Olga Koussevitzky Young Artist Award. She received a cash prize and a recital at the Musicians Club of New York’s Concert Series in May. Doctoral candidate Tomasz Robak (MM ’15, Piano), a student of Alexander Shtarkman, has received a Fulbright grant to go to Poland for a year. He is studying the music of Polish composers from Katowice, including Henryk Górecki and Wojciech Kilar, at the Szymanowski Academy of Music in Katowice, while taking piano with Andrzej Jasiński (teacher of Krystian Zimerman) and Anna Górecka (daughter of Henryk Górecki).

See Michael Sheppard in COMPOSITION See Leo Wanenchak in PREPARATORY

Susan Zhang (GPD ’18, Piano), who studied with Boris Slutsky, was featured on WYPR’s “On the Record.” The segment featured Zhang talking about her Concert Truck, which is a mobile recital hall that delivers free classical music concerts to audiences in unexpected locations. Zhang and the Concert Truck were also featured on Voice of America.

P RE PA R ATO RY Preparatory string students participated in an outreach event, led by Rebecca Henry, pedagogy faculty and director of the Pre-Conservatory Violin Program, and Claire Allen (MM ’13, Violin), who is a faculty artist at the Mason Community Arts Academy at George Mason University in Fairfax, Va., where she is developing a violin program. They organized a concert that included members of the Young People’s String Program and the Mason students playing together and in a panel discussion. The night prior to the concert, the Pre-Conservatory Violin Program took a field trip to the Kennedy Center to see the opera Candide, in which Conservatory faculty artist Denyce Graves, mezzosoprano, was singing.

Peabody Children’s Chorus alumna

Augusta Caso, mezzo-soprano, sang

her Metropolitan Opera debut as a Flower Maiden in Wagner’s Parsifal in February.

Preparatory students Connor Chaikowsky, violin, and Caleb Park,

cello, were selected to participate in the 2018 Verbier Festival Junior Orchestra, which took place in the Swiss Alps this summer. Chaikowsky is a student of Andréa Picard Boecker, and Park is a student of Alison Wells.

At the Maryland/D.C. Chapter of the National Association of Teachers of Singing auditions in February, Voice students Katelyn Cherry and Laura Stanell each won their high school division; Elisabeth Stevens and Kristen Davenport placed first and second in the youth category; and Barrett Crawford and Christiane Scott passed through to regionals.

Additionally, Autumn de Cosmo and Grace Null sang for Baltimore County Solo and Ensemble Festival and were passed through to the state level with the highest score. Emily Oberuch received the high score in the Howard County Solo and Ensemble auditions. They are students of Carol Cavey-Miles, Madeleine Gray, and Alina Kozinska.

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DEPA RTM ENT N EWS

Preparatory piano student Eric Lin and his partner Carter Johnson tied for second place in the One-Piano, Four Hands Ensemble category in the 2018 New York International Piano Competition.

Preparatory alumna Gloria Makino’s musical, Unturning, had a staged reading in June at the Spotlighters Theatre in Baltimore, as part of the Dramatists Guild’s Baltimore Footlights series. The musical, by and about a mixed-race woman, is reclaimed from Thomas Hardy’s novel The Return of the Native.

Preparatory piano student Alan Mao won second place in the junior division of the Maryland State Music Teachers Association’s Elizabeth R. Davis Piano Competition. Mao and his trio, which includes fellow Preparatory students Connor Chaikowsky, violin, and Caleb Park, cello, also won first place in the Misbin Chamber Music Competition, which was sponsored by Levine School of Music and Washington Performing Arts Society.

In the MSMTA Spring Piano Solo Festival, held at the University of Maryland at College Park, Hope Han won first place, Joshua Fan and Matthew Tao won second, and John Paul Wnek and Michael Wnek each won honorable mentions.

Preparatory alumna Amy Nathan has published a new book, Making Time for Making Music. In it, Nathan interviews and features Peabody alumni, students, and faculty. The book is meant to help show adults with busy lives how they can incorporate music.

Preparatory student Caleb Park, cello, was one of two 2018 Reinecke Fellows with the Chamber Music Society of Maryland and performed in the Reinecke Fellows Showcase concert in June.

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Preparatory violinist Rishi Shet organized a benefit concert for children with HIV in his home city of Bengaluru, India, in June. Shet worked with the Bangalore School of Music to put on this concert, which benefited Snehagram, a home for orphaned children living with HIV.

NEW FACULTY

Preparatory faculty artist Michaela Trnkova (BM ’97, MM ’99, Harp) gave a

MARCO BORGGREVE

Aaron Lieberman, a student of Judah Adashi and Daniel Levitov, was one of three winners (and the only high school student) of the Baltimore Choral Arts Society’s Student Composer Project. The winners were invited to the Society’s May concert and were part of a discussion of choral composition with Scott McAllister, Anthony Blake Clark, and Leo Wanenchak (BM ’79, Music Education, Piano), who would later lead the chamber chorus in a reading of the winning pieces.

master class in March to harp students at the University of Richmond.

Preparatory alumnus Bill Warfield released a new CD, For Lew, in March. The album is in tribute to Warfield’s inspiration, mentor, and friend, Lew Soloff. It is compiled of material Warfield recorded with his big band between 1990 and 2014 and features Soloff on some of the tracks.

The Preparatory’s Tuned-In Wind, Brass, and Percussion Congregation traveled to New Orleans in June, to perform and learn with local musicians. The weeklong immersion into the roots of American Music included performances and lectures.

P ROF E S SIO NA L STUDIE S The aria “You are Searching in Vain for a Bright-Line Solution,” from Professional Studies faculty member Derrick Wang’s opera Scalia/Ginsburg, is included on a new recording, Notorious RBG in Song.

The album of world-premiere recordings salutes the life and work of legal pioneer Ruth Bader Ginsburg in celebration of her completion of 25 years on the United States Supreme Court.

ST RI NGS See Claire Allen in PREPARATORY

Netanel Draiblate (MM ’07, GPD ’09, Violin) is the program director of the new Annapolis Symphony Academy, launched this fall. The academy is run by the Annapolis Symphony Orchestra, and half of its students will be African-American or Hispanic-Latino. Draiblate is the orchestra’s concertmaster.

Violinist VADIM GLUZMAN serves as Distinguished Artist in Residence. The Israeli violinist appears regularly with major orchestras such as the Berlin Philharmonic, Boston Symphony, Philadelphia Orchestra, Israel Philharmonic, London Symphony, and Leipzig Gewandhaus. Gluzman has enjoyed collaborations with many of today’s leading conductors, including Christoph von Dohnányi, Tugan Sokhiev, Andrew Davis, Neeme Järvi, and Michael Tilson Thomas. He and pianist Angela Yoffe, his wife and recital partner, founded the North Shore Chamber Music Festival in Chicago.

Violinist Judith Ingolfsson has been appointed to the Conservatory faculty.

Her Duo Ingolfsson-Stoupel will visit Peabody several times as guest artists in the 2018–19 academic year and Ingolfsson will begin studio teaching at Peabody in the fall 2019 semester.

See Lavena Johanson in COMPOSITION

Si-Yan Darren Li (MM ’08, AD ’08, Cello) is a member of the faculty at the Cleveland Institute of Music. He coaches student ensembles with other CIM chamber music faculty, including the Callisto Quartet, who won the grand prize and the first prize at the 2018 Fischoff Chamber Music Competition. Li is also a member of the Cavani String Quartet.

Gregory Luce (BM ’07, Viola) has been performing in the pit orchestra for the national tour of Hamilton the musical.

See Jacques-Pierre Malan in COMPOSITION Faculty artist Amit Peled, cello, released a CD, To Brahms, with Love: From the Cello of Pablo Casals, on CAP Records.

The CD features Brahms cello sonatas that were recorded by Casals in the 1930s on

the same cello used by Peled today. Peled was also featured in the February issue of The Strad, and presented his Cello Gang in Baltimore for the first time in a concert by the Chamber Music Society of Maryland.

See Marika Suzuki in COMPOSITION See Sarah Jane Thomas in COMPOSITION

Igor Yuzefovich (BM ’02, GPD ’04, Violin) has been appointed joint leader of the BBC Symphony. He will continue as concertmaster of the Singapore Symphony Orchestra as well until March 2019.

VO CA L STU DIE S See Denyce Graves in PREPARATORY Faculty artist and soprano Ah Young Hong (BM ’98, MM ’01, Voice) released A Breath Upwards, an album featuring music by Milton Babbitt and Peabody Composition Chair Michael Hersch (BM ’95, MM ’97, Composition). She was also featured on Ensemble Klang’s album Black Unlimited with works by Hersch.

Orchestra, Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, and Apollo’s Fire, Cleveland’s Baroque Orchestra.

See Nola Richardson in HISTORICAL PERFORMANCE

John Scherch (MM ’17, Voice/ Pedagogy) is the new host and announcer on Maryland’s Classical Music Station WBJC. He hosts the evening show as well as Listener’s Choice.

See Corinne Winters in COMPOSITION

WOO DWI N DS Guilherme Andreas (GPD ’18, Flute)

has been selected to be a member of the 2019 Global Leaders Program. It is a nine-month executive graduate certificate program offered to a select cohort of 35 rising musical change-makers.

Ex Mus Ensemble, consisting of Jolene Masone (MM ’10, Bassoon), percussionist Colton Lytle, and guitarist Chaz Underriner, released their first album, Album No. 1, on the Sedimental Records Label.

Mary Matthews (MM ’10, Flute) has been awarded a tenure-track faculty position as assistant professor of flute at Tennessee Tech University. She will also serve as flutist in the faculty woodwind quintet and perform as principal flutist of the Bryan Symphony Orchestra in Cookeville, Tenn.

In February, Sam York (MM ’18, Oboe) and Sarah Lynn (BM ’17, GPD ’18, Baroque Flute) were featured on Washington, D.C.’s WUSA9 for their work with the Musician-in-Residence program.

They lived in retirement communities and regularly performed for the residents.

NEW FACULTY

IN MEMORIAM

Norma Allman (BM ’50, Music Education - Trombone)

Wiliam A. Anderson

Peabody master’s candidate Alicia Lumberry, soprano, performed at the Miami Music Festival last summer as Echo in Ariadne auf Naxos.

Countertenor Daniel Moody (BM ’14, Voice) will make his Carnegie Hall debut as a soloist in Handel’s Messiah with the Oratorio Society of New York in December. He was named a regional finalist in the Rocky Mountain Region in the Metropolitan National Council Auditions in January. In February, he won a $5,000 George London Award from the George London Foundation. His upcoming schedule includes engagements with the Cincinnati Opera, Atlanta Symphony

BRAD BALLIETT is the principal bassoon of the Princeton Symphony Orchestra and performs with leading new music groups in New York. In addition to his bassoon studio, Balliett also teaches the Breakthrough Curriculum’s Explore class. As a teaching artist, Balliett regularly leads composition workshops in prisons, schools, hospitals, and homeless shelters, both for Carnegie Hall and its affiliate ensemble Decoda, of which he’s a founding member. He also is a faculty member for Musicambia at Sing Sing Correctional Facility.

Juan Esteban Martinez (BM ’18, Clarinet), and senior Jordan Dinkins,

horn, were awarded honorable mentions in the 2018 Yamaha Young Performing Artists Competition. They are the first students from Peabody to place in this competition.

Preparatory alumnus

John E. Bankett, Jr. (BM ’73, MM ’75, Organ)

Marian Buck-Lew (TC ’62, BM ’62, MM ’63, AD ’65, Piano)

Igor Chichagov (TC ’54, Piano)

Janice Curran Collins (BM ’56, School Music)

Bonnie Lake Former Conservatory faculty member

John Merrill (BM ’58, MM ’59, Organ)

Mollie Quinn (MM ’77, Music Education - Piano)

Robert Willoughby

Former Conservatory faculty member

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FA N FA R E Honoring a Loved One’s Request Physician Calvin Jones first crossed paths with his future wife, Dorothy Breneman, an interior designer, when he was completing his surgical training in Cincinnati, Ohio. Their marriage, which would take them to Baltimore, spanned 44 years.

Throughout those four-plus decades, Dorothy donated her time to numerous charitable causes, especially those that supported young children. So before she passed away in August 2015 after a long battle with cancer, she had a request for her husband: She wanted him to offer a gift to Peabody that would help low-income, musically inclined young people in Baltimore City. Jones, a retired vascular surgeon who worked at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center, honored her by making a generous $100,000 gift to support the Tuned-In program, which offers full Peabody Preparatory scholarships to young musicians from Baltimore City public schools.

Dorothy had also been a musician as a child, having studied piano for 12 years. She played with her high school orchestra, and throughout her life, “was capable of playing very well,” Jones says.

Dorothy Jones

The wife and mother (she had one child, Thomas Randolph Fox Jones, with her first husband, Howard Thomas Fox, who died in the Vietnam War) was also fiercely committed to helping others. As an active member of Central Presbyterian Church in Towson, Dorothy was a participant in the Lay Caregivers Ministry, where she listened to others who needed religious support, and a member of the church’s Music Task Force.

HOMEWOOD PHOTOGRAPHY

Pictured are participants in Peabody's Tuned-In program.

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She also became a Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) for young people in Baltimore City, served on the CASA Board of Directors, and volunteered at the Eastern Family Resource Center, a shelter for women and families. In 1992, her selfless work was recognized when JCPenney awarded her a Golden Rule Award for her outstanding volunteer service.

“She was always planning ideas for us to work with young children and supporting the young folks and their needs,” says Jones, who now lives in Baltimore County.

Through the Tuned-In program, talented and motivated middle and high school students from Baltimore City schools participate in private lessons every week with Peabody Preparatory faculty and have the opportunity to work with accompanists and attend cultural events throughout the city. The gift that Calvin Jones made in his wife’s honor will continue her legacy of supporting young people in Baltimore, providing scholarships that will enable these students to grow both musically and personally.

—— Jennifer Walker

Gift Funds a Piano and Supports Breakthrough Curriculum Born in Shanghai, China, Ci-Ying Sun (BM ’92, MM ’94, Piano) came to the United States in the late 1980s to study at Peabody. That’s when she met Ellen Mack, a pianist, recording artist, and Peabody faculty member. Studying with Mack made a lasting impression on Sun, so much so that today, decades later, she still looks back fondly on her time spent at Peabody.

“Along with a high quality of education, Peabody and Ms. Mack instilled in me human and universal values that built a solid basis for my career and helped shape the person I have become,” says Sun. “I’ve also always felt that the years I spent at Peabody were instrumental in carving out a space for myself in this country.”

Perhaps with this in mind, Sun made a generous gift earlier this year to fund a Steinway piano in honor of Mack, her beloved teacher, and to support Peabody’s Breakthrough Curriculum.

After graduating from Peabody, Sun shifted to a career in business. She worked in the banking industry with Merrill Lynch and UBS, where she was managing director of UBS China

domestic wealth management. Then Sun became the senior vice president for the auction house Christie’s Asia, where she focused on developing business in Asia. Sun is also a former fellow of the Aspen Institute’s China Fellowship Program—an initiative for successful private sector business leaders in China who want to have a broader impact on the world—and a member of the Aspen Global Leadership Network—a group of more than 2,400 leaders in the business, entrepreneurship, and nonprofit sectors who are committed to tackling the world’s most pressing societal challenges. She currently lives in the United Kingdom and works as an independent art advisor.

Throughout her impressive career, Sun has remained passionate about music. She’s performed as a soloist and chamber music collaborator at Carnegie Weill Recital Hall in New York City, the Kennedy Center Concert Hall in Washington, D.C., the Salle Pleyel Concert Hall in Paris, and the National Centre for the Performing Arts in Beijing. In 2013, she played 10 pieces by Chopin

at a one-hour fundraising recital to benefit the Asia Society; the concert was held at the organization’s newly opened Hong Kong Center. Sun was also a trustee for Wings of Music Children’s Musical Charity, which provides free music education for migrant and poor children in China.

“My Peabody education provided the foundation for my success, and Ms. Mack in particular was such a guiding influence and inspiration,” says Sun. “My hope in making this gift is to honor her work and, at the same time, help strengthen the kind of training that Peabody is offering to the next generation of students like me.”

Dean Fred Bronstein adds, “What I especially appreciate about Ci-Ying Sun’s gift, beyond her great generosity, is that her gift supports a grand tradition at Peabody, as exemplified by faculty like Ellen Mack, and simultaneously supports Peabody’s new, cutting edge innovations in the Breakthrough Curriculum, which is all about training world class musicians in a contemporary, 21st century setting.”

—— Jennifer Walker

PEABODY PREPARATORY

The offers individual and group music and dance instruction for students of all ages and skill levels.

See what’s available near you!

DOWNTOWN BALTIMORE • TOWSON ANNAPOLIS • HOWARD COUNTY

peabody.jhu.edu/preparatory • 667-208-6640

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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 Cynthia and Paul Lorraine

Legacy Circle The Legacy Circle 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 (3) Marilyn Abato Sallie M. Albright Frances K. and George Alderson Anne-Truax Darlington Andrews Estate of Robert Austrian Mary B. Barto Mary Lou Bauer Catherine H. Beauchamp Lisa D. Bertani Dorothy and Wakeman S. Bevard Jr. Alma T. Bond Esther B. Bonnet* Tammy Bormann and Mark Paris Barbara and Thomas Bozzuto Janet Melincoff Brown Laura R. Burrows Jean M. Burton Elana R. Byrd John F. Cahill Carol Cannon Josepha Caraher

Frances Cheng-Koors* and James Koors Kathryn Chilcote Laifun Chung and Ted Kotcheff Carol M. Condon David Dasch Doris and Richard Davis Jane E. Donato Miriam B. Dorf Ronya Driscoll John L. Due* Elayne Duke 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 Daniel M. Graham Nancy and Louis Grasmick Janet Rayburn Greive

Beatrice C. and Frederick N. Griffith Wendy Goodyear Griswold and Benjamin H. Griswold IV Marian Hahn Taylor A. Hanex Estate of William Sebastian Hart Wilda M. Heiss David Wayne Helsley* Alice Fitzsimmons Hill* Jeanie A. Hillman-Brotman Reginald D. Hobbs Jr. Christina Holzapfel and William Bradshaw Amy Elizabeth Hutchens Ludmilla Ilieva Claire S. and Allan D. Jensen Laima Kallas Thomas Kaurich Dale Kellenberger Harriet Kessler Galan Kral C. Albert Kuper III* John Larner Marjorie G. Liss

Cynthia and Paul Lorraine Margery Morgan Lowens* Marc von May H. Bruce McEver John R. Merrill* Jill E. McGovern and Steven Muller* G. Keith Nash 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 Dorothy* and Louis Pollack Thomas H. Powell Tristan W. Rhodes and Daniel Kuc Howard Rosenfeld Winifred Ross Doris Rothenberg Christine Rutt Schmitz Karen A. Schwartzman

Carol Scruggs Carolyn J. and Mark J.* Sienkiewicz Arlene and Len Singer Hardwick R. Spencer Beatrice E. Stanley Walter C. Summer Phyllis Bryn-Julson and Donald S. Sutherland Carol* and Roy R. Thomas Robert W. Wagner Charles Emerson Walker Barbara P and Martin P. Wasserman Carol Schultz Weinhofer Deloris Elinor Wilkes-Williams and Neville Williams Charlotte L. and Bruce M. Williams Peter J. Wolf Thomas G. Worrall Robert M. Worsfold Phyllis A. Zheutlin Carrie May Kurrelmeyer Zintl Trust

* Deceased

Rising to the Challenge Campaign Comes to a Close The Rising to the Challenge Campaign ends this fall, and we have accomplished incredible things as a community. We received meaningful gifts at every level that not only underscore our foundation but enable us to dream, too. In fiscal year 2018, we raised over $8 million, far exceeding our goal for the year. Your support allows Peabody to continue to evolve, innovate, and lead in the industry while making critical investments in our students and mission.

Thank you for all that you do to keep Peabody strong. We look forward to the future and sharing in our ongoing success as we continue to advance our Breakthrough Plan.

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The 2017–18 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.

The donors listed below have made outright gifts or pledges at the Friedberg Society level between July 1, 2017, and June 30, 2018.

CHAIRMAN’S CIRCLE $100,000 AND ABOVE Anonymous* Robert Austrian* Rheda Becker and Robert E. Meyerhoff Elana R. Byrd Lester Dequaine - Frank Chiarenza Foundation* Laifun Chung and Ted Kotcheff Rosalee and Richard Davison Margaret and Robert Fisher Hilda Perl Goodwin* Janet Rayburn Greive and Tyrone Greive Wendy G. Griswold and Benjamin H. Griswold IV Taylor A. Hanex Claire S. and Allan D. Jensen Calvin E. Jones C. Albert Kuper III* Cynthia and Paul Lorraine Clarence Manger and Audrey Cordero Plitt Trust* Thomas H. Powell Suzanne J. Schlenger* Hank Sopher Ci-Ying Sun

Tamera and Brian Hays Priscilla Huffman+ Sumati Murli and Sunil Kumar Jill E. McGovern Amy L. Gould and Matthew S. Polk Jr. Lori Raphael and J. Michael Hemmer Julie A. Walters and Samuel G. Rose Esther Carliner Viros Andrew Yang

VIRTUOSO’S CIRCLE $10,000 - $24,999 Pennie and Gary Abramson Anonymous Richard W. Armstrong+ Liza Bailey and Michael Musgrave Jacob and Hilda Blaustein Foundation Barbara and Thomas Bozzuto Estelle Dennis Scholarship Trust Evergreen House Foundation Ira B. Fader Jr. Edith Hall Friedheim and the Eric Friedheim Foundation

Jill McGovern (left), Dean Fred Bronstein, Liz Bronstein, Taylor Hanex, Lior Willinger, Robert E. Meyerhoff, Rheda Becker, and Barbara Cowie COMPOSER’S CIRCLE $50,000 - $99,999 Brookby Foundation Carol M. Condon Charles Delmar Foundation Jeffrey Gould* David Wayne Helsley* Hittman Family Foundation+ Maria Emma and Vanda McMurtry Henry and Ruth Blaustein Rosenberg Foundation Marc C. von May Reba A. Will Foundation Shirley S.L. Yang

MAESTRO’S CIRCLE $25,000 - $49,999 AEGON Transamerica Foundation Paul M. Angell Foundation Paula Boggs and Randee Fox Jane W. I. and Larry D. Droppa Phillip T. Dunk Jr.* Peggy and Yale Gordon Charitable Trust

Sandra Levi Gerstung and the Levi Family Fund II of the Baltimore Community Foundation Karen Gober+ Judith and Stephen Hittman+ Christina M. Holzapfel and William Bradshaw Nina Rodale Houghton Michiko Sakai and Jay Jones Dorothy* and Louis Pollack Presser Foundation T. Rowe Price Foundation Barbara and David Roux Christine Rutt Schmitz and Robert Schmitz Adam G. Shapiro Judith R. and Turner B. Smith Speedwell Foundation Barbara P. and Martin P. Wasserman Wells Fargo Foundation Thomas Wilson Sanitarium for Children of Baltimore City

Wilda M. Heiss Cynthia Adams Hoover and Roland Armitage Hoover Larraine Bernstein and Kenneth D. Hornstein Nancy and Robert Huber Indian Spring Academy of Music Alma D. Hunt/VCM Charitable Trust Donna and Eric Kahn Dure Shehwar R. Khan Ralph W. Kuncl D.L. Langdon Sara W. Levi Jessica Preiss Lunken and David A. Lunken Suzanne and John Peter Mantegna Valerie and Michael Marcus Paul B. Mathews Carol and Paul Matlin Irene T. Kitagawa and Stephen S. McCall Jean and Paul R. McHugh Cynthia and Michael McKee Gary Melick Sharon and Andrew Nickol Eugene Minusk Ohr Eleanor Simon and Patrick O’Neall Margaret B. Otenasek Elizabeth and Jonathan Peress Michael Pham Kimberly and Townsend Plant Lawrence Pollack

Barbara Bozzuto (left) and Jill McGovern at the Leadership Luncheon.

CONCERTMASTER’S CIRCLE $5,000 - $9,999

DIRECTOR’S CIRCLE $1,000 - $2,499

Bank of America Foundation++ Liz and Fred Bronstein Phyllis Bryn-Julson and Donald Sutherland Laura B. Garvin-Asher and Edward J. Asher Ruby and Robert Wesley Hearn Hecht-Levi Foundation Jephson Educational Trusts Robert Wood Johnson Foundation++ Kingsley’s Cause Private Foundation Koret Foundation Susan J. Linde Peabody Institute Fund of the Baltimore Community Foundation Lucinda M. Rouse Riva A. and Albert B. Shackman+ Lisa Smith and W. Christopher Smith Jr. Marian and Abraham Sofaer Anne Luetkemeyer Stone Charles Emerson Walker

Marin Alsop Anonymous Carol and Steven Batoff Aurelia G. Bolton Anders V. Borge Susan and John Brantley Helene Breazeale Mary C. R. S. Morgan and David J. Callard Carol Cannon W. P. Carey Foundation Linda P. Carter L. Chinsoo Cho Kathleen Whalen and Frederick Cohen Margaret Hammond Cooke*

PRINCIPAL’S CIRCLE $2,500 - $4,999 Frances K. and George Alderson Mary Lou Bauer Abra Bush Constance R. Caplan Pauline Chapin+ Lydia and Charles Duff Morton J. Ellin+ Barbara S. Hawkins and Stephen W. Singer Patricia E. Kauffman Christopher Kovalchick Galan Kral Beth Kronenwetter Links, Inc. Thomas MacCracken Paul E. McAdam* Barbara and John McDaniel Lloyd E. Mitchell Foundation Trust Clara Juwon Ohr Thomas Pozefsky Linda B. and Richard Q. Snurr Marguerite M. VillaSanta Margaret C. and Patrick C. Walsh Grace C. and Frank Chi-Pong Yin

Rosalee Davison (left) and Chelsea de Souza at the Leadership Luncheon.

Barbara J. Cowie and William H. Cowie Jr. Russell Davidson Foundation Nijole Boguta Dedinas Ruth L. and Arno P. Drucker Hildegard and Richard Eliasberg Kimberly and Donald Evans Exelon Foundation++ Christine and John Fraser Patrick Fraser Carole and Hang Fung Mary Jo and James Gary Wendy and Robert Ginsburg Google, Inc.++ Jean P. Gordon+ Suruchi Mohan and Prabhat K. Goyal Ellen Halle and the Halle Family Philanthropic Fund Maureen Harrigan and David McDowell

Donald Regier Burdette and Judith Short Terry Meiselman Shuch and Neal Meiselman Thomas R. Silverman Edward Steinhouse Howard and Barbara Stowe Angela and Daniel Taylor Helen Stone Tice Sheila and Erick Vail Mary Jo and Charles Wagandt Beverly Dietrich Weber Susan F. Weiss Yolanda and Robert Wiese Wolman Family Foundation Avedis Zildjian Company Ireneus Bohdan Yaromyr Zuk * Deceased + In-Kind Gift ++ Matching Gift

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STUDENT SPOTLI GHT Junior oboist Sonia Matheus, a Latina-Jewish woman, sees herself as a natural activist in the current American political climate where it feels like minority identities are viewed as unacceptable, she says.

So, in just two years at Peabody, she has co-founded the La Obra Latinx Student Union and participated in the Art & Activism Workshop led by composer and Peabody faculty member Judah Adashi. From her hometown in Sacramento, California, Matheus, who also plays the English horn and is minoring in musicology at Peabody and European history at Homewood, talks about the intersection between music and activism.

Why did you co-found the La Obra Latinx Student Union?

“My dad is from Venezuela, and I grew up with the Spanish language around me. Coming to Peabody, I realized that there’s only about 2 percent of Latinos on campus. It encouraged me to find those people.

So with one of my friends, Amelia GilFigueroa, who is a graduate performance diploma candidate at Peabody now, we decided to create a space for the Latinos on campus to come together and eat and dance — a place that feels like it is a home away from home. We came up with the name La Obra Latinx Student Union because La Obra means opus, a term used to denote when a composition was written by a composer, and Latinx is a gender-neutral term for Latino/ Latina, which is more inclusive of all of our members. We meet once a month and host events, such as a Selena viewing party and a Dominican Carnival Celebration, or take trips to Homewood or the medical campus to take part in events hosted by the Office of Multicultural Affairs.”

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HOMEWOOD PHOTOGRAPHY

Sonia Matheus

Can you talk about the Art & Activism Workshop and your project for the class?

elaborate military march, seemingly showing glory to the state. But the people in the audience knew that it was very over-the-top on purpose. At “We met every Friday to learn about the end, there was a 40-minute standthe different sectors of activism, like ing ovation. It was just so powerful environmentalism and LGBTQ+ to the people of Russia who suffered activism. Then we’d have a very long so much under Stalin. They knew the conversation about what we can do music was a cry for change. as students and musicians. I used my For musicians though, the way freshman year to lay the groundwork we’ve known to be activists is by for a project that mixes activist-Latinx creating benefit concerts where we poetry written by people of color and play certain pieces and, through our compositions by Peabody students musicality and emotions, express who are Latino and/or who are allies that an issue does matter; then we of the community. My goal is to donate the benefits to organizations. perform this composition and have At the moment, many musicians are a spoken word performance at my passionate about fighting against and senior recital.” resisting the Trump administration.

However, many of us feel stuck and How can music add to conversations powerless because participating in about social change? benefit concerts — or simply living our day-to-day lives of studying, prac“Composers have a lot of power to ticing, and performing in orchestras create music that hits people emo— doesn’t change or contribute to tionally. My go-to example of this is the world in a way powerful enough Shostakovich. I study him a lot. His to enact change. A powerful way of Fifth Symphony was composed in resistance through music is what I’m 1937 at the height of Stalin’s purges. hoping to discover.”

The piece portrayed this bombastic,

Morgan State University Choir

LEO NARD BERN STEIN

Peabody-Hopkins Chorus and Peabody Singers

Peabody Children’s Chorus

Marin Alsop

M SS A Theatre Piece for Singers, Players and Dancers

by Leonard Bernstein Marin Alsop Conductor

Leslie Stifelman Music Supervisor

Samuel Mungo Director

Curtis Bannister Tenor/Celebrant

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 26 at 7:30 pm at Baltimore’s New Psalmist Baptist Church

Peabody joins the celebration of Leonard Bernstein’s centennial with a full staging of his dramatic, evening-length concert work, MASS, not performed in Baltimore since 2008. Bernstein’s MASS brings together hundreds of performers from across our community in a spectacular and eclectic exploration of what we can believe in.

Joseph Young | artistic director of ensembles Edward Polochick | director of choral activities Eric Conway | director of the Morgan State University Choir Eileen Cornett | music director Doreen Falby | director of the Peabody Children’s Chorus danah bella | choreographer; chair, Peabody Conservatory Dance Department Elijah Wirth | director of Preparatory Wind Orchestra Peabody Opera Theatre and Peabody Opera Theatre Orchestra with the Peabody Hopkins-Chorus, Peabody Singers, Conservatory Dancers, Preparatory Wind Orchestra, Peabody Children’s Chorus, Peabody Community Chorus, and Morgan State University Choir Libretto from the liturgy of the Roman Mass with additional texts by Stephen Schwartz and the composer. By arrangement with Boosey & Hawkes, Inc., Sole Agent for Leonard Bernstein Music Publishing LLC, publisher and copyright owner.

For tickets, call the Peabody Box Office at 667-208-6620, or visit peabody.jhu.edu/mass. $45 general admission, $15 with valid student ID

Nonprofit Org. U.S. Postage PAID Baltimore, MD Permit No. 4475

SM

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