February is audition time at Peabody, when we welcome prospective students from around the world to campus where their hopes and talents are on full display. At the same time, we are reminded of the significant responsibility we take with our students. Part of that responsibility means looking to the future to understand where music is going and the demands placed on our students as they launch their professional careers.

To ensure we're leading that effort, we have assembled the Peabody Curriculum for the Future and Reimagining Ensembles at Peabody task forces, now central to the discussion around Peabody's expanding vision for the future of professional music training and what is required of professional musicians in the 21st century. This is an enormously exciting process and opportunity for Peabody to engage in a deep conversation about where music as an art and profession is going and how Peabody can lead in this conversation. We have also launched the Peabody Diversity Pathway Task Force whose charge it is to examine Peabody's current state of diversity with focus on under-represented communities and establish a long-term plan that addresses the diversity pipeline for students, faculty, and staff, and, in doing so, foster an ongoing conversation about the culture of diversity at Peabody and in the world of classical music. As questions of equity and diversity sweep across university campuses today, we aspire to a full-throated conversation and effort to positively impact change in this important area.

It is exciting to see the number of future-oriented initiatives that are now happening here and the potential impact and implicit importance of these new directions. They pave the way to marry Peabody's history to a future vision that embraces excellence in the context of holistic education, innovation, inclusion, and the artist's role in communities as citizen-artists. This is essential work for a future of classical music not solely determined by its past, but by its reinvigoration, recommitment, and relevance to new, expanding audiences - more diverse, inclusive, and deeply engaged than ever before.