Celebrating 40 Years With JHU
This season, the Peabody Institute celebrates the 40th anniversary of its affiliation with Johns Hopkins University. The anniversary will be recognized at several concerts including a piano recital by Mark Markham (
BM '84, MM '86, DMA '91, Piano) this Saturday, October 7, at which Markham will receive the JHU Distinguished Alumni Award; the Peabody Opera Theatre's production of Donizetti's
L'elisir d'amore, November 15-18; and the Peabody Symphony Orchestra's performance on January 31; as well as a special collaboration with the Johns Hopkins Mood Disorders Center for a symposium and concert titled "
Carrion-Miles to Purgatory: Music, Poetry, Art, and Mental Health" on December 8. A new exhibit in the Peabody Mews features artifacts from the two institutions' intertwined history, including a century of informal collaborations prior to the formal affiliation agreement signed in 1977.
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FROM THE DEAN
The impact of music goes beyond quality of life and the intrinsic value of art itself. Not to underplay intrinsic value, as I like to say that Peabody represents the "soul" of Johns Hopkins University - there is nothing else remotely like it within the Hopkins orbit.
Now, as we enter the 40th anniversary of Peabody as part of JHU, we are taking meaningful steps to fully leverage for the benefit of music and the field our role in this world-renowned research university. This relationship has manifested itself in programs like Peabody at Homewood - courses taught on the Homewood campus by Peabody faculty or Homewood students coming to Peabody as instrumental minors (and beginning next year, for dance, in Peabody's new Conservatory dance program). It extends to the double degree program in which some 20 students each year study on a parallel track for two degrees, in music and an academic area at the Krieger or Whiting schools.
Taking a major step in the development of an interdisciplinary footprint, our evolving Center for Music and Medicine has as its dual focus an emphasis on injury prevention and wellness for performing artists, along with studying the palliative use of music on diseases like Parkinson's or Alzheimer's. Already underway are musician screenings so they understand their own physiology, a health and wellness-focused seminar series, a study of the impact of side-by-side singing focused on Alzheimer's patients and their caregivers, as well as a Parkinsonian choir and development of a clinic on the Peabody campus for performing arts related injury, scheduled to open this November. Imagine the benefit this work can have for our students and others as they learn how to navigate and perhaps even avoid career threatening injury, or researching how patients may benefit from the palliative use of music.
Here's to a new era of collaboration and ever greater opportunities and to the next 40 years!
Fred Bronstein, Dean |
ON STAGE / OFF CAMPUS
Friday, October 6, 8:00 pm
Faculty artist Ah Young Hong (
BM '98, MM '01, Voice) will culminate her residency at the
Blair School of Music with a concert of works for voice and mixed instrumental accompaniment. During the residency at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tenn, Hong presented a master class and another concert featuring the premiere of
rake forth the embers by Composition Department Chair Michael Hersch (
BM '95, MM '97, Composition).
Saturday, October 14, 5:30 pm
Composition Department Chair Michael Hersch (
BM '95, MM '97, Composition) will give the European premiere of his
The Vanishing Pavilions, Book 1. It will take place at
Festival Dag in de Branding at The Hague, Netherlands.
Sunday, October 15, 3:00 pm
The Mendelssohn Piano Trio - Peter Sirotin (
GDP '97, Violin; GPD '99, Chamber Ensemble), Ya-Ting Chang (
BM '96, MM '98, Piano), and Fiona Thompson - will present a concert of Mendelssohn works in the Steinway Series at the
Smithsonian American Arts Museum in Washington, D.C. The trio, who met in 1997 at Peabody, is celebrating their 20th anniversary this year.
Friday, October 20 to Sunday, October 22
The
Baltimore Lieder Weekend, founded and directed by Daniel Schlosberg (
BM '00, MM '01, Piano; KSAS BA '00, History), will take place at An die Musik with the theme of "New American Song: Unusual Suspects." Peabody contributions include performances by Schlosberg and Laura Strickling (
MM '06, Voice), a composition by Judah Adashi (
MM '02, DMA '11, Composition), and a panel discussion including Peabody Dean Fred Bronstein.
Thursday, October 26, at 8:00 pm
André Watts (
AD '72, Piano) will open the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra's 2017-18 season with a concert titled "
From Piano to Pen" at Carnegie Hall. He will perform Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 9, K. 271, "Jeunehomme" with the orchestra. This program will also be presented in Lincoln, Neb.; Danville, Ky.; West Lafayette, Ind.; and at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center.
Peabody Events highlights select off-campus or live-streamed performances featuring Peabody performers. For other events, please visit our Peabody Institute Concerts Facebook page. For the complete weekly list of concerts at Peabody, subscribe to Events at Peabody at peabody.jhu.edu/news.
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ARTISTIC ACHIEVEMENTS
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David "Buddy" Deshler (MM '17, Trumpet) has won a position in Dallas Brass, one of the nation's leading brass quintets. Dallas Brass, founded by Michael Levine, has played in numerous high-profile halls, released many albums, and been featured on television. Deshler received high praise for his playing from the quintet's founder, and is excited to join the group.
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In June, faculty artist Denyce Graves was elected to OPERA America's Board of Directors. This board works to advise OPERA America on emerging trends and helps in the implementation of new programs for the company. Graves' studio was featured in a piece on Washington, D.C.'s
NBC4 previewing their concert at Wolf Trap last month.
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Christopher Hamlen (
BM '04, GPD '06, Double Bass) has joined the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. He and several other new members made their debuts September 28 at the Seventh Annual DTE Energy Foundation Community Concerts, which opened the DSO's 2017-18 season. Most recently, Hamlen was the principal bass at the Grand Rapids Symphony.
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Scott Lee (
MM ' 13, Composition) is a recipient of the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers Foundation's 2017 Morton Gould Young Composer Award. He was selected from over 500 entries this year. The ASCAP Foundation Young Composer Awards program grants cash prizes to concert music composers up to 30 years of age. This is the second time Lee has won the award. He won it in 2015 for his piece
Bottom Heavy.
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Bijan Olia (
BM '11, MM '12, Computer Music) was selected as a fellow for the Sundance Institute Music and Sound Design Lab at the Skywalker Ranch in July. At this lab, composers, directors, and sound designers worked together to create music for narrative film projects. The Broadcast Music, Inc (BMI) has been and remains an important partner with the lab, and helps to forward the careers of many of the participants, like Olia.
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RECENT BOOKS
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Faculty artist Amit Peled is a character in the children's book
A Cello Named Pablo which tells the story of Pablo Casals' cello and how it came to be played by Peled. The book, published by Catch the Moment: Classical Books (CTM), was written by Marni Fogelson and illustrated by Avi Katz. A Kickstarter project launched in June quickly raised the money to produce the book.
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Libby Sternberg (
BM '75, MM '78, Voice) has written
Fall from Grace, a book about the redemption of a modern-day man from a famous evangelical Christian family whose indiscretions bring him and his family unwelcome scrutiny. Sternberg has written more than 20 books. She writes serious fiction under the name Libby Sternberg and humorous books under the name Libby Malin.
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Soprano Charity Sunshine Tillemann-Dick (
'06, Voice) has published a memoir,
The Encore: A Memoir in Three Acts. An opera singer who received two double lung transplants, she went from struggling to draw a single breath to singing at the most prestigious venues in the world. She appeared on
NPR Weekend Edition with Scott Simon on September 30 and will be signing books at the
Barnes & Noble at Johns Hopkins on Thursday, October 12, at 7:00 pm.
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