Since 2018, the Sound Rounds program has brought Peabody musicians into patients’ rooms at Johns Hopkins Hospital to provide comfort and help relieve stress through music. While it was originally an in-person program, the pandemic-inspired switch to virtual visits has made it possible to reach a larger number of patients and staff, boosting morale during this very challenging year. A new video from Johns Hopkins Medicine describes the impact that Sound Rounds, a program of Peabody and the Johns Hopkins Medicine Department of Service Excellence and Office of Well-Being, continues to have.

We are just this week coming off The Next Normal: Arts Innovation and Resilience in a Post-COVID World, a national symposium convened and hosted by Peabody that included discussions with thought leaders from the artistic, administrative, and funding communities across the classical music world, as well as a design thinking workshop used as a hands-on exercise to generate new thinking as we emerge from COVID-19. We had more than 1,000 participants from all walks of the performing arts in attendance. And what was immediately apparent to me was the hunger for, and exuberance at, being together virtually to talk about how the performing arts can emerge from the pandemic and – perhaps most important – how we leverage the experience to make fundamental change for the classical music world and more broadly the performing arts, as we grapple with long-term trends that challenge our field. 

 

While in truth, we could barely scratch the surface in just one day, certain things were deeply felt. The need for our field to diversify our administrations, performing rosters, board members, audiences, and more, is urgent and existential. For a long time we have approached this issue as peripheral. What came through at the symposium was that we have to elevate this value to a position commensurate with excellence, and in fact understand that diversity and excellence are inextricably linked, in truth challenging the limitations of how we historically define excellence. The other headline, for me, was the need to build institutions that are more flexible and adaptable structurally and programmatically, responsive to communities, open to evolving ways of making art that are relevant to peoples’ lives and needs, and embraced by an increasingly diverse audience. Along with this, we must train creative artists with the kind of orientation that rewards and values the journey to who is being reached and how, as much as what is produced by the artist. And we all must approach our work, our institutions, the people we impact, and those we would like to engage with, with a sense of humility. 

 

All in all, it was an exhilarating day, and also a daunting one. I think it challenges all of us who are part of this field to be bolder, take more risks – and accept and learn from the mistakes that come with risk – all while not losing sight of why we fell in love with what we do in the first place. I am proud that Peabody convened this important conversation, and am buoyed by seeing that the kinds of things that are so important to the future of the field – diversity, flexibility, and adaptability right alongside the pride we all have in our artistic outcomes – are the very things that we have been working on in a strategic and intentional way at Peabody in recent years. We are now more determined than ever to continue on that path. 

Fred Bronstein, Dean

Preparatory alumnus Connor Chaikowsky created a multimedia online concert event, "Le Boeuf En Concert." The project is centered around Darius Milhaud’s Le Boeuf Sur Le Toit Cinéma Fantasy, Op. 58, for Violin and Orchestra and includes performances of musical repertoire inspired by Latin America and classic cinema.

Heartbeat Opera’s Breathing Free is a visual album featuring excerpts from Beethoven’s Fidelio, spirituals, and songs by Harry T. Burleigh, Florence Price, Langston Hughes, Anthony Davis, and Thulani Davis. Peabody alumni involved in the project include tenor Curtis Bannister (GPD ’10, Voice); Gleb Kanasevich (BM ’11, Clarinet), sound editor; and Sam Torres (MM ’18, Computer Music), sound mixer. The Broad Stage offers a February 13 screening followed by panel discussions highlighting the work’s themes relating to incarceration and restorative justice. The Mondavi Center offers on-demand streaming of the show between February 20 and 27.

An die Musik Live! will live stream a concert by the Gavin Horning Trio – Gavin Horning (GPD ’20, Jazz Guitar), guitar; faculty artist Warren Wolf, vibraphone, and Blake Meister (BM ’08, Jazz Double Bass), bass. Tickets are $10, and the link will remain active through February 23.

Tree City Chamber Players, a chamber ensemble featuring Melanie Schattschneider Keller (BM ’99, Flute), will present a live recital on YouTube. The ensemble will perform works for flute, oboe, clarinet, and piano with guest clarinetist Dr. Leslie Moreau. A portion of donations made during the event will go to the COVID-19 Response and Recovery Fund through the Idaho Community Foundation.

Lura Johnson (’01, Piano) and Preparatory faculty artist Ivan Stefanovic are featured in a free virtual Chamber Music by Candlelight concert, presented by Community Concerts at Second. The program includes Amy Beach’s Piano Quintet in F-sharp minor and Jessie Montgomery’s Source Code and Strum.

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