Podcast Series Makes a Powerful Debut If LAUNCHPad is the perfect name for the dynamic reincarnation of Peabody’s career office, Max Q — the title of the career team’s new podcast — is a playfully apt extension of the metaphor. “Max Q” is the moment, about a minute into a rocket launch, when the vehicle is subject to the most stress, just before it lifts victoriously out of the dense lower atmosphere. “My LAUNCHPad colleague Robin McGinness (MM ’17 Voice), who is a rocket aficionado, came up with the name, and it was such a great fit because we wanted to focus on the incredibly stressful, but also incredibly exciting first few years after graduation,” says Assistant Director of LAUNCHPad Christina Manceor (MM ’17 Percussion).
Audio edited by Greg Hays (MM ’20, Guitar) with intro music by junior Music for New Media student Vincent Fasano and hosted by McGinness, Manceor, and LAUNCHPad Director Zane Forshee (MM ’01, GPD ’03, DMA ’11, Guitar), the podcast features
COLUMBIA PRO CANTARE 2020-2021 SEASON
A Christmas Noël CPC Chamber Singers Saturday, Dec. 12, 2020 4 PM CHRIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH COLUMBIA, MD
In Nature’s Realm
American Voices
Sunday, March 7, 2021 4 pm
Saturday, May 1, 2021 8 PM
FIRST EVANGELICAL LUTHERAN CHURCH ELLICOTT CITY, MD
JIM ROUSE THEATRE, COLUMBIA, MD
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inspirational conversations with recent alumni about the many ways in which their paths have unfolded since Peabody. Max Q debuted at the end of January and posts monthly. But then came COVID-19, the abrupt end of in-person classes and performances, and a new and unprecedented uncertainty for Peabody students, faculty, and staff members. “There was a lot of fear,” says Manceor. “Students suddenly couldn’t do live performances, they couldn’t go into classrooms and teach, they couldn’t get together to practice. So we immediately launched an additional series of special COVID-19 podcasts, with Dr. Forshee interviewing distinguished artists about the impact of the pandemic on the industry and how students might make the best use of an incredibly disorienting time.” The COVID series has included interviews with Marin Alsop, director of Peabody’s graduate conducting program and music director of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra; Joseph Young (AD ’09, Conducting), the Ruth Blaustein Rosenberg Artistic Director of Ensembles; Sean Jones, the Richard and Elizabeth Case Chair in Jazz Studies; and danah bella, chair of Peabody Conservatory dance. They talk about the sometimes difficult impact of the pandemic on their own lives, but also about the unprecedented opportunities — to create, innovate, practice, explore, compose, and even to study online, often for free, with teachers around the world, many of whom were all but inaccessible to most students before they, too, were sidelined by the virus. “The interviews have been so powerful, so full of inspiration and hope,” says Manceor. “So we would really like to promote Max Q even beyond Peabody, because it could be a valuable resource for art students and recent graduates everywhere.” — Joan Katherine Cramer Visit the Max-Q landing page: peabody.jhu.edu/max-q
