Du Yun Named a Great Immigrant
Faculty artist Du Yun, composition, was named as 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. Born and raised in Shanghai, China, and currently based in New York, Du Yun is a composer, multi-instrumentalist, and performance artist, who won a Pulitzer Prize for her work
Angel's Bone. For 2018, the honorees represent 30 different countries of origin, a range of personal immigration experiences, and high-level leadership in numerous fields, all of them united through their experience of becoming Americans.
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FROM THE DEAN
As we transition to a new academic year, it is energizing to welcome new students, faculty, and staff to the Peabody community. As we look forward to welcoming all in the months ahead, I am especially struck by the recent honor of Du Yun, Pulitzer Prize-winning composer and new member this past year of the Peabody faculty, who was recently named one of 38 Great Immigrants by the Carnegie Foundation. How timely and meaningful that honor is today, more than ever.
It is also why Peabody's elevating of Diversity as one of its five strategic pillars in the last year takes on even greater meaning. Of the many new faculty and students we will welcome this year, consider that 28 percent of faculty hired over the last two years are underrepresented minorities. In fall 2018, 22 faculty (or 13 percent) will be underrepresented minorities as compared with 10 faculty (or 6 percent) in the previous year. And through new admissions initiatives like the Blue Ribbon School program, applications from underrepresented minority students increased 58 percent to 224 applications for fall 2018 enrollment, up from 142 last year. To date, 38 of those applicants have enrolled, up 52 percent from last year. As I write this, the total underrepresented minority student cohort for the 2018-19 academic year is projected to be 75 to 80 students - the largest to date, representing nearly 12 percent of the total student body, and a 29 percent increase in underrepresented minority students from only three years ago.
The key to future audiences in the arts is diversity. Peabody is committed to playing a leading role in diversifying a world - classical music - that has not enjoyed the kind of diversity essential to the future health and vibrancy of our field. We're proud to be a part of driving this important change.
Fred Bronstein, Dean |
ON STAGE / OFF CAMPUS
Trumpeter Sean Jones, Peabody's Richard and Elizabeth Case Chair in Jazz Studies, is the soloist and bandleader for NYO (National Youth Orchestra) Jazz's Carnegie Hall debut and inaugural European tour, which includes performances in the Netherlands, Germany, and Great Britain. Jones and fellow faculty artist Wycliffe Gordon, trombone, will perform with Grammy Award-winning vocalist Dianne Reeves and NYO Jazz at
Carnegie Hall.
Saturday, July 28; Saturday, August 4; 11:00 am
The Peabody Preparatory will host the Paul Taylor American Modern Dance Summer Intensive for two weeks. Taylor Intensives have been a premier training ground for modern dance technique and the best way to study Taylor style and repertoire. Two repertory showings will take place in Miriam A. Friedberg Concert Hall.
Jason Mulligan (
MM '16, Composition) will present excerpts from his Preludes for Piano and selected art songs in the Basically Beethoven Festival's Rising Star Recital in Dallas, Texas, at the
Moody Performance Hall. Rising Star Recitals present local, gifted young musicians, many of whom are winners of area music contest and concerto competitions.
Grace Srinivasan (
MM '16, Voice) is the music director for
Chesapeake Shakespeare Company's production of
A Midsummer Night's Dream, set in Athens during the Bronze Age. Srinivasan chose ancient Greek hymns like "Seikilos Epitaph" and "First Delphic Hymn to Apollo" to support this setting of the Shakespeare play.
Wednesday, August 8, 8:30 pm
Thomas Dolby, head of the Music for New Media program, is on a CD release tour, "An Evening of Music and Storytelling with Thomas Dolby." The greatest hits two-disc album called
Hyperactive will be released on July 27 and will feature music from his 30-year career. The set list for each of the small-setting concerts of the tour will be largely decided by the audience, and Dolby will reveal fun anecdotes about each piece. His Baltimore performance will take place at
Center Stage.
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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Incoming Peabody student Paul Byssainthe was named a semi-finalist in the National Young Artists Competition in organ performance through the American Guild of Organists (AGO). The competition took place in July at the AGO National Convention in Kansas and is intended to serve as a springboard for emerging organists to develop their performance ability by participating in the various demanding stages of this competition.
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Connor Chaikowsky, violin; Caleb Park, cello
Preparatory students Connor Chaikowsky, violin, and Caleb Park, cello, have both been selected to participate in the 2018 Verbier Festival Junior Orchestra, which will take place in the Swiss Alps this summer. Chaikowsky is a student of Andréa Picard Boecker, and Park is a student of Alison Wells.
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Todd Craven (
GPD '18, Orchestral Conducting) has been appointed assistant conductor of the Buffalo Philharmonic to begin this fall. He most recently served as the music director of the Orlando Contemporary Chamber Orchestra and has also served as a cover conductor for the Detroit Symphony.
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Peabody sophomore Tianyuan Liu, who studies piano with Boris Slutsky, won first place in PianoArts 2018 North American Competition and Festival. 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. He was awarded these honors during a grand finale concert in June.
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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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RECENT RELEASES
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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).
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Matt Bacon (
BM '10, Guitar), who works primarily in India, showed off his singer/songwriter side in his latest album,
The Crossover. Bacon also recorded on the Transports concept album
No Parking, sponsored by the French Embassy. He is currently working on an upcoming Bollywood movie soundtrack.
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