The fall 2021 issue of Peabody Magazine hits mailboxes this month accompanied by a brand new website. Now our flagship biannual publication can be viewed and shared on any desktop or mobile device thanks to a new responsive design. Check out our feature stories, such as a celebration of composers at Peabody and a photo essay documenting the return to in-person rehearsals and performances, as well as the usual lineup of alumni and student profiles, philanthropic updates, and news items.

As we note in the fall issue, beginning with the Spring 2022 issue of Peabody Magazine, Department News will live exclusively online, where we can post more news and announcements in real time. This change allows the Magazine to focus in greater depth on the longer-form storytelling and institutional news it does best. Find all the news about Peabody alumni, faculty, students, and friends at peabody.jhu.edu/post and please keep sharing your news with us at peabody.jhu.edu/news.

Peabody recently convened and hosted The Next Normal 2.0: Flexibility is the Future, a direct outgrowth of The Next Normal: Arts Innovation and Resilience in a Post-COVID World, a symposium convened and hosted by Peabody last February that included discussions with thought leaders from the artistic, administrative, and funding communities across the performing arts world. The program included seven brief TED-type talks by presenters, and two different panels to respond to those talks and share their own expertise and experiences. It was a deep, substantive, and thoughtful conversation around the challenging questions of flexibility, adaptability, and nimbleness for arts institutions and all those who work in the sector, beginning with the artists.

While it would be impossible to capture in a few sentences all that was said or reflected back, key themes included embracing discomfort; a willingness to make mistakes and fail if necessary; the need for a freedom to explore and broaden curiosity; and the need to invest in ideas and to challenge the “sacred cows” that limit institutional creativity, relevance to new and different communities, and the performing arts’ competitiveness in an increasingly fragmented and digitally focused world.

Peabody has taken the position that we should take a leadership role in the field in addressing these and other critical issues. And so, through these events specifically, we are. We are now already planning a follow up symposium in 2022 focused on the importance of urgent, strategic work where ADEI meets the classical performing arts, and look forward to sharing more about those plans soon.

For now, I want to take this moment to wish you and your families a very happy, healthy, and safe holiday season.

Fred Bronstein, Dean

The Great Noise Ensemble, which includes music director Blair Skinner (DMA ’20, Conducting) and flutist Melissa Wertheimer (MM ’10, Piccolo), presents a program of contemporary music featuring Louis Andriessen’s Zilver, inti figgis-vizuetta’s Openwork, knotted object/ Trellis in bloom/ lightning ache, Nebal Maysaud’s The Arrogance of Time, Marti Epstein’s Oil and Sugar, and Armando Bayolo’s Gestos inútiles. The concert takes place at the Strathmore's AMP music club, and tickets are available online.

IN Series opera artistic director Timothy Nelson (BM ’04 Composition) conceived and conducts A Fairy Queen, a radio-play-like adaptation of William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream combined with the music of Henry Purcell, featuring soprano Melissa Wimbish (GPD ’11, Voice; GPD ’14, Chamber Ensemble) and John T.K. Scherch (MM ’17, Voice, Pedagogy) as the narrator. Tickets for the December 3 show in Baltimore or the December 4 and 5 shows in Washington, DC, can be found online.

Peabody distinguished artist in residence Vadim Gluzman visits the Detroit Symphony Orchestra to perform Ludwig van Beethoven’s Concerto for Violin and Orchestra in D major, Op. 61, which Gluzman recorded on his album that came out in May. Guest conductor Thomas Wilkins leads the program, which also includes William Dawson’s Negro Folk Symphony and Adolphus Hailstork’s Fanfare on “Amazing Grace.” Tickets are available online.

Long-running contemporary quartet Sō Percussion, featuring Eric Cha-Beach (BM ’04, GPD ’05, Percussion) performs at Carnegie Hall’s Zankel Hall with a program that includes the world premiere of Nathalie Joachim’s Note to Self, Caroline Shaw’s Narrow Sea, Dominic "Shodekeh" Talifero’s Vodalities: Paradigms of Consciousness for the Human Voice, and Jason Treuting’s Amid the Noise. Tickets are available online.

Baltimore Symphony Orchestra Assistant Conductor Jonathan Rush (MM ’19, Conducting) leads a full weekend of events at the Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall in Baltimore. On Friday, December 17, Rush conducts the BSO through an evening of holiday favorites featuring Tony Award-winning actor and vocalist Leslie Odom, Jr. And on Saturday and Sunday, Rush takes the podium for a Holiday Spectacular with Santa Tap, the Baltimore Choral Arts Society, and spoken-word artist Wordsmith. Tickets for Leslie Odom Jr. or the Holiday Spectacular are available online.

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