The Peabody Conservatory brings the wide-ranging art and expertise of its Music Engineering and Technology department to Washington, D.C., in a day-long event titled From Synthesizers to AI: Where Technology and Engineering Shape Art. In the Theater and other unique public spaces at the Hopkins Bloomberg Center, the event features Dean Fred Bronstein leading a panel discussion about art and artificial intelligence that includes Meta Reality Labs researcher Ishwarya Ananthabhotla, composer Tina Tallon, author Sol Rashidi, and Peabody faculty artist Sam Pluta, followed by multimedia performances and interactive sonic art installations spotlighting the Music for New Media, Computer Music, Recording Arts, and Acoustics programs. The installation of Thomas Dolby as the inaugural Taylor A. Hanex Professor of Music for New Media provides a celebratory high point of the program, taking place on Friday, November 15 from 2:30 to 6:00 pm at the Hopkins Bloomberg Center. Free tickets are required.

I want to share some good news today. The Peabody Institute and Johns Hopkins University learned just last week that the Conservatory’s new degree in hip hop has been approved by the State of Maryland. I am enormously excited about this initiative. Under the leadership of Wendel Patrick, this degree will join the burgeoning place that Peabody has made for our Music, Engineering and Technology programs (MET) that have collectively grown from 50 students five years ago to more than 150 today and represents the latest addition to programs in Music for New Media, Computer Music, Recording Arts, and more. Having emerged more than 50 years ago as a serious and socially connected art form, hip hop now enters the academy. Fifty years ago few Jazz programs could be found in our major music schools. Today, they are essential to our schools, including here at Peabody. In keeping with Peabody’s commitment to innovate and build future traditions on the great history of our school, we are proud to be at the forefront of introducing this kind of program to higher education. Hip hop has been a galvanizing grassroots arts movement that emerged from our cities, including a vibrant history and presence in Baltimore. We are thrilled to be able to be part of celebrating the culture of this artform in connection with our community and the world, and to have a role in the training of hip hop artists of the future.

Sincerely,

Wednesday, November 6, 7:30 pm EST

Guitar graduate student Tommy Dupuis’ current Canadian tour finds him performing around New Brunswick and Quebec as part of the nonprofit organization Jeunesses Musicales Canada’s 2024-25 Emerging Artists Concert Tours. On November 6 Dupuis stops at Théâtre du Cuivre in Rouyn-Noranda and tickets are available online. Dupuis’ tour, sponsored by Savarez Strings, runs into mid-December, and his full schedule can be found online.

Saturday, November 16, through Sunday, December 1

Last year Peabody’s Ruth Blaustein Rosenberg Artistic Director of Ensembles Joseph Young (AD ’09, Conducting) led the Washington National Opera through the DC premiere of Blue, composer Jeanine Tesori and librettist Tazewell Thompson’s unflinching exploration of living while Black in contemporary America. Young makes his Lyric Opera of Chicago debut as conductor for this searing portrait of family tragedy starring mezzo-soprano Zoie Reams, tenor Travon D. Walker, and bass Kenneth Kellogg. Blue opens November 16 at the Lyric Opera House in Chicago and runs through December 1; tickets are available online.

Tuesday, November 19, 6:00 pm EST

Baltimore Symphony Orchestra principal second violinist and faculty artist Qing Li (PC ’91, BM ’92, Violin) is joined by celebrated chamber musicians Julian Schwarz, cello, and Marika Bournaki, piano, for a program featuring a pair of cherished chamber trios from the Romantic era, Felix Mendelssohn’s Piano Trio in D Minor, Op. 49, and Johannes Brahms’ Piano Trio in B Major, Op. 8. The performances takes place at Emmanual Episcopal Church in Baltimore; tickets are available online.

Friday, November 22, through Sunday, November 24

A 2015 invitation to lead Night of the Proms, the concert series staged in Belgium and neighboring countries, turned into Alexandra Arrieche (AD ’13, Conducting) being named NOTP’s principal conductor in 2017, leading the Antwerp Philharmonic and guest artists through an entertaining series of pop-meets-classical concerts. To open the 2024 NOTP season Arrieche and the Antwerp Philharmonic are joined by the Eurythmics’ Dave Stewart, dancehall artist Shaggy, Scottish singer-songwriter Emeli Sandé, and more at the Sportpaleis in Antwerp. Tickets are available online.

Saturday, November 30, through Sunday, December 22

Baltimore-based ArtsCentric’s 2011 adaptation of Langston Hughes’ Black Nativity told the story of Jesus’ birth with an all-Black cast, with original music by the nonprofit organization’s music director Cedric Lyles that added elements of blues, soul, jazz, and spirituals to Hughes’ play. Baltimore Center Stage presents ArtsCentric’s crowd-pleaser this holiday season with Andréus Brijbasi (BM ’24, Computer Music) on the music and media team, managing music and media production for rehearsals, coordinating the production’s recording project, and working as one of the audio engineers. Tickets are available online.

______________________________

Peabody Notes highlights select off-campus performances featuring Peabody performers. For other events, please visit our Peabody events page.

Melt All the Guns II

Composer/drummer Devin Gray (BM ’06, Jazz Percussion) has forged an impressive career as a musician, bandleader, and label owner. Melt All the Guns II (Rataplan Records), his sixth album as leader and ninth release on his own label, features Gray in a trio with trumpeter Ralph Alessi and pianist Myslaure Augustin playing 11 of his original, politically minded tunes—such as the trumpet punctuated “Audre Lorde Straße” or the rhythmically insouciant “Swing States.” 

Schubert: Sonatas D 784 and D 894

Young-Ah Tak (DMA ’13, Piano) first studied a Franz Schubert piano sonata when she was 12 years old, and the prolific Austrian composer has been an important part of her repertoire ever since. Tak recorded Schubert’s Piano Sonata No. 14 in A Minor, Op. 143, D. 784, and Piano Sonata No. 18 in G Major, Op. 78, D. 894, at New York City’s Steinway Hall, which the piano company released on its own Steinway & Sons label. Tak performs a Steinway Spiriocast recital—performances that sync Steinway high-resolution player pianos—November 7.

The Texas 600

Zach Lloyd studies jazz drums at Peabody, and the current undergraduate hails from Houston, Texas, since the late 1980s the Lone Star state’s homebase of Southern hip-hop. Lloyd’s The Texas 600 album features Lloyd’s twang-tinged rap confidently complementing the easy-going, bass-heavy beats and slow-rolling melodies that distinguish Houston hip-hop over its 13 tracks. The Texas 600 is available on Spotify and Amazon.

TRANƧA

The not-for-profit Red Hot Organization formed in 1990 as a response to the AIDS epidemic, recruiting performing artists and musicians to create charity albums to raise both awareness and funds for HIV/AIDS relief globally. Its latest compilation, TRANƧA, includes 46 songs by more than 100 musicians celebrating the trans community, including André 3000, Sade, Sam Smith, Julien Baker, Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy, and singer Niecy Blues joined by bassoonist Joy Guidry (BM ’18, Bassoon) on the powerful, harrowing “Is it Over Now?”