Acclaimed Violinist Hilary Hahn to Speak at Peabody Commencement
The internationally renowned violinist and Peabody Preparatory alumna Hilary Hahn will speak at the Peabody Conservatory's Commencement, Tuesday, May 23, at 10:00 am in Miriam A. Friedberg Concert Hall. A three-time Grammy Award winner acclaimed for her virtuosity, expansive interpretations, and creative programming, Ms. Hahn's early studies and first public performance (at age 6) were at the Peabody Preparatory. This year marks the Peabody Conservatory's 135th graduation exercises, where one Performer's Certificate, 88 Bachelor of Music degrees, 111 Master of Music degrees, 11 Master of Arts degrees, 24 Graduate Performance Diplomas, two Artist Diplomas, and 13 Doctor of Musical Arts degrees are scheduled to be conferred. The ceremony will be live streamed at Ustream.
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FROM THE DEAN
Eighteen months ago we convened the Faculty Governance Task Force comprised of faculty and administration in order to review and rethink the faculty bylaws of the Peabody Conservatory which had been in place for more than four decades. While it may sound like a somewhat abstract exercise it is in fact critical for the school. Our faculty are Peabody's greatest asset - they make the school what it is and are why our students seek us out. So in going into this process, we wanted to ensure faculty engagement and involvement in a way that would be substantive, meaningful, transparent, and accountable as we move forward. Peabody has been reimagining its approach to providing outstanding traditional training for musicians in a 21st century context, and that work can most effectively be accomplished with a nimble and responsive institutional framework where all are engaged in fully tapping our potential.
After many months of work with the Task Force, we broadened the conversation to include more voices throughout the spring, with the process culminating in April with 96 percent of faculty members voting to endorse the new bylaws. This is testament to the foresight of our faculty, and a recognition that with all the changes and forging ahead in new directions at Peabody, it was important to have a faculty governance system in sync with that direction, and a functioning, flexible apparatus to meet our future needs as an institution. I congratulate everyone who worked on this initiative and our faculty for their wisdom in overwhelmingly supporting this new structure.
Fred Bronstein, Dean |
ON STAGE / OFF CAMPUS
Now through Saturday, May 13
Mark G. Meadows (BM '11, GPD '13, Jazz Piano; KSAS BA '11, Psychology) will be featured in "The Piano Men Cabaret" with Nick Lehan and Shayna Blass at the Signature Theatre in Arlington, Va., where he was the lead in Jelly's Last Jam. The cabaret will feature the hits of singer/songwriter/pianist virtuosos including Elton John, Billy Joel, Stevie Wonder, Ray Charles, and more.
Thursday, May 11, 7:00 pm
Sandbox Percussion - Victor Caccese (BM '11, Percussion), Terry Sweeney (BM '13, Percussion), Ian Rosenbaum (BM '08, Percussion), and Jonathan Allen - will perform Steve Reich's seminal work, Drumming, at House of Yes in Brooklyn, N.Y. The performance titled "A Group Hallucination" will include video projections and dance and aerial work by House of Yes company members.
Saturday, May 13, 8:00 pm
The Beijing Guitar Duo - Meng Su (PC '09, GPD '11, Guitar; GPD '15, Chamber Music) and Yameng Wang (MM '08, GPD '11, Guitar) - will perform with their mentor, faculty artist Manuel Barrueco (BM '75, Guitar) in Candlelight Concert Society's season-concluding concert in Columbia, Md. They will also perform later this month in Koblenz, Germany, and next month at the Santo Tirso Guitar Festival in Portugal.
Friday and Saturday, May 19 and 20, 8:00 pm
Rhymes with Opera, a New York based opera company founded by Peabody alumni, will present a new fully staged improvisatory opera titled Coping Mechanisms by Bonnie Lander (MM '07, GPD '08, Voice; GPD '08, Computer Music) at Opera New York Opera Fest at Bank Street Theatre in New York City. Featured performers include Ms. Lander, Elisabeth Halliday (KSAS BA '07, German; '07, Voice), and Robert Maril (MM '04, Voice). Coping Mechanisms explores how individuals create personal spaces while simultaneously longing for community and connection, which can potentially threaten the sanctity of these very spaces.
The Poulenc Trio - Bryan Young (BM '96, Bassoon); Preparatory faculty artist Irina Kaplan Lande, piano; and Liang Wang, oboe - will give the world premiere of the scored stop motion film Trains of Thought: Animated at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. Trains of Thought: Animated is the result of a multi-year collaboration between the trio, composer Viet Cuong (BM '11, MM '12, Composition), and artists Elizabeth and Alden Phelps. During the film, viewers will experience a stop-motion animated M.C. Escher-like fantasy world, populated by line-drawn figures inspired by New Yorker illustrator Saul Steinberg, scored by Mr. Cuong, and performed by the Poulenc Trio.
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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Music theory faculty member Joshua Fishbein, who studied piano at the Preparatory with Carol Prochazka, and Chorus Austin are this year's winner of the Dale Warland Singers Commission Award. In conjunction with this award, Mr. Fishbein will receive a $5,000 commission to compose a new choral work for Chorus Austin, under the direction of Ryan Heller. The award is presented by Chorus America in partnership with the American Composers Forum and recognizes a chorus entering into a meaningful and mutually beneficial partnership with a composer of their choice to contribute a new work to the choral repertoire.
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DMA candidate Min Sang Kim (
MM '15, Voice), countertenor, won first place at the Wonderlic 2017 Voice Competition. The competition, which alternates annually between piano and voice, is presented by the Community Concerts at Second in Baltimore. Mr. Kim, who studies with William Sharp, performed in the winner recital on April 23.
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Jacob Niederhoffer (
BM '12, MM '14, Violin), a former student of Violaine Melançon, has published and edited a transcription of Chopin Ballade No. 1, Op. 23 by Eugène Ysaÿe under Ries and Erier Publishing House in Berlin. A self-composed article on the inspiration and execution of the piece is available on the violin blog
Violinist.com. Find Mr. Niederhoffer's Chopin Ballade No. 1 Op. 23 available for purchase
here.
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Oscar Somersalo (
GPD '14, MM '16, Guitar) won first prize and the Peter Segal Prize at the 2017 Philadelphia Classical Guitar Competition presented by the Philadelphia Classical Guitar Society. Mr. Somersalo, who studied with Manuel Barreuco, was awarded a $1,000 prize and the opportunity to perform a recital at the 2018 Philadelphia Classical Guitar Festival.
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Alumna Yameng Wang (
MM '08, GPD '11, Guitar) and faculty artists David Smooke (
MM '95, Composition) and Judah Adashi (
MM '02, DMA '11, Composition) have each been awarded $6,000 in Maryland State Arts Council Individual Artist Awards. Faculty artist Manuel Barrueco (
BM '75, Guitar) and Jacqueline Pollauf (
BM '06, MM '07, Harp) were each awarded $3,000. Keesun Kwon (
BM '01, Voice) was awarded $1,000. The Maryland State Arts Council's annual Individual Artist Award recognizes the importance of artists and their works of excellence to the cultural vibrancy of Maryland.
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